Native MKV, FLAC And HEVC Support In Windows 10

While there are still a number of competing multimedia formats, there are a few that you can always count on — H.264, AAC, FLAC and containers such as MKV. There’s nothing more frustrating though than having software that doesn’t want to play nice with these and Windows takes the cake for requiring either a codec pack or an alternative player after a fresh install. Fortunately, Microsoft is taking a more serious look at the supported audio and video formats in Windows 10.

Microsoft’s Engineering General Manager Gabriel Aul tweeted the above image of Media Player in Windows 10, which shows several music files with the “flac” file type. Aul also tweeted earlier this month that Windows 10 will support the MKV container format as well as High Efficiency Video Coding, otherwise known as HEVC or H.265.

VLC has become the media player of choice for most savvy users and it handles pretty much anything you throw at it, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft should ignore what formats and codecs are popular. While WMA and WMV have their place, we know they’re not frequently used online, where it’s a combination of MP4 or MKV and H.264 with ACC or MP3.

It’s about now you realise you know far too many acronyms…

@GabeAul [Twitter, via gHacks]


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