Windows 10: Windows 10: MKV support out of the box

I just tried it and it does play MKV file without installing anything else.

(Note: The video plays smoothly. The "jumping" video below is just because of the recording.)


[youtube]3hOTcGHKmMs[/youtube]

 

Out of personal interest, which video formats can't be played in VLC? All these years I have used it I have never found a video which VLC can't play, out of the box.

 

Apparently, there are .mkv files and then there are Microsoft compatible .mkv files. None of my .mkv files work but I downloaded one of the "test .mkv" files from the article and it works. I will stick to my Media Player Classic while MS gets their act together. BTW, about 3% of my .mkv files do not work on the XBox One as well.

 

The files were probably YouTube clips I downloaded.
You want me to search through ~7500 videos to locate it/them? *Biggrin

It's also possible that I deleted those files.
If something "jerks me around" long enough, I'll often retaliate by "destroying" it.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a container issue (avi, mpg, flv, etc.).
It was related to some specific codec inside the container.

Off the top of my head, I suspect the problem files claimed to be flv.

Interestingly enough, my media streaming box behaves in the opposite manner.
It can only play one or two flv files, all the rest are reported to be invalid.

In any case, the issue may no longer be present as it occurred several years ago (at least).
Since the "fix" I used was to have MPC-HC and VLC installed, I have maintained that arrangement ever since.

I mostly use VLC for transcoding videos (mostly hardsubbing).
When it works, it only takes a few clicks to perform the task.

Unfortunately the updates for VLC often break that function (on my PC).
I actually have to reinstall v2.0.8, as v2.1.5 has transcoding issues.
It could be a PEBCAK issue, but since the documentation never updates with the same regularity, who knows if and/or how the config settings have changed from one version to the next.

All the other video editors I have tried:

• Are stupidly difficult to use
• Crash for no apparent reason (even with videos that seem to playback perfectly)

The video container doesn't really seem to matter (avi, mp4, mkv, etc.).
The crucial bits seem to be the video and audio codecs that were used to make the file.

You need to view the video container data using something like MediaInfo.
Wikipedia - MediaInfo
FileHippo - MediaInfo Download

It's another reason that I install the K-Lite Codec pack as MediaInfo is included in the bundle.

Note:
According to Wikipedia, the standalone version may come with the Open Candy installer. *Eek

 

Hi there.

Handbrake is another good transcoder - works on Linux as well. I often use Handbrake to create mkv / mp4 files from DVD's - you can make decent quality files too. (FREE).

HandBrake: Open Source Video Transcoder

Conversely if I actually need to create a PHYSICAL DVD from MKV / MP4 files (I still know some people who just want to play a movie on a stand alone player using a physical DVD) then I use DEVEDE (also works on Linux). FREE as well. Note this is for CREATING a DVD from files.

DeVeDeNG 4.11.0 Download - VideoHelp

Cheers
jimbo

 

We used Handbrake on my Web Design course.

It seemed to work well (we only used the iDevice presets though).

 

I don't see the point of making a DVD unless you have a really old player. I always watch my videos on a standalone player (currently, Blu-Ray), but I just put mkv files on a USB stick and plug it into the player. And of course the video quality of the 1080p mkv files is miles ahead of DVD. To be honest, I don't remember when did I watch a DVD last time.

 

mkv is just a container. What matters is the codec. Currently the most common one is H.264 and it seems that Microsoft does not support it natively in Windows. VLC will play it without any problem and without the need to install a codec pack.

 

Hi there

You obviously don't have any OLDER parents / grandparents / relations etc to whom the whole "new fangled way" of watching TV / movies doesn't work.

For instance I can get stuff unavailable in my home country (for example some TV shows --The Strain is a recent instance) which my parents might also like to watch. So I create DVD's for them from the mkv I've downloaded, add the Icelandic subtitles and burn to DVD's so they can just sling it into their DVD player and enjoy.

Some of the older players only handle DVD's. The newer one's I know handle things like USB sticks but if they are happy with their DVD player who am I to say buy a new one !!!. Also DVD RW's ( can be re-used of course) cost Pennies to create so it's not hard to do it for them.

We might on these Forums be much more "Tech Savvy" than most but a lot of people out there are still quite happy to continue to use "conventional hardware" for their entertainment.

Cheers
jimbo

 

I use Handbrake on my Mac and on my PCs, when I first went onto OSX I didn't know what to use, then I found Handbrake, so now I use it on both OS.

Don't forget folks if you want a good movie Player use XBMC, phenomenal is the only way I can describe it, it's now called Kodi, and it's free and can do everything except make you a burger.

 

Hi Lehnerus2000,
I work at Microsoft, specifically, I drive requirements for MKV support. Problems seeking are usually due to a missing CUE section in the media, or missing/bad timing information. I'm interested in tracking down and prioritizing work on problems encountered by users.
Would you be willing/interested in turning on advanced logging while trying to reproduce the issue you described on your Win10 machine? Send me a PM.
Thanks,
-Nick
Please don't post identifying information, nor filenames, etc.

 

Hi John,

I work at Microsoft, specifically, I drive requirements for MKV support.

MKV is a container specification, and wraps tracks made up of various codecs (H.264, MPEG4, AAC, DTS, Dolby, etc.). The MKV work done to date provides general container parsing, seeking, and basic metadata support. However, the new MKV code does not parse the compressed audio or video frames. These frames are passed on to a decoder for the specific codecs (if it is installed).

Even within a particular codec, there are variances in the encoding settings: some are generally supported, some are not. These are sometimes grouped together and called Profiles. We support the most common profiles of H.264, however, there is a gap in 10bit color depth support in H.264. Similarly, some codecs require royalties to be paid to the intellectual property holders. I'm not the codec guy, but suffice to say that some media will simply not work because it can't be decoded. If that same media was in an MP4 container it would still fail to play natively.

It is likely your media is failing because it uses an unsupported codec. You can run the tool mediainfo:
MediaInfo - Download
To see that your MKV files are composed of.

Generally speaking, the support within MKV for Windows 10 Technical Preview currently matches that of Xbox One for codecs. You can see the Xbox One support for MKV here:
MKV Support | Xbox One

Kind regards,

-Nick
Please don't post identifying information, nor filenames, etc.

 

Hi unifex,

I work for Microsoft building support for MKV. While I can't speak to the nuances of H.264 encoding, I can certainly confirm that it is supported natively. There is a gap for support of 10bit color depth in H.264, which some users are hitting. More often, however, it is DTS audio codec support which fails the playback.

You can run the tool mediainfo: MediaInfo - Download
To see what your problematic MKVs are composed of.

Regards,
-Nick

 

Hi there

Not sure what the problem is here --VLC media player works just fine - it plays nearly every AUDIO and VIDEO codec you can think of (and probably those you can't think of too !!).

Cheers
jimbo

 

I invite you to read their legal disclosures, and make your own conclusions:
VideoLAN - Legal