www.makemkv.com

I am sure this has been answered before but my Google-fu has failed me (forgive me).

So I believe 3D MVC MKV is a full-frame 2D stream plus an encoded delta to give you 3D (so we don't double the file size)?

Is there any difference between watching the base 2D stream (i.e., the part most players can read) of a 3D MVC MKV versus watching the original 2D movie.

For example Pacific Rim contains a 3D Blu-ray and a 2D Blu-ray. If I rip the 3D disk and watch it in 2D, is that identical to the 2D disk?

TIA.

Most likely not, because the 2D disc can use the disc space (which on the 3D disc, is used for the 3D data). That's much less than half, but still additional disc space.

Whether you (as opposed to a computer) can tell the difference is another story.

I can't speak for all cases, but in the couple I spot-checked, the 2D stream on a 3D disk when ripped without the MVC stream was identical in size (down to the byte) of the stream from the 2D disk. Also 3D disks often lack director commentaries and other bonus audio and subtitle tracks. In most cases these can be added back in with MKVMerge, but in cases where the 3D version spans 2-disks, but the 2D version does not (such as the Hobbit films), reconstituting the commentaries back isn't straightforward, and might not even be possible to do without artifacts/errors/etc.