More On Native Flac and MKV Support in Windows 10
Window 10 will support Flac and MKV files natively, it’s not available in the current official build, 9879, but is in the leaked 9901 build. Here’s a look.
Windows 10 will offer native Flac and MKV support when the final version is released later this year. We told you about this development previously, but in the current official build, 9879, there isn’t support for the Flac and MKV file formats.
However, in the leaked Windows 10 build 9901, the file formats are indeed supported. I installed the leaked build on a virtual machine (VM), and have been checking out some of the new features that we can expect in the final release. Here’s a look at the new file format support.
Windows 10 Flac and MKV Support
Here’s a look at playing some Flac files with Windows Media Player 12 (WMP) on my VM with build 9901. In this build, Flac files only play in WMP and not the modern Xbox Music app; of course, that might change for the final release.
The cool thing with the MKV video format is that you can play them in both WMP on the desktop and the modern Video app.
Flac and MKV support on Windows 10 feels like a feature Windows should have had years ago, and users have become used to third-party programs like VLC, Foobar2000, MediaMonkey, and others that play Flac, MKV, and virtually any other file type.
Those kinds of programs have evolved over the years and include a ton of great features that most of us enjoy, so ditching them and using a native a Microsoft desktop or Modern app might be difficult.
The cool thing for users of Windows 10, who happen to need to play a Flac or MKV file, is that they won’t have to worry about downloading a third-party program to do it.
What is your take? Does having native support for Flac and MKV file types make you look forward to Windows 10? Or do you like the third-party app you already use? Leave a comment below and tell us about it.
7 Comments
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Greg Philip
After using great media players such as Musichi and foobar2000 for the past few years, I cannot justify replacing them for windows 10. I really love my media players and cannot say enough praise for Musichi when it come to classical music files and I really love foobar 2000 for everything in between.Thank-you for the wonderful articles.
Brian Burgess
@Greg: I think I will have to agree with you. VLC is perfect for checking out any file type media file quickly, not to mention the insane amount of other features it has under the hood.
Foobar2000 has been my choice for years, when I worried about managing my music files locally, but now since streaming is such a huge thing, I just Spotify play my local stuff that isn’t on the service.
I have never used Musichi, but will check it out, and perhaps an article on it would be appropriate. Thanks for the heads up!
Greg Philip
Hello Brian,
I too use VLC mostly to play DVDs. On the subject of musichi, you can check out http://www.musichi.eu/ along with the video tutorials. Their support is very committed to responding to any questions you may have. Besides the media players, there is always the streaming services to choose from.
Ellen
No … it doesn’t influence my decision as to whether or not I’d purchase 10. I rarely play music or watch movies or play games on my desktop. It’s mainly used for work.
I think MS missed the boat again with this OS. They need one strictly for working desktops and something like this for laptops, tablets and phones.
carstorm
For videos I use VLC Player, and for music I use WinAmp.
Cedesse
The interesting question for me is how well integrated this native media container support is with Windows Explorer and other Microsoft/Windows components.
Will there be a proper codec identifier that will finally make the optional Video and Audio type tags/columns useful without having to install 3rd party tools like Icaros to get a list view of what’s inside your MKVs and other video container files?
Using MediaInfo, FFprobe or opening files one by one in VLC to see the codecs isn’t ideal – getting everything in a nice list view in Windows Explorer is.
In the bigger perspective, it would be nice to see superior open / patent-free formats make the licensed ones completely obsolete. But the licensed formats are part of a ‘food chain’ with stakeholders who won’t give in easily. We’ve just seen that with Adobe being pressured to drop MKV support in their software only a year after they – silently – added it.
Mike J.
I gave up on VLC a few years back. PotPLayer works better.
Why do we have MKV files, anyway?? Dupilcating existing formats. Just makes things difficult.