Xbox One lets you play MKV videos with these codecs
The Matroska Media Container, or simply MKV, is a file format that supports multiple video and audio codecs, including H.264 and AAC audio. As a container, MKV represents the outline of video and audio data and other related information that describes the audio/video streams. Containers also include the title, menu, caption tracks, subtitles, supported languages, fonts, images, and chapter data.
MKV supports various container features, though not all of them can work on the Xbox One. The video game console can also play MKV files using its native Media Player app, but Xbox One limits its support only to container features that provide the most value to users.
MKV files that contain video and audio tracks can play on Xbox One if they are encoded with the following codecs:
| Matroska Id | MSFT Media Foundation MF_MT_SUBTYPE | Description | FourCC or WAV identifiers |
| V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC | MFVideoFormat_H264 | H.264 video | H264 |
| V_MPEG2 | MFVideoFormat_MPEG2 | MPEG-2 video | |
| V_MPEG1 | MFVideoFormat_MPG1 | MPEG-1 video | MPG1 |
| V_MPEG4/MS/V3 | MFVideoFormat_MP43 | Microsoft MPEG 4 codec version 3 | MP43 |
| V_MPEG4/ISO/ASP | MFVideoFormat_MP4V | MPEG-4 part 2 video | MP4V |
| V_MS/VFW/FOURCC | Maps to several codecs usually supported in the AVI format that are available on the console. | ||
| A_AAC | MFAudioFormat_AAC | Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) | WAVE_FORMAT_MPEG_HEAAC |
| A_AC3 | MFAudioFormat_Dolby_AC3 | Dolby Digital (AC-3) | |
| A_MPEG/L3 | MFAudioFormat_MP3 | MPEG Audio Layer-3 (MP3) | WAVE_FORMAT_MPEGLAYER3 |
| A_MPEG/L1 | MFAudioFormat_MPEG | MPEG-1 audio payload | WAVE_FORMAT_MPEG |
| A_PCM/INT/BIG | MFAudioFormat_PCM | Uncompressed PCM audio | WAVE_FORMAT_PCM |
| A_PCM/INT/LIT | MFAudioFormat_PCM | Uncompressed PCM audio | WAVE_FORMAT_PCM |
| A_PCM/FLOAT/IEEE | MFAudioFormat_Float | Uncompressed IEEE floating-point audio | WAVE_FORMAT_IEEE_FLOAT |
MKV container feature support
Xbox One supports MKV container features in the following ways:
- If one or more video tracks are present, the first track will be played.
- If one or more audio tracks are present, the first track will be played.
- If one or more captions tracks are present, the captions will not render, but the file will load and play.
- If one or more fonts or images are present, captions and images will not render, although the file will load and play.
- Menu information is not supported and will not be displayed, but the file will load and play.
- Chapter information is not supported, but the file will load and play.
- If files with chapters refer to supplemental files, the supplemental files will not play.
- Thumbnail images are available when browsing for files on USB drives using the file browser.
MKV files that contain supported codecs will play on Xbox One with this set of features.
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