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What is an MKV file?
A flexible open container that can hold unlimited video, audio and subtitle tracks. Popular for movies and screen recordings (OBS records to MKV by default), but many phones and editors cannot open it.
Pros
- Holds multiple audio and subtitle tracks
- Crash-safe for recordings
- Open and royalty-free
Cons
- Not supported by iPhone, many smart TVs, Premiere and most social networks
- Browsers have limited support
How to open MKV files
VLC Media Player (free, Windows/macOS/Linux/Android/iOS) opens MKV files with almost any codec. If a specific app won't open it, convert it to MP4.
Is MKV lossy or lossless?
MKV is a container, not a codec — whether it is lossy depends on the streams inside (almost any video codec (H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1) with any audio codec). In practice almost all MKV files use lossy compression.
When should you convert MKV?
Popular for movies and screen recordings (OBS records to MKV by default), but many phones and editors cannot open it. If the app or device you need doesn't accept MKV, convert it to MP4 — the most widely supported alternative.
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MKV at a glance
- Full name
- Matroska Video
- Developed by
- Matroska.org (open standard)
- Introduced
- 2002
- Contains
- almost any video codec (H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1) with any audio codec
- MIME type
- video/x-matroska
- Best for
- archiving movies, OBS recordings, multi-language video