Matroska (styled Matroška) is a project to create a container format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file. The Matroska Multimedia Container is similar in concept to other containers like AVI, MP4, or Advanced Systems Format (ASF), but is an

open standard An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

. Matroska file extensions are ''.mkv'' for video (which may include subtitles or audio), ''.mk3d'' for stereoscopic video, ''.mka'' for audio-only files (which may include subtitles), and ''.mks'' for subtitles only.

History

The project was announced on 6 December 2002 as a fork of the Multimedia Container Format (MCF), after disagreements between MCF lead developer Lasse Kärkkäinen and soon-to-be Matroska founder Steve Lhomme about the use of the Extensible Binary Meta Language (EBML) instead of a binary format. This coincided with a 6-month coding break by the MCF's lead developer for his military service, during which most of the community quickly migrated to the new project. In 2010, it was announced that the WebM audio/video format would be based on a profile of the Matroska container format together with VP8 video and Vorbis audio. On 31 October 2014,

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confirmed that

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

would support HEVC and Matroska out of the box, according to a statement from Gabriel Aul, the leader of Microsoft Operating Systems Group's Data and Fundamentals Team. Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9860 added platform level support for HEVC and Matroska. In October 2024, Matroska was formally specified in and published as .

Name and logo

"Matroska" is derived from '' matryoshka'' ( ), the Russian name for the hollow wooden dolls, better known in English as Russian nesting dolls, which open to expose another smaller doll, that in turn opens to expose another doll, and so on. The logo writes it as "Matroška"; the letter š, an "s" with a

caron A caron or háček ( ), is a diacritic mark () placed over certain letters in the orthography of some languages, to indicate a change of the related letter's pronunciation. Typographers tend to use the term ''caron'', while linguists prefer ...

over it, represents the "sh" sound () in various languages.

Design

The use of EBML allows extension for future format changes. The Matroska team has expressed some of their long-term goals on Doom9.org and Hydrogenaudio forums. Thus, the following are "goals", not necessarily existing features, of Matroska: * Creating a modern, flexible, extensible, cross-platform multimedia container format * Developing robust

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

support (both this format and the WebM subset are streamable) * Developing a menu system similar to that of DVDs based on EBML (, there is only a mostly empty draft) * Developing a set of tools for the creation and editing of Matroska files ( MKVToolNix, for example) * Developing libraries to allow developers to add Matroska support to their applications (made open source by Matroska developers) * Working with hardware manufacturers to include Matroska support in embedded multimedia devices

Development

Matroska is supported by a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization registered in France. It is a royalty-free

that is free to use, with the specification being freely available for both private and commercial use. The Matroska development team licenses its libraries under the

LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

, with parsing and playback libraries available under BSD licenses.

Support

Software supporting Matroska include all ffmpeg/ libav-based ones, including, notably,

mplayer MPlayer is a free and open-source media player software application. It is available for Linux, OS X and Microsoft Windows. Versions for OS/2, Syllable Desktop, Syllable, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS Research Operating System are also available. A ...

, mpv, VLC, Foobar2000, Media Player Classic-HC, BS.player, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Blender, Kdenlive, Handbrake, MKVToolNix as well as

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(which uses WebM extensively), and OBS Studio. Outside of ffmpeg,

supports Matroska natively as well. Earlier versions relied on codec packs (like K-Lite Codec Pack or Combined Community Codec Pack) to integrate ffmpeg (via ffdshow) and other additions into Windows' native DirectShow. Apple's native QuickTime player for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

notably lacks support.

References

External links

*
Matroska Multimedia Container
— Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Collections {{Compression formats Computer-related introductions in 2002 Digital container formats Free digital container formats Open formats Russian inventions