MKV stands for "Matroska Video" and is a file type developed in Russia in 2002. Created by Matroska, "Steve Lhomme" and "Lasse Kärkkäinen". MKV is open source and free to use. As time passed, the format was improved and became the basis of the WebM multimedia format in 2010.

MKV is a multimedia-container similar to MOV and AVI format. But it supports multiple audio and subtitle tracks in the same file.

An MKV file is the Matroska multimedia container format used for video. MKV supports various video and audio compression formats. The biggest difference between MKV and other video formats is that MKV is a container, not a codec.

MKV files are saved with the file extension .mkv. MKV can combine audio, video and subtitles into a single file even if these elements use different encoding types. For example, you might have an MKV file with H.264 for video, MP3 or AAC for audio. MKV also supports descriptions, ratings, cover images.