All in one solution.

Ok, I can answer a few of your questions, but you'll have to wait for somebody with more experience for the rest. First off, the best program to use for ripping Blu-ray is MakeMKV (http://makemkv.com/). You can get a free trial during the beta. I believe a lifetime licence is $50, or it was when I bought it. It will encode each title from a blu-ray or dvd into an MKV, from there I use handbrake to encode it into a m4v file and put it into iTunes. You can also remux the MKV to a m4v, but there are certain restrictions on that and I just find it easier to re-encode it. Plus it gets you a smaller file size.

I don't know anything about macx so I can't help you there, but I believe mpeg-2 is the container not the codex (don't quote me on that though). And I do believe it is an exact replica of the dvd quality (again, not 100% sure on this). Of course dvds are already compressed so it's not compression free, but I don't think it's compressed any more than a dvd is.

 

You will lose a bit of quality every time you encode something, but to me it's not noticeable (I don't worry about it, my 1080p re-encodes look gorgeous to me).

Remuxing changes the container type without changing the codec. It's a lot faster than re-encoding and keeps the same quality. The trick is, it has to be the right codec inside (I believe the MKV has to have a h.264 codec for it to work, again this is where my knowledge on the subject gets a little fuzzy so take this with a grain of salt).

TS is the type of MPEG-2 container that the file is, so yes, it is the file type. Yes, I believe MPEG-2 is the codec in this case.

 

Just to add to my previous post, when remuxing, the codec has to be one that is accepted by the new container. If the codec inside the MKV container is one that can not be used in the mp4 container, the video has to be re-encoded into one that can be used inside the mp4 container.

 

You will not lose any quality ripping from a disc to an mkv. You will lose a slight about of quality transcoding from and mkv to an mp4. With the right HB setting, whether it is noticeable is dependent on a lot of factors (tv size, viewing distance, visual sensitivity, etc). For me, (65" 13ft viewing distance), if I really focus on it, the BR may be just a bit softer. If I just watch the movie and don't make an effort to notice it...I don't.