Container — Matroska
One H.264 elementary stream wrapped in Matroska. Every file in this group was produced from the SAME encode with a stream copy, so the compressed video bytes are identical and the container is genuinely the only difference. The most permissive container in common use: any codec, unlimited tracks, chapters, attachments. Not natively playable in Safari, which is its main practical limitation.
Rendered preview of the mkv file (22.8 KB). Download above for the original.
Specifications
- Resolution
- 480x270
- Fps
- 24
- Duration
- 1s
- Container
- Matroska
- Codec
- H.264 (libx264) — identical across this group
- Remux
- stream copy — video bytes are unchanged
- Audio
- none
Testing contract
Reference control- Scenario
- Demux the video stream out of the container and compare the extracted elementary stream against the one from any other member of this group.
- Expected result
- The container is Matroska and the video is H.264 (libx264) — identical across this group. Every member of this group was produced by a stream copy, so the encoded video bytes are unchanged across all seven - the extracted elementary streams must be identical, and only the container framing differs. 480x270 at 24 fps, 1s, no audio.
What is a .mkv file?
MKV (Matroska) is an open, codec-agnostic multimedia container that holds unlimited video, audio, subtitle, chapter, and attachment tracks in one file. Its structure is EBML, a binary tree of length-prefixed elements, and its attachments typically carry the fonts an ASS subtitle track needs. Because it constrains nothing about the streams inside, the extension says nothing about whether a player can decode them. Steve Lhomme started the project in 2002; WebM is the restricted profile of it that browsers accept.
How to use this file
Use an example MKV to test EBML parsing and multi-track demuxing, subtitle and chapter extraction, and remux pipelines, checking that per-track language and default flags survive, that font attachments are preserved, and that a remux to MP4 reports the tracks MP4 cannot carry instead of dropping them silently.
How to use this file for testing
“Container — Matroska” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Video codecs, Conversion testing, Video QA. One source encoded as H.264, HEVC, AV1, VP9, MJPEG, and a ProRes-compatible mezzanine, across 8/10/12-bit and 4:2:0/4:2:2/4:4:4, for testing decoder support, transcode pipelines, and container remuxing.
Documented properties for this file: 1s · 24 fps. Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.
Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such, expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.
Media fixtures are short and synthetic by design. Prefer waveform or transcript ground truth in the same group when measuring ASR, trim, upscale, or sync tools; do not assume broadcast-quality masters.
Code examples
<video controls preload="metadata" width="640" src="mkv.mkv"></video>Related files
- webmAlpha Channel — Opaque VP9 TwinThe same codec and container with NO alpha plane, as the control for the alpha clip in this group. Useful for checking that alpha detection reads the pixel format rather than assuming every WebM is transparent — and for confirming a compositing bug is in the alpha handling rather than in the player.
- webmAlpha Channel — VP9 in WebMVideo with a real per-pixel alpha channel: VP9 yuva420p in WebM, the one alpha path browsers decode natively. Composite it over a page background and the transparency is genuine, not a chroma key. Roughly 90% of each frame is fully transparent. Two traps this file exists to expose. First, auto-alt-ref must be disabled at encode time or libvpx silently drops the alpha plane, producing a valid file with no transparency and no error. Second, WebM stores VP9 alpha in BlockAdditional and signals it with AlphaMode=1, so FFmpeg's NATIVE vp9 decoder reports pix_fmt yuv420p and decodes fully opaque — you must force `-c:v libvpx-vp9` to see the alpha at all. Probing this file with default settings and concluding it has no alpha is the expected mistake.
- mp4Bitstream — All-Intra (Every Frame a Keyframe)Every frame is an I-frame, so any frame is an independent cut point. Much larger, and the shape editing and frame-accurate seeking want. Same picture and same codec as every other clip in this group — only the GOP and frame-type structure differ, so the effect on size and seekability is directly attributable.
- mp4Bitstream — Heavy B-Frames (8 Consecutive)Eight consecutive B-frames with a B-pyramid, so decode order and display order diverge sharply and DTS runs well behind PTS. The case that breaks naive timestamp handling and any code that assumes frames arrive in display order. Same picture and same codec as every other clip in this group — only the GOP and frame-type structure differ, so the effect on size and seekability is directly attributable.
- mp4Bitstream — Long GOP (24 Frames, One Per Second)One keyframe per second — the delivery default, and the setting that determines HLS/DASH segment boundaries, since a segment must start on a keyframe. Same picture and same codec as every other clip in this group — only the GOP and frame-type structure differ, so the effect on size and seekability is directly attributable.
- mp4Bitstream — No B-FramesI and P frames only. Required by some low-latency and legacy decoders, and it removes the reordering that makes decode order differ from display order. Same picture and same codec as every other clip in this group — only the GOP and frame-type structure differ, so the effect on size and seekability is directly attributable.
Generated by generation/video_codecs_wave.py. Free for any use, no attribution required, license.