www.makemkv.com

I've just started using MakeMKV and don't want to get too far along before asking this: how do you preserve a DVD's chapters when ripping it using MakeMKV?

It does preserve them, as a track within the MKV file.

Whether or not your player recognizes them is a separate issue. VLC sees them. A lot of TVs do not.

Thanks, Woodstock. I was fooled since the movies I've ripped so far show up on my hard drive as a single file. I expected one file per chapter. I'll have to figure out how my player (JRiver) handles chapters.

Somewhat related: if I have a movie that takes up more than one disc (e.g. any of the Lord of the Rings), can those files be merged after ripping so they play without interruption? I think I read about a MERGE command, but haven't looked for it yet within MakeMKV.

Merging files is not a function of MakeMKV. Search for "mkvtoolnix" and you're on the right track.... but it isn't an automatic thing in any case.

There are a couple of threads here on merging that explain it way better than I could hope to. Chapter order is one of the things that is an issue.