Matroska

Matroska

Matroska is an open, free, and extensible container format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file. It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content like movies or TV shows.
Matroska image
video audio container format multimedia

Matroska: Free and Extensible Multimedia Format

Matroska is an open, free, and extensible container format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file, serving as a universal format for storing common multimedia content like movies or TV shows.

What is Matroska?

Matroska is an open standard, free, and extensible multimedia container format. It was created as an alternative to proprietary and patent-encumbered media container formats like AVI, MP4, or MPG.

A Matroska container can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file. It supports any audio and video format like VP9, AV1, HEVC, H.264, MP3, AC3, FLAC, etc. This makes Matroska a very versatile format that can hold any type of multimedia content.

Matroska aims to be the new standard for storing movies, TV shows, and other video content. It is intended as a universal format to allow interoperability between different media players and platforms. For example, a Matroska file created on Linux can be played just as easily on Windows or macOS.

Some of the key benefits offered by Matroska compared to other media containers are: extensible metadata support including tags, track descriptions, cover art, etc.; built-in support for multi-language subtitles and audio tracks; robust error detection for damaged files; and an open specification that is publicly documented for implementers.

Overall, Matroska is designed to be the next-generation container format for the internet and replace outdated, restrictive formats. It offers full multimedia support in an open, license-free package.

Matroska Features

Features

  1. Open standard container format
  2. Supports any number of video, audio, subtitle, and attachment streams
  3. Full metadata support
  4. Small overhead compared to other media containers
  5. Wide platform and application support

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Very versatile - can store virtually any media type

Good support for advanced features like chapters, subtitles, etc

Efficient compression saves storage space

Open source and freely usable

Cons

Limited hardware support compared to some other formats

Complex specification can hinder third-party adoption

Not as widely compatible as MP4 or MKV containers


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