James Delahunty
5 Nov 2014 19:15
Microsoft's next Windows revamp supports the popular Matroska (MKV) container in Media Player, along with immediate support for H.265/HEVC.
The flexibility offered by the MKV multimedia container format has made it popular over the years, particularly with HD content. Typically, on Windows you would need to install a splitter for the container, like Haali Media Splitter, or use a player with built-in support, such as VLC.
With Windows 10, Media Player supports the MKV container out of the box, as confirmed by Gabriel Aul, providing updates on the Windows Insider program on Twitter.
When asked later by another user whether Microsoft will include a codec for H.265/HEVC video streams, Aul confirmed that HEVC is "also supported in-box."
The promise of HEVC is to make it possible to stream and download ultra high resolution video content without having to push up the bitrate to the same degree necessary with other standards.
Windows 10 is set to ship in late in 2015.