Matroska (styled Matroška) is a project to create a container format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file. The Matroska Multimedia Container is similar in concept to other containers like AVI, MP4, or Advanced Systems Format (ASF), but is an open standard.
Matroska file extensions are .mkv for video (which may include audio, subtitles and chapters), .mk3d for stereoscopic video, .mka for audio-only files (which may include subtitles), and .mks for subtitles only.
History
The project was announced on 6 December 2002 as a fork of the Multimedia Container Format (MCF), after disagreements between MCF lead developer Lasse Kärkkäinen and soon-to-be Matroska founder Steve Lhomme about the use of the Extensible Binary Meta Language (EBML) instead of a binary format. This coincided with a 6-month coding break by the MCF's lead developer for his military service, during which most of the community quickly migrated to the new project.[citation needed]
In 2010, it was announced that the WebM audio/video format would be based on a profile of the Matroska container format together with VP8 video and Vorbis audio.
On 31 October 2014, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 10 would support HEVC and Matroska out of the box, according to a statement from Gabriel Aul, the leader of Microsoft Operating Systems Group's Data and Fundamentals Team. Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9860 added platform level support for HEVC and Matroska.
In October 2024, Matroska was formally specified in and published as RFC9559.
Name and logo
"Matroska" is derived from matryoshka (Russian: матрёшка[mɐˈtrʲɵʂkə]), the Russian name for the hollow wooden dolls (also known as Russian nesting dolls) which open to expose another smaller doll, that in turn opens to expose another doll, and so on. The logo writes it as "Matroška"; the letter š, an "s" with a caron over it, represents the "sh" sound (/ʂ/) in various languages. In actuality, it reads as матроска [mɐˈtroskə], the Russian word for sailor suit.
The use of EBML allows extension for future format changes. The Matroska team has expressed some of their long-term goals on Doom9.org and Hydrogenaudio forums. Thus, the following are "goals", not necessarily existing features, of Matroska:
Creating a modern, flexible, extensible, cross-platform multimedia container format
Developing robust streaming support (both this format and the WebM subset are streamable)
Developing a menu system similar to that of DVDs based on EBML (as of July2019[update], there is only a mostly empty draft)
Developing a set of tools for the creation and editing of Matroska files (MKVToolNix, for example)
Developing libraries to allow developers to add Matroska support to their applications (made open source by Matroska developers)
Working with hardware manufacturers to include Matroska support in embedded multimedia devices
Development
Matroska is supported by a non-profit organization registered in France. It is a royalty-freeopen standard that is free to use, with the specification being freely available for both private and commercial use. The Matroska development team licenses its libraries under the LGPL, with parsing and playback libraries available under BSD licenses.
↑Matroska Multimedia Container (Partial draft). Sustainability of Digital Formats. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
↑Matroska v4 element specificationArchived 2018-02-04 at the Wayback Machine, Matroska.org. "TrackNumber: The track number as used in the Block Header (using more than 127 tracks is not encouraged, though the design allows an unlimited number)."
Nurmi, Juha (2019). "Understanding the Usage of Anonymous Onion Services: Empirical Experiments to Study Criminal Activities in the Tor Network". Dissertations, 62. Tampere University. ISBN978-952-03-1091-2. Retrieved 28 May 2026. In 2014, under his pseudonym Douppikauppa, he sent free LSD samples around Finland. Douppikauppa is the leader of the syndicate of multiple sellers who created a common brand in Silkkitie marketplace. In the open-source software world he is known under pseudonym Tronic and was the former lead developer of a container format specification known as Multimedia Container Format, MCF. Also, he kept his daily work as a software developer and simultaneously led the criminal organization. Furthermore, in 2015, he was a candidate in Finnish parliamentary elections. A year after this 32-year-old chief technology officer and software developer Lasse Kärkkäinen was arrested.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
"Suomen suurimmassa nettihuumekaupassa pitkät tuomiot: Tuomittu jakoi LSD: tä ilmaiseksi trippitarinoita vastaan"[Long sentences in Finland's largest online drug store: The condemned shared LSD for free against trip story]. Archived from the original on 2017-02-10. Retrieved 18 August 2026. This is how Lasse Kärkkäinen became the most popular drug dealer in Finland online – then armed police officers stormed home; The first drug lord from Espoo picked up from the Netherlands and came up with his pseudonym on the way home: Douppikauppa.
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