MKV Converter > MKV Introduction
What's MKV?
.mkv is a container format developed by Matroska. It can hold different types of video and audio. For example, there might be an .avi file contained within the .mkv file.
The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free Container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks inside a single file. It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows. Matroska is similar in conception to other containers like AVI, MP4 or ASF, but is entirely open in specification, with implementations consisting mostly of open source software. Matroska file types are .MKV for video (with subtitles and audio), .MKA for audio-only files and .MKS for subtitles only. High Definition movies in 720 or 1080 pixel width format are often encoded and packaged as a Matroska format video with a .mkv file extension.
Matroska file types
.mkv : Generally video files, as well those containing audio ( movies ) or video only.
.mka : audio only files, can contain any supported audio compression format, such as MP2, MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AC3, DTS, PCM and soon MPC ( musepack ).
.mks : a so called ‘elementary’ matroska stream containing any subtitles stream.
