DVD to MKV (with subs and alt. audio) to Handbrake H.264.. is it possible?

[chewbacalips]

Hi. My understanding of MKV is that the "MKV" is like an enclosure in which you can store your main movie file (in pretty much any format) PLUS bonuses like subtitles and alternate audio tracks. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I'm using MakeMKV to rip my DVDs. Assuming my above statement is correct, I'd like to know if the MKV is enclosing my rips in Original MPEG-2, or is it some kind of compressed format???

If the Original MPEG-2 is in there, is it possible to compress my MKV file (which contains the Original MPEG-2, plus subtitles, plus alternate audio tracks) via Handbrake with H.264 encoding, while retaining the subs and alternate audio tracks??

[sneaker_ger]

MakeMKV will enclose the unaltered, original mpeg2 video track into the mkv file. And yes, it's possible to compress it further to H.264 via Handbrake while retaining audio and subtitle tracks.