Playing MKV Videos on the XBOX 360

by Tom on April 25th, 2008

For sometime now, I’ve noticed that pretty much all the video content I download (all legal of course) comes in a strange new format called .MKV. Well, to be more precise, MKV is a container, not format. It contains h264 video files and various different types of audio, commonly DTS.

MKV has loads of advantages from what I can tell, like multiple layers of audio, customisable subs and so on, but there is one massive downside to it. XBOX 360 hates it.

Now, this is for several reasons.

The XBOX 360 will not play (over a network) and video file over 4gb in size, unless it is a WMV. This appears to be a software limit, and I’m assuming it’s for no other reason but to promote Microsoft’s native video format.
DTS Sound is not supported on the console, again, unless encoded into a WMV.

However, knowing that there are converters out there that will get my HD quality movies into an MP4 format that is playable, I set about my quest to find the most user friendly one.

And that, ladies and gentleman is where XenonMKV comes into play.

The software is still in early stages, but it still managed to convert everything I threw at it. And quickly too, as the process only actually converts the audio to standard stereo, the video is just stripped away, not converted, thus eliminating the most lengthy part of the process. Another huge selling point for me was, it didn’t require a single codec install.

I tried this and GOTsent, but found XenonMKV to be far more stable, while offering a lot of the same features, like splitting large files into XBOX 360 playable chunks under 4gb.

Well worth a look.

From → Movies, XBOX 360

11 Comments →

the real IRA permalink

thanks so much for this post!
Danny Aston permalink

Spot on. Thanks.
Boyle permalink

Awesome post man. it helped me out greatly.
Grant permalink

I am just downloading the software I will just install it and whatever and then tell you my thoughts!
Grant permalink

Just ran the software came out good. The picture was a little less better than HD but that may be the software crashed at the end of the conversion.
Grant permalink

Sorry posted before I wanted to.

Overall is good!

Thank You!
Colin Jensen permalink

Thank you for this!! been looking for something like this for ages!

I might even make a post on my blog too

Regards,
Colin Jensen

http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/
troopas Lithuania permalink

I was so surprised when my Xbox360 couldn’t play that stupid .mkv … And then I found your blog. Thanks for the help – it really made my day
William Leggett permalink

Check out my site. Its off the hook

http://www.williamleggett.co.uk/
utopaline permalink

Thanks a ton, I am no longer upset. lol