Open MKV File

MKV file extension is used for files in Matroska multimedia container format. Matroska file format was created in 2002 based on the Multimedia Container Format. Matroska format and MKV file is widely popular storage format for multimedia files on the internet. In October 2014 it was announced by Microsoft that Windows 10 will support Matroska format and open MKV files out of the box.

MKV is a container file format which means it can store many audio, video and subtitles streams. MKV makes it possible to store an entire movie content in one file. MKV file format is based on Extensible Binary Meta Language (EBML). EBML is a binary standard but its structures resemble XML and could be interpreted as a binary markup. This makes it easy to construct very complex nested structures inside the binary file. EBML allows MKV files to support following features:

Rich metadata support including chapter and menu
Fast forward, rewind and seek
Recovery from some types of errors
Select different audio and video streams
Stream online
Subtitles stream support

Matroska is an open-source and royalty-free format available for anyone to use. Matroska specification is available at the official Matroska website.

You can open MKV file using various media players including VLC Player from VideoLAN Organization, Windows Media Player, DivX Player.

You can also convert MKV files to different formats using VLC Player conversion functionality, WinX Video Converter or Handbrake open-source conversion tool.

Besides MKV Matroska allows usage of MK3D file extensions for stereoscopic video, MKS for subtitles and MKA for audio-only files.

Open MKV File on Windows OS

Try double clicking on a MKV file in Windows File Explorer.
If the MKV reading software is associated correctly then the file will open
If the file did not open you should install VLC media player software
To open MKV file in VLC media player you need to launch it and then select File->Open in the main menu
In the File Open dialog select MKV file and click "Open"

MKV files are transferred over e-mail or internet online using video/x-matroska and audio/x-matroska multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME) types.

Below are file extensions similar to MKV: