converting blu rays to hd format?

.H264 .mkv is the best I find

Rip with "Makemkv" and then resize (if required) by using "Handbrake"

Perfect results every time..

Regards

or.. AnyDVD HD, ClownBD and BDRebuilder.

mkv is a super flexible container. you can anything and everything it seems into the container very easily.

Be careful though with MKV, as it has its own pitfalls;

1. Many players have issues with chapters support in MKV files.
2. Many players have issues with lossless audio support from MKV.
3. Many players have issues with proper subtitle handling in MKV files.
4. See above, also regarding "forced" subtitles that need to display on the player automatically whether subs are selected or not.
5. Performance problems with MKV. Some players have issues with VC1 in an MKV container, etc.

1. Many players have issues with chapters support in MKV files ----> Dune, ...
2. Many players have issues with lossless audio support from MKV ----> C-200/ A-200, ...
3. Many players have issues with proper subtitle handling in MKV files ---> ???
4. See above, also regarding "forced" subtitles that need to display on the player automatically whether subs are selected or not ---> ???
5. Performance problems with MKV. Some players have issues with VC1 in an MKV container, etc ---> ???

I know some guys here can fill out the rest...

Let's just put it this way. I have not found a single player that can do the items in the list above.

The holy grail (for me) will be a player that can play MKV and pass this torture test when playing video from the MKV file.

1. chapter support.
2. multiple audio support.
3. proper FF/REW support
4. support for FORCED subtitles automatically displaying along with manual selection of the original subtitles still possible.
5. lossless audio
6. Playback of VC1 without skip/stutter.

I use MKVMerge not MakeMKV.

Also, I use OS X for 90% of what I do and only boot Windows when absolutely necessary.

Are you using MakeMKV? That is what I have used a few times and it seems pretty easy to use. You pick the video you want, the audio tracks, and subtitles and start it. And when it's done you have an MKV file ready to watch.

I use Win7 for all my PCs. No apple stuff here.

If I want to convert Blu-ray to HD video, the first choice is rip it to MKV format. But if I need to play it with media player. H.264 MP4 is the best choice.

I use ClownBD + AnyDVD HD (to remove encryption) and rip as BR Folder structure and it keeps chapters and force subs as well. Dune has issues recognizing the force subtitle flag. I've been ripping 90%+ of my BD disk to main movie only as M2TS file, but recently I've been ripping them to BR folder to keep chapters The only thins I use MakeMKV for is to rip my DVD collection.

The HT guys did a great video on backing up your movies. Give it a look:
http://www.htguys.com/news/2011/12/10/tutorial-backing-up-your-blu-ray-discs.html

I am very new at this process, so here is what I've learned so far: it takes a long time and consumes a lot of disk space.

I experimented with my retail copy of Hunger Games.
I ripped the entire BD disk to a local directory structure using DVDFab.
This generated some 44gb of files and removed the copy protection. AnyDVD not required.

Next, I used the entire Clown_DB package.
This generated some 42gb files in the Movie directory, and another 42gb in the Remux directory.

I needed some 130gb of disk space to complete a rip to the .M2TS final file.
The temp Movie and Remux space can be erased and reclaimed.
The whole process took about 1.5 to 2.0 hours, end to end.

My platform is an i7/870, 8 cores at 2.93 GHz.
DDR3 at 1333, SATA-II WDC drives.

The final .M2TS blu-ray file plays correctly on my new WD TV Live.
This seems like a lot of time, and whole lot of fiddling around for a single movie.

One could guess an average of 30 BD movies per terabyte of disk space.
Add in disk redundancy (RAID, ZFS), and the disk+power cost-per-movie doubles.
Consider the disk lifetime at 26,000 hours / 3 years.
Consider the disk array rebuild time when a drive is replaced.
Consider the power consumption of a RAID/ZFS server powered up 24x7.

All in all, this seems like a huge investment in time and money for the convenience of either not owning a BD player, or not getting off the couch to mount a BD disk.
One would simply have to love the server build and maintain process, the BD imaging process, network shares, and so forth.