# MKV format, nobody fucking cares! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 21, 2012, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363 "2012-09-21T07:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/61 "2015-06-27T06:29:49Z")
Why not just download the mkv and use a program to convert containers? It’s not like changing the container takes that long, it’s not like rendering or re-encoding. I render all my videos in an mkv container, but that’s mostly because it seems to be MeGui’s default and the videos go straight to Youtube which processes them into something else anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/62 "2015-06-27T06:45:15Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Why not just download the mkv and use a program to convert containers? It’s not like changing the container takes that long, it’s not like rendering or re-encoding. > > I render all my videos in an mkv container, but that’s mostly because it seems to be MeGui’s default and the videos go straight to Youtube which processes them into something else anyway. (Strictly speaking, I render on-demand to a frame server in Lagarith YV12 because it matches the colorspace I record in, then re-encode with MeGUI via an AVISynth script into a muxed MKV with h.264 video and Nero AAC audio, but since I use an on-demand frame server it’s easier to just say I render into an MKV) ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/63 "2015-06-27T07:05:39Z")
Please note the date of my OP, and that in the meantime it seems the scene has moved to yet another container format and codec for live TV releases .mp4 at least going by scene sites. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/64 "2015-06-27T14:23:25Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > is this important to anyone aside from anime dorks? There’s also hearing impaired people for whom it might be nice to have a subtitle track. But I guess we’re just telling those guys to go fuck themselves. I guess there are also those people who like listening to commentary tracks, too. But they smell bad. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/65 "2015-06-27T14:39:34Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > If you want to rant about not understanding something, that’s fine. But you put on a pretense of knowing these things and then dismissing them. But you really, really, REALLY haven’t got the beginning of a clue what you’re ranting about here. You’re coming off as a neo-luddite, stuck with Real Audio files from '97 and whining that your new Blackberry will only play MP3s. You’re right. Someone who’s only been doing video tech and production since 1987 should just sit down, shut up and let the 15yos with the newest toys rule the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/66 "2015-06-27T15:14:33Z")
The only thing I don’t like about MKV is that it doesn’t well well with most (any?) video editing programs. Rewrapping is a minor hassle though, nothing pitchfork worthy. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/67 "2015-06-27T15:37:13Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > You’re right. Someone who’s only been doing video tech and production since 1987 should just sit down, shut up and let the 15yos with the newest toys rule the discussion. Looking it up, MKV’s been around since 2002 AD. ‘New’ seems very relative. All the cool kids are voting for those exciting young Clintons recently. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/68 "2015-06-27T16:19:06Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Looking it up, MKV’s been around since 2002 AD. ‘New’ seems very relative. As does your sense of “new.” Since this entire thread is essentially about video pirating on a mass scale, I’m not sure why it’s tolerated even in the Pit, and in any case, the tribulations of anime pirates and torrent wankers doesn’t have a violin small enough to play for. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/69 "2015-06-27T16:40:41Z")
Oh, come now. Surely you have a tiny enough instrument. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/70 "2015-06-27T16:48:59Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Oh, come now. Surely you have a tiny enough instrument. Only a mighty organ. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363/71 "2015-06-27T16:53:51Z")
MKV is a container, just like AVIs, WAVs and TIFFs. I am sure it is useful for piraters, but it’s rather doubtful this is it’s main — let alone intended — purpose. However videos are obtained, the ineluctable future is that watching them directly from a hard disk will always be used compared to using optical media such as CDs and DVDs or other form of distribution. Therefore container formats — and those non-containerized formats for direct play even — are essential, since just as film-makers moved from reel film to video etc., films are likely be be shot and distributed entirely in computer formats. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mkv-format-nobody-fucking-cares/635363.md?page=3)