The best Video Player for .mkv (Matroska) video format

So .mkv has been gaining popularity recently. Why? Because it's the best container for HD videos, the quality is unbeatable and it's small in size. But it has its downside too, compatibility issues. As you know, Windows 7 is going to be released on 22 Oct 2009. And I've got the chance to test out the RC version of Windows 7, it's a great operating system. Installation was smooth and it run flawlessly on my netbook without any driver issues. One thing that dissapoint me was it doesn't work very well with the .mkv format videos.

On the other hands, .avi file has the least compatibility problems and it's widely use and support by developer. But we have to acknowledge that avi container is getting old, and it's time for an upgrade or total discard. If mkv is such a great container, why most user's still preferred avi over mkv videos? Well.. apparently Windows Media Player doesn't play .mkv file and it's also the most widely use player on the market. Although I can't guarantee if mkv can be run on WMP, even it does, you'll have to go through the very troublesome online download process. Why can't it just work with all format just like others player? Peoples don't really go and search for the best player and assumed that Windows Media Player is the best on the market. And it frustrated user's who downloaded a mkv video and can't be played on it.

Here's the two players I recommend for mkv videos or a video players as a whole.
1.) KMplayer - This is my top recommendation for mkv format videos or DVD. It plays almost all kind of videos format except for RMVB of course. The interface are impressive with very much every function you could find on WMP. It's pretty much customizable in every way to suit your watching preference. The only thing I don't like about KMplayer was the player doesn't let other program take over the screen, it'll stick on the screen unless you minimize it to the tray. It might have the option to turn off that, but I never find such options yet. If you know, please let me know. Beside this minor quibbles, KMplayer is perfect player except it does hang and crash sometimes but not too often.

1.) Vlc player - Before I started using KMplayer, vlc is the only player I use to watch all my videos. Basically, it plays all types of videos/audios just like KMplayer except for rmvb. And it's slightly smaller in size and it doesn't use a lot of your computer's resources. But some problems with this player are when you are trying to skip sequences in HD videos or mkv format, sometimes it'll crash with errors. This happens occasionally, and I'm not sure what exactly the problems were. Another issues is when playing DVD movie, I remembered it doesn't have such problems in older version, you'll see lines on the movie screen. I'm not sure if it's purposely done, but I don't like it for sure. I want my movies to be crystal clear.

That's it, you have just learned two of the best free video software online. I'm not going to provide any links here. You guys need to learn how to use the all mighty Google search engine to find your own free softwares. Visit Google.com and type in either vlc or kmplayer and you should be able to find the site on first result. It's free to download for both, you can try it yourself and see which you prefer the most. Enjoy!