Introduction

Matroska/матрёшка is an extensible open standard audio/video container format for various video and audio codecs. Matroska is based on EBML, a binary variation of XML. It's aim is to replace the aging AVI format and be a powerful alternative to other container formats like ASF, MP4, MOV, RM, MPX and Ogg/OGM. It can store Audio Only, Video Only, or both, and is free for personal use.

Features

Matroska has all the features you would expect of a modern A/V Container including:

Streamable over internet (HTTP and RTP)
Fast seeking in the file
High error recovery
Menus (like DVD's have)
Chapter entries
Selectable subtitle streams
Selectable audio streams
Modularly Extendable
Sophisticated Tagging

The current official tool for creating a Matroska file (available from Matroska's Home Page) supports the following audio and video codecs:

Audio

MPEG Audio 1, 2, 2.5 Layer III
MPEG Audio 1, 2 Layer II
MPEG Audio 1, 2 Layer I
PCM Integer Big Endian
PCM Integer Little Endian
Floating Point, IEEE compatible
Dolby AC3
Digital Theater Systems
OggVorbis
WavPack
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Compresion)
Realmedia Audio Codecs (including Real Audio 1, Real Audio 2, Real Audio Cook, Sipro Voice Codec, Real Audio LossLess Format, and the Sony ATRAC3 Codec)
AAC Audio (including both LC AAC and HE AAC)
QuickTime Audio Codecs

Video

MPEG4 ISO Profile Video, i.e DivX 4/5, XviD, FFMPEG (including Simple Profile, Advanced Simple Profile, and Advanced Profile)
Microsoft MPEG4 V3 (and derivatives, including DivX 3, Angelpotion, SMR, etc. V1/v2 covered in VfW compatibility mode)
MPEG1
MPEG2
Real Video (Real Video 1.0, Real Video G2/G2+SVT, Real Video 8, and Real Video 9)
Video from QuickTime files (including the Sorenson and Cinepack codecs)

Extensions

MKV - File containing at least one video stream and possibly audio and/or subtitle stream(s).
MKA - File containing at least one audio stream and possible subtitle stream(s).
MKS - File containing at least one subtitle stream.

Tools

MKVtoolnix

Additional reading

Home Page