Hi Douglas,
I started to toy around with the .mkv files. I found that PERIAN makes a Quicktime plug-in that will also play .mkv's. Here is the link.
http://perian.cachefly.net/Perian_1.0b4.dmg
If you go to this Perian main site, you can get alot of additional info.
http://www.perian.org/
The .mkv files led me into downloading some HD/BLURAY rips. I wanted to see what they looked like on the computer. I could not play the .TS files inside the HD folders using Quicktime. VLC would let me play the .ts files, but only one at a time.
I found that my MPEG Streamclip program would allow me to quickly convert it into a mpeg2 that I can watch.
MPEG Streamclip is from an Itialian group of programers, called SQUARED 5. This is a classy program that I have used for a couple of years.
Here is the link.
http://www.squared5.com/
To convert the .ts files, start MPEG Streamclip. Select "open files", find folder that has the .ts files in it. While pressing the command (apple key), select the .ts files in the order that you want. Example, part1.ts, then part2.ts, etc. With all the .ts files selected, then click on the "open" button. It will open the movie/video in the window. I would play a little bit of it, run through the movie and check various spots and make sure your pieces are in the correct order or sequence.
Next select in the menu, select edit/fix timecode breaks. Let this run and fix any breaks. Typically there shouldn't be any, Then in the menu, select file/convert to MPEG with MP2 audio. Save the file. This will only take a few minutes. It will convert the AC3 into MP2, so that Quicktime can play the audio. This will be one very large MPEG file. It should play in Quicktime without any trouble. ATV should play this too. But with these files having file sizes of 20GB, you will not have much room on your AppleTV. You will have to stream it
Good luck and have fun. I'm still playing with all of these new file types.
PEACE OUT,
Timmy