understanding .mkv files

[lewashby]

There's a few things I'm confused about when it comes to the .mkv file format. It's the file format I use for my media server for several reasons. I'm told it's the format to go with for quality because it can hold HD (which I assume means it's video files can be 1080p), it can hold mutliple audio tracks and multiple suptitles. Since I rip my DVDs and BDs at lossless quality (lossess from source disk that is) and I want to make sure my movies have all audio and suptitles languages that the disk came with .mkv is my choice. I've recently learnd that the mkv format is just a container format, what exactly does that mean? I aks this because the information I learn may change the way I handle some of my media.

[rproffitt]

Container as in a box or bucket you put stuff into. I've taken to just making an .ISO of the full up DVD since with VLC Player it works just like the original DVD with all tracks and was not recompressed. For some that's not acceptable since they want smaller disc space.

[lewashby]

.ISO, does that mean you have the menu just like a DVD or BD disk? I rip my DVDs and BDs as lossless from the disk quality and a lot of my DVD rip mkv files are 6+ Gigs and my BD rips are 20+ gigs.

[rproffitt]

Yes. Oh, I forgot to add my WDTV Live plays the .ISO just like the DVD player plays the DVD. So rip, toss on the network drive and play with WDTV or just plug the HDD into the WDTV and play. Pretty nice to have the full DVD, menus, subtitles and everything.