I'm still baffled why .mkv is used by the pirates instead of .mp4, which in terms of features can do exactly the same and is far more widely supported.

This is a bit offtopic, but the real reason is fairly simple. The .mkv format is seen by the community as being "cool" and a mark of a clued up user. This is mostly because it is less widely supported, and can be harder to use than the more mainstream container formats. In communities like the movie/episode piracy community, technical merit is only one of two requirements on a technology - the other is community perception.

I've been far away from that community for a long time, and the culture may have changed, but the use of some formats rather than others as a "secret handshake" was fairly common. One example is .mp2 - some groups used it long after MP3 was shown to be technically superior. I know other regulars around here have a history in the scene, and probably have similar experiences.

How about limited set of codecs, including AC-3? Transcoding was supposed to be bad, wasn't it? Matroska can store just about any format and has the most easy to use multiplexing tool – MkvToolNix. Nobody would say that Ogg Vorbis is a bad format just because it's less "supported" than AAC.


I would say that the Scene cares about some installed base of hardware. 2005's video rules dictate that releases must be done in AVI format with average bitrate to match a yellow book CD in size – long after the compact disc had become obsolete.
Also NFOs are written as if for newbies, and every released game includes an installer – to make product usable for the average joe, who can't master a file manager.

MKV has some advantages:

• Its open source software player/tools support is pretty good due to specifications and libraries being free of charge. (MP4box kinda sucks, doesn't it?)
• MKV supports a lot of different formats (including AC3 aka Dolby Digitall and VobSub DVD subtitles). Correct me if I'm wrong, but to my knowledge you can't put 5.1 AC3 into MP4 without transcoding to AAC or some other "mp4 codec" first.

For someone who doesn't care about "hardware support" it looks like a good solution.

Cheers,
SG

afaik ac3 is the main reason, and i think there is still no 'standard' way to store ac3 in mp4.

I think it's possible. The data format description within the stsd atom would be "ac3" instead of "mp4a", but that should be specs compliant. (even mp3 can be put within mp4 container)

• Quality-wise, better GUI for muxing tools and more idiot-proof.
• Support for almost any codec. MP4 does not support AC3 streams out of the box
• While both support embedded text-based subtitle streams, playback of timed-text substreams in an MP4 container seems to be impossible using a standard filter while still keeping them readable.
• the process is less error-prone: I have (occasionally but not often) experienced audio/video synchronization issues when remuxing to mp4 but never when remuxing to mkv.

All pirated movies and TV shows I've downloaded, with maybe one or two exceptions, have used the AVI container. Where are you seeing MKVs? Wait, don't answer that. It's probably against TOS or something.

As for why MKV is a better container format, it's already been said but it's more flexible in terms of what codecs, subtitle formats, and other stuff you can put in it. It also supports chapters and some other neat things, IIRC.

There is no substantial advantage for using MKV instead of AVI for movies or TV shows with standard MPEG-2/4 video track and one audio track. Where MKV format (and "OGM" before) is used much more is the anime fansubbing scene, for example, where they use multiple audio tracks, chapters, subtitles with advanced typesetting and embedded fonts, etc.

Oh those darned pirates...

How about this: without change and new developments, there is no progress. Your point seems to be that you like .mp4 and it's presently more popular so you think everyone should use it exclusively and never change. Well sorry, but we could all be watching 160x120 10fps Indeo Video 3.2 movies with that approach. As has been stated several times in this thread, .mkv is actually a superior container in several aspects. People are migrating to take advantage of this. It makes the A/V universe an evolving and better place. Down the road will come another container... perhaps one that supports video-in-video streaming and we'll move on to adopt that too. That's how the technology universe works... and it's a good thing.

Some people uses mp2 instead mp3 cause patent licensing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing_and_patent_issues . They could use other formats like ogg but it is not easy playable on every devices.
I think mp2 is a middle point between mp3 and ogg, it is portable and patent free. It has no noticeable quality loss at high bitrae.
This is the twolame info "Because of patent issues surrounding the MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3) encoders, the ability of most MPEG Audio players to play layer 2 files, and the similarity in command-line syntax and API, TwoLAME makes a very good drop-in replacement for
LAME or other layer 3 encoders."