MKV File

An MKV (Matroska Video) file is not your regular video and audio compression format. An MKV file is an open source container format. It is a general-purpose audio and video container and a competing format to the more popular AVI and MP4 formats. With its futuristic design approach, it can provide support for a vast number of audio, video and subtitle compression formats. Its features exceed even those of AVI and MP4 files.

An MKV file contains compressed video and audio streams along with an encoder. A codec or Coder/Decoder is required to play this type of file. MKV aims to be the leading standard for multimedia container formats. It is based on EBML (Extensible Binary Meta Language), a subclass of XML.

Specifically, MKV is a Matroska file - an open source container that houses an unlimited amount of video, audio, and even subtitles data in a single file. Its primary purpose is to create a unifying or universal format for multimedia storage with the benefit of being completely open source.

MKV File Features

Like any other modern-day multimedia container, MKV files possess the following features:

• DVD-like menu systems
• HTTP and RTP audio & video streaming capability over the internet
• Tools and libraries for developers adding MKV support to their applications
• Cross-platform audio/video multimedia container format
• Comprehensive support by new Samsung and LG TV and Blu-ray players
• Direct television USB playback support – MKVs can be directly played from USB when plugged into the television USB port
• Reliable error restoration mechanism

Licensing of MKV Files

Matroska is an open standards project. It is totally free of charge to use and the specifications are available to everyone, even to businesses that would be akin to implement it in their products. The source code of the libraries created by the Matroska Development Team is licensed under GNU L-GPL.

Troubleshooting MKV File Problems

If you happen to download a file that has an .mkv extension and you just can't play it, this advice should help you out:

Make sure you have the latest codec pack downloaded. A codec pack is a collection of the most common and latest decoding drivers that will enable you to play a variety of multimedia extensions including .mkv files. Also, a VLC Player, which do not need additional codecs, could be the easiest and reliable player to play .mkv files.