MKV player for Windows 11 and 10

AIX Player opens MKV files on Windows with every audio and subtitle track inside them, including 4K, HEVC and 10-bit video. The video, audio and subtitle decoders are built into the app, so there is no codec pack to install and nothing changes elsewhere on your PC. It is free from the Microsoft Store, with no ads.

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Windows 11 & 10 · x64 and Arm64 · Updated 28 October 2026

What an MKV holds, and what AIX Player plays

MKV (Matroska) is a container: one file that can carry a video track, several audio tracks, subtitle tracks and chapters. Whether a player can open it depends on what is inside. AIX Player decodes all of the usual contents in the app:

• Video: HEVC (H.265), AV1, H.264, VP9 and VP8, MPEG-2, VC-1 and MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX and Xvid).
• Sound: AAC, Dolby Digital (AC-3) and E-AC-3, DTS including DTS-HD MA, TrueHD, FLAC, Opus, Vorbis and MP3, in stereo or surround.
• Subtitles: text tracks such as SRT and ASS/SSA, and picture-based tracks from discs: PGS (Blu-ray), VobSub (DVD) and DVB.
• Chapters: jump between them with Page Up and Page Down.

Every track, one menu away

Switch the audio language or the commentary from the audio menu while the film plays, or press A or B to step through the tracks. Subtitles work the same way, with J or V. A subtitle file saved beside the MKV with the same name loads by itself. Size, colour, outline, background and position are yours to set; for styled ASS subtitles, switch Style Override off to keep the file’s own look. A second subtitle track on screen at the same time is part of AIX Pro.

4K, 10-bit and HDR MKV files

There is no resolution cap below 8K, so 4K and 8K MKV files play wherever your PC can decode them. Hardware decode is on by default and uses your graphics chip where it supports the codec, with the processor as the fallback. 4K and 10-bit video in standard range (SDR) is free without a time limit. HDR (HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision) is part of AIX Pro and has a separate free allowance: see what is free and what Pro adds.

Subtitles in every script

AIX Player bundles its own subtitle fonts, Noto Sans with Arabic, Hebrew, Devanagari, Thai and Simplified Chinese, so subtitles in those scripts display without installing fonts. Text subtitle files are read as UTF-8, or as UTF-16 when the file starts with a byte-order mark.

MKV won’t play, or plays wrong?

• MKV won’t play on Windows 11: the playback steps, and what to check when a file still fails.
• Sound but a black screen: the video track could not be decoded.
• Picture but no sound: the audio track, the output device or the downmix.

Watch an MKV on your TV

AIX Player can cast an MKV to your TV without converting it first. When the TV cannot play part of the file, such as a surround soundtrack, that part is converted while the film streams, and on supported casting routes subtitles are drawn into the picture before it leaves the PC. Casting has its own free allowance; see Free and Pro.