iMovie for Windows > Video Editor > iMovie Formats > Edit MKV Files on Mac and Windows

Need to Open and Edit MKV Video Files?

Download MKV Video Editor to play and edit MKV files with no hassles.

Compatible with MKV and many more video and audio format.
Includes all basic video editing tools like cut, trim, rotate, crop, etc.
Export to MKV, MP4, MOV, WMV, RMVB, OGV, AVI, FLV, MPG, WebM, etc.
No credit card needed.

What's a MKV File?

Matroska (MKV, MKA, MKS) is a file container format that supports multiple differently encoded videos and more than 16 streams of differently encoded audio and subtitle streams in different languages. The biggest feature of MKV file container is that it packs almost any video, audio and subtitles streams coding in any format like H.264/AVC, Divx, Xvid, VP6, MPEG, QuickTime, RealVideo, RealAudio, WMV, OGV, PCM, MP3, AAC, etc.

Matroska was made to replace the old file container format such as AVI. AVI has been developed and used for more than a decade, and it still has a strong vitality, but its original architecture is too old, which makes it very difficult to support new audio and video encoding formats. Plus, it is not convenient to use on non-Windows platforms. Matroska uses an open architecture with many advanced features and can be used across platforms, which is beyond the reach of AVI. However, up to now, AVl has the widest range of hardware and software support, MKV has not achieve its goal, yet.

play and edit MKV files

It's not neccessary to get a dedicated player to play MKV files. In Windows, any DirectShow compatible player can play MKV files, such as the default Windows Media Player, as well as common Media Player Classic and ZoomPlayer. For Mac users, Perian is required to play MKV files with QuickTime Player. Alternatively, it's a good idea to convert MKV to MP4 for better compatibility using a good video converter. More applications are compatible with MKV files, like VLC, KMPlayer, PotPlayer, Movavi Video Editor, Wondershare Filmora, BlazeVideo Video Editor, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, etc.

How to Open MKV Files with Movavi Video Editor

Open MKV files in Windows

In the main screen, go to the Media tab on the left sidebar and click the Add Media Files button.
Go through the top menu bar File > Add Media Files, or simply press Ctrl+O.
Resize Mov Video Editor's window and then drop MKV files to the timeline.

Open MKV files on Mac

Go to the Media tab on left and click the Add Media Files button.
Go through File > Add Media Files in the top menu bar, or directly press Command+O.
Directly drop MKV files from Finder to Movavi Video Editor's timeline. No prior conversion needed.

Open MKV Video on Mac and Windows

Windows 10	Windows 8	Windows 7	Windows Vista	Windows XP
macOS Big Sur	macOS High Sierra	macOS Sierra	macOS el Capitan	Mac OS X 10.7 or higher

FAQs on MKV Playback in Windows and Mac

Question:Why QuickTime won't play .MKV files on macOS?

Answer: As above described, MKV probably contains QuickTime incompatible codec. To extend QuickTime's format support, install Perian to play MKV files with QuickTime or converting MKV to MOV so that you can play, edit and share MKV video files on Mac easier.

Movavi Video Editor Opens MKV Files and More

Not only can MKV Video Editor opens MKV files but also other video formats like MOV, MP4, MPG, M4V, MKV, FLV, etc. Movavi Video Editor is an all-in-one video editing application for Mac and Windows.

MKV Video Editor Introduction