Microsoft recently added native support for the MKV video format to its Windows 10 preview. But you don’t need Windows 10 to have native support for MKV.

The company has released a new version of its Windows 8.1 video app which also supports the MKV format.

win8 video

MKV is a container, rather than a video codec — so it’s possible you might find some MKV files that use unsupported codecs. But as long as the video app supports the codecs used, it should have no problem opening and playing MKV files.

Of course you can also use third-party apps. VLC, for instance, has supported MKV files for ages. But it’s nice to know that you can now open one more relatively popular file format just by locating a file on your computer and clicking on it… no third-party software required (unless you want special features, a different user interface, support for playing files in a window instead of full-screen, or any number of options that aren’t available in the Windows 8.1 video app).

via The Verge

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4 replies on “Windows 8.1 video app adds native support for MKV videos”

  1. Linux desktops have been able to play MKVs for ages. MS seems like in a 5-10 year delay.

    1. If MS had their fingers on the pulse of technological development and wishes of the users they would be #1 in mobile right now instead of a distant 3rd.

      I remember PocketPC 2002 / WinMobile 2003 being leaps and bounds above the competition half a decade before the iPhone came along.

      Their “being king means being lazy is ok” attitude along with their “too little too late” fixes, product launches, and feature implementations are the reason they lost in mobile OSes, in Search, in Browsers… and are starting to crumble in Desktop OSes. Thanks to Valve Gaming is starting to move away from DirectX to OpenGL and natively into Linux/SteamOS. Street Fighter V appears to only be coming to PS4 and PC because XBOX ONE doesn’t support OpenGL even if its hardware does. The moment we see major productivity software vendors like Adobe release their products natively for Linux, Windows could go the way of its mobile counterpart a decade earlier if Win10 doesn’t do a heck of a lot more things right than support MKV, bring back the start menu and put cortana on the desktop.

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