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Possible Ways to View MKV Files on Xbox One S

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"I'm planning on purchasing XBOX ONE S because it supports 4K resolution and HDR. My main concern is whether it can play Blu-ray 4k rips (usually in .MKV format)? Also Can you copy/paste mkv's from your PC to Xbox HDD or you can only play them through external HDD? Thanks."

Have got a Xbox One S and wanna know find an easy way to play MKV on Xbox One S like the above user? Well, before viewing the movie file, something issues you need consider:

1. How to transfer or stream MKV files to Xbox One S
2. MKV and Xbox One S File Format compatibility

Based on our testing, now we'd like to share some tips and tricks with you:

A. You can play MKV files on Xbox off of an external drive, if it's formatted by the Xbox and is set as a media drive.

The only issue is Windows recognizes and sees the drive (if you want to add more media), but can't access it. There are programs you can download, which will switch that drive from Xbox mode to PC mode and back again. TBH, I've tried it. It's a pain to do all that just when you want to play or transfer files.

B. The easiest way I've found to play media on the Xbox is to stream it.

Download Plex Media Server, it's free. Install it on your PC with your drive attached. It will find all your media and get the metadata for your library. Install Plex on the Xbox and you're good to go. The downside is that your PC has to be on when it serves media. If you have an older computer you can make that your server. Or you can do what I did and build a server with a Raspberry Pi3. No matter what you, the Xbox plays all major formats natively, so you don't need a beast of a computer to transcode on the fly.

Note: It will however play whatever you throw at it, if it has the correct codec. So 4K using AVC, no issues, we can stream those (direct play) up to 90mbps rate via Plex or VLC (handles up to 32mbps 1080P streams). Whereas, HEVC is NOT support by the Xbox One S, you will have to wait to the Xbox One X to have that in the hardware.

If you collected some 4K MKV files in HEVC(H.265), you will need to encode H.265 to H.264 first. In this case, a reliable H.265 to H.264 converter is what you need. Overall, Brorsoft Video Converter is considered to be the best choice for you. Overall, it is a powerful H.265 encoder, decoder and converter. It can help you convert MKV HEVC to H.264 video for easier using. At the meantime, it can also help you encode non-H.265 videos(MKV, H.264, DivX, AVI, WMV, MOV, MXF, MPG, MTS...) to H.265 files if you want. It's easy to use, and performs professionally. What's more, this video converter severs as a wonderful H.265 video player for you. And with the built-in video editor, you can personalize and retouch your videos in clicks. For Mac users, please get Video Converter for Mac. Download the program and learn how to change 4K MKV HEVC to H.264 video for Xbox One S seamlessly.

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Convert HEVC .MKV to Xbox One S Supported Video Formats

1. Add H.265 MKV videos > Launch the H.265 MKV to Xbox One S converter. Drag the .mkv files to the software for converting.

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2. Select output format > Click "Format" and choose H.264 MP4 from "Common Video" as output format, which can be recognized by Xbox One S easily.

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Tip: Click the Settings icon, you can adjust video and audio parameters like codec, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, etc., in that way, you can take charge of the size and quality of the output files.

3. Start conversion > Click the "Convert" icon under the preview window to start converting HEVC MKV to H.264 MP4 for Xbox One S. After the conversion, click "Open" to locate the output videos. Then, you can watch your MKV movie on Xbox One S via external drive or Plex Media Server without hassle.

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