Format
Matroska
Summary
- Name
- Matroska
- Version
- 1-4
- Identifiers
- PUID: fmt/569
- Format type
- Video
- Family
- EBML
- Description
- The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free container format, based on the Extensible Binary Meta Language (EBML). Matroska file extensions are .MKV for video (with subtitles and audio), .MK3D for stereoscopic video, .MKA for audio-only files, and .MKS for subtitles only. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Working Group: Codec Encoding for LossLess Archiving and Realtime transmission (cellar) is tasked with the standardisation of Matroska. The EBML specifications are work-in-progress, and can be found here: https://github.com/Matroska-Org/ebml-specification/blob/master/specification.markdown
- Note
- Format specification: https://matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html
- File extensions
-
mkv,mk3d,mka,mks - Source
- Axiell / Axiell
Relationships
- Has priority over
Internal signatures
Matroska Video
- Note
- 0x1A45DFA3(EBML-Level 0 element), {0-32}, 0x428288(DocType element), string=matroska, 0x4287(DocTypeVersion element). The specification allows for ASCII text before the EBML header and considers the level 0 EBML header element to be the beginning of the EBML document. For now this signature is offset to 1024 bytes to allow for some ASCII text to precede the header, but to assume the EBML header of a Matroska multimedia format will begin near the beginning of the file and to mitigate against wasteful processing of large files that are not Matroska multimedia.
Byte sequences
- Min Frag Length
- Absolute from BOF
- Offset
- 0
- Max offset
- 1024
- Byte Sequence
1A45DFA3{0-32}4282886D6174726F736B614287- Endianness
- Big-endian
Changelog
-
Updated in V101
- Release date
- 15 February 2022
Matroska: Updated link to reference files. Submitted by Heidelberg University library.
-
Updated in V100
- Release date
- 16 December 2021
Matroska: Added file specification. Submitted by Axiell.
-
Updated in V98
- Release date
- 27 October 2021
Matroska: Given priority over MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3 fmt/134 due to rare clash condition. Submitted by Nationaal Archief, the National Archives of the Netherlands.
-
Updated in V86
- Release date
- 27 July 2016
Matroska 1-4: Change named to Matroska 1-4. Edited description. Added family relationship and added offset of 1024 to signature and edited signature description.
-
Added in V69
- Release date
- 19 July 2013
Matroska Video: Signature developed through PRONOM Research.
Matroska Video: Outline Entry Submitted by Axiell CALM Ltd.