How to Import MKV Files in Adobe Premiere Pro [SOLUTION]

You’ve logged into Premiere Pro and have it all fired up for a day of video editing, but you receive the files in an unusual format. That format is an MKV file, but wait; I can’t open them in Premiere Pro? How do I import MKV files in Adobe Premiere Pro?

Quick Solution to Adobe Premiere MKV

Adobe Premiere Pro does not inherently accommodate MKV files. To facilitate the import of Premiere Pro MKV files into Premiere Pro, it’s necessary to first transcode the MKV Premiere Pro file into a format that Premiere Pro can handle, such as MP4. Once the conversion is complete, you can simply drag and drop the MP4 file into Premiere Pro’s interface and commence your editing process.

“How can I resolve this?” fear not! Today we will look at what an MKV file is, the benefits of using an MKV file and finally, the best MKV file converters. 

This future proof file format has many benefits but can be a nuisance when importing. We have the solutions. 

Let’s jump into the article!

What is an MKV file?

An MKV file, also known as a “Matroska Video file”, is a file that isn’t audio or a video file. The MKV file incorporates multiple different file formats into one container.

For example, it could contain H.264, MP3, MP4, WMV and other multimedia files within the container. 

MKV files were designed essentially to be future proof, so they never went out of date, and there was always a way of accessing them. 

However, an MKV file isn’t compatible with Premiere Pro, so you will have to find a workaround. That workaround uses a converter; the converter turns the MKV file into a compatible file with Premiere Pro. 

All you need to do is upload the file to the chosen converter and simply click go. This will then convert your files into the desired format. If you scroll a little further below, you’ll see our recommended MKV file converters. 

You may also be interested in reading: How to export a video from Adobe Premiere Pro

MKV Files – A Little History

MKV files were created in 2002 in Russia. Steve Lhomme, the founder of Matroska and the lead developer Lasse Kärkkäinen and their team, created the container file format MKV and names it after the Russian Nesting Dolls – “Matryoshka”. 

The Matroska project is an open-source project free of charge for anyone who wants to use the file type. It has recently become the basis of the WebM format, and in 2010 they revamped the project and made a lot of updates and improvements to Matroska.

Here’s How to remove background noise in Audacity

Key Features of an MKV File

“If the MKV file isn’t easy to import into video editing programs like Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas, then why do people use it?”. 

This is a question that gets thrown around, and we completely understand the concerns. As Premiere Pro and other video editing software cannot import in this file type, why do people use it? 

There are a few reasons people use the MKV file type, and these are as follows: 

• Metadata support
• Streaming compatibility
• Subtitle support for both soft and hard-coded
• Error recovery – Allows the payback of corrupted files.
• Selectable audio and video streams
• It is fast seeking.

These are a handful of reasons people tend to use the MKV file type. The error recovery solution it provides is incredible.

Why not read: 6 ways to optimise Premiere Pro’s performance

Here’s a quick video walkthrough on How to import MKV files into Premiere Pro:

We’ve listed below our favourite free MKV converters. Choose one of those to put your MKV file through.

What are The Best Free MKV Converters? 

Here are a few options on converting an MKV file to allow you to import it into Premiere Pro and edit in minutes. Let’s check them out below:

Wondershare Free Video Converter

Wondershare is a pretty cool company already, and this video converter is free of charge and incredibly easy to use. 

You can batch convert as well, which is pretty cool! One of the fastest out there (it claims). You can convert MKV files to many file types, including HD MPG, HD WMV, HD TS, HD MP4 and a hell of a lot more.

To use Wonderhsares video converter, simply install it on your Mac or PC. The app is super smooth to use, and if you have a lot of files to convert regularly, this is the app for you. The speed and efficiency are incredible and perfect for YouTubers or people looking to scrape videos from YouTube!

VLC Media Player

This open-source video player lets you play all the file formats and codecs, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, MKV, WebM, WMV, and MP3. It also runs on multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android.

However, it does have an excellent feature. Here you can either import the MKV video into the VLC media player directly or add the URL. 

You can then use their internal converter, and your MKV file will now be converted into a Premiere Pro friendly file format.

You may also be interested in 16 Must-Have Free Transitions in Premiere Pro 

Any Video Converter Free

Perfect for converting MKV files. Importing MKV files into Premiere Pro hasn’t been easier. You can convert any MKV file to pretty much any file type you want, so it’s perfect for all editing platforms, not just Premiere Pro. Simply click on the link above and install it to your Mac or PC to get started.

It also allows you to take videos from Facebook, YouTube, Dailymotion and many more video sharing platforms and convert them to your preferred file type. 

Here’s our step by step guide for converting the MKV to an MP4 with VLC Media Player, it will only take a few seconds to convert your MKV files.

You can also trim clips with this as well as adding subtitles and more. Perfect for those quick cleanups. It currently supports the following: 

Video outputs:

• 3GP
• FLV
• SWF
• MOV
• GIF
• WEBM
• MP4
• AVI
• MKV
• M4V
• WMV
• MPG
• ASF
• M2TS
• HTML5 WEBM
• HTML5 OGG
• HTML5 MP4
• and a lot more.

Video inputs:

• MP4
• MPEG
• VOB
• WMV
• H264
• H265
• 3GP
• 3G2
• MKV
• MOD
• M2TS
• RMVB
• AVI
• MOV
• FLV
• F4V
• DVR-MS
• TOD
• DV
• MXF
• OGG
• WEBM
• any 4K video format.

Supported devices (Output):

• iPhone
• Xbox One
• iPad
• TV console
• Social media
• Google Android
• Kindle Fire HD
• Sony PS5
• and many more.

We hope this article on how to import MKV files into Adobe Premiere Pro was useful to you. Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments. We love to hear from you guys. 

Finally, scroll further for more expert articles on video editing, file conversion and filmmaking!

Happy editing.