Premiere Pro CC doesn't support MKV anymore?

[Juliannb4]

Good day, everybody!

I recently updated Premier Pro CC to the version 13.1.3 (Build 44) and... all of the sudden, it no longer supports .MKV files. I've worked with this type of file for quite a while now, but right after the update, it won't let me use it. Is this intentional or is it a bug?

Thanks in advance.

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

Intentional: Adobe dropped support.

(Did not know they official supported the codec).

[Juliannb4]

It's been supported for a while, but... not anymore, it seems. And you're absolutely right, it says so in Adobe's help section... a dumb move not checking that out first. Why did they do this though? I hope they give us a good reason...

Thank you kindly for the info!

[RjL190365]

Here's why:

Adobe simply did not want to alienate users of legacy uncompressed or less-compressed or less-efficiently-compressed codecs such as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, both of which are still in wide use. At the same time, Adobe wanted to add support for all the modern commonly-used compressed camera codecs. Unfortunately, no company - Adobe included -  can have 'em both ways (at least without compromising stability). So, Adobe is dropping certain lossy-compressed codec support of formats that have been used primarily for transcodes (and not for originally shot camera files).

[SBelizaire]

RjL190365 I'm not sure, but what does mpeg have to do with anything? Am I missing something? How does support for MKV alienate anyone? Please explain...

[R Neil Haugen]

You missed RJL's main point: they can't code for unlimited number of codecs, and maintain performance and stability. So they are continuing support for some codecs that have still a large use in their pro base, and discontinuing lesser-used codecs. MKV is definitely a 'niche' use codec, no matter how good it may be.

As noted also, they never "officially" supported MKV ... it was a quasi-supported status for one release. Is this a royal pain for those of you working with MKV? Sure. No question.

However ... the fact remains it is a niche codec, and not one of the main user-base codecs. I looked it up once, and for certain things, it clearly is a very useful codec. It's never been used widely however. And there's nothing about it that can't be done or accomplished with another format/codec.

Neil

[Prizm4]

"they can't code for unlimited number of codecs, and maintain performance and stability."
Source? Where did Adobe say that they removed MKV support due to performance/compatibility problems?

[3DLover]

MKV is not a CODEC.  It's a container format, like AVI, and MOV.  MKV can contain CODECS that Premiere already supports, and MKV is open source.  Not supporting is it lame IMHO.

[basil1891]

As a workaround you can remux .mkv files in a mp4/mov container. It's much better way than transcoding:

Re: problem with mkv format

[Stan Jones]

Thanks Basil for that reminder.

I'll say what was indicated above a bit differently:

When Adobe added mkv "support" (in the 2018.1.1 release), it was not announced and was "undocumented." This is a bit oversimplified, but my take is that simple mkv files worked, and more complex ones often did not. mkv is a container, and it could hold many streams.

I'm sure we'll see further debate on whether users want mkv supported and why Adobe removed the limited support that was added. Since it was undocumented, I appreciate the clear statement that it was removed on purpose.

[Celexis]

Ok, so I was able to restore my subclips and original clips by pointing them to the remuxed version of the main clip. However, I can't seem to get my sequences back. When I tried to point the sequence to the remuxed clip, it didn't show me any of my edits and rather just showed it as one continuous video and audio clip. I tried to import the sequence from a previous autosave, but that only partially worked, and of course the audio and video were not shown as edited, but as offline. Tried to link them to the remuxed, and same issue as before.

Is there a way to get my sequences back from previous projects (and my current project) that used mkv files?

[Ann Bens]

If its one long clip:

[kestenbergm55976754]

i just rolled back to 13.1

any reasons against it?  i had to do the same with After effects. all my linked comps where fudged

[scottp29542154]

I am in the middle of a very large project and was not aware that this was happening.

Once this project is finished, will be talking with Department heads to move everyone to another video editing program. This has happened too many times.

Appreciate everyone here providing a work-around.

[GrayJackel]

Good luck going anywhere else. I would advise turning off auto-update though. The fact that it is on by default is the bane of my existence.

[GrayJackel]

I need everyone to please upvote this so that we can get this codec back
Restore MKV Format Support – Adobe video & audio apps

[sitymarz]

What a silly decision. MKV wasn't harming anyone?

This is ridiculous, was so useful for using clips from random sources in videos.

[pablok42685086]

Worst decision ever, cost me so much time to fix in the middle of an important release.

[Michael Grenadier]

I understand your frustration, however, NEVER update in the middle of an important project and ALWAYS keep the previous version of Premiere on your system.   I'm on a mac and it's very simple to create a clone of your startup drive before you do any serious update in OS or crucial app so you can restore your system to a working state if things go south.   Not sure how to accomplish this on windows, but I'm sure there's a way.

[ronniediaz]

@JuliannB4 - feature request to bring back mkv support:

https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/38135902-restore-mkv-format...

[Photo1549]

Currently working on a project where the team is using the later version of Premiere, tried to import smoe MKV files of a video shoortage... guess what... wasted a lot of precious time to sort this out. Already rewuested the program manager that the current work could be done on any other Video editing software and the team doesnt use Shareed Projects Workflows. It would save him mony on the longer run.

[Photo1549]

FYI, I found out that VLC is able to help me out of here.

[Rscg23s]

I don't get it adobe. Just let creators work with what they want.