Binge-watching content on streaming platforms like Netflix is how a lot of people choose to enjoy their favorite movies and TV shows these days. However, watching videos the old fashioned way (offline) is still a viable option and more often than not those videos happen to be MKV files. MKV is a very popular format that’s supported right off the bat by most of the modern media player available on the internet and even some of the default players available with certain operating systems. Unfortunately, Apple’s OS is not among them so if you want to play MKV on an iPad you’re going to have to get creative.

 

Part 1: Use a Third-Party iPad MKV Player App

As previously mentioned, a lot of media players are more than capable of handling MKV files. But which one should you choose? Well, that’s entirely up to you but it’s worth noting that there are plenty of good options out there so it wouldn’t hurt trying a few different apps and see which one you like best. The good thing about most apps that let you play MKV files on iPad is that they’re free so it won’t cost you anything to check them out. That said, if you’re not really in the mood for experimenting and you simply want a popular app that’s certain to serve you well, you should probably just go for VLC Media Player. VLC is available on pretty much every platform by now, including iOS, and is guaranteed to play MKV on iPad without any issues. Other good options include Player Xtreme, Playable, AVPlayer HD, and MCPlayer.

 

Part 2: Convert MKV to iPad Compatible Format

If you don’t want to bother with media player you could always convert your MKV files to a different format that can easily be played by your iPad. There are a few different tools that allow you to do that but we recommend first trying DVDFab Video Converter. This software is available on both Mac and Windows and can be used to convert files between many different formats, including MKV, MP4, AVI, M2TS, WMV, and many more. This tool can be used to convert 3D and 4K videos and can also handle video to audio conversions.

The great thing about DVDFab Video Converter is that it lets you convert files to a format that’s specifically tailored to your device. In addition to letting you play MKV on iPad, DVDFab Video Converter also gives you all the tools needed to customize and edit your videos like a pro. Other useful features include file merging, batch conversion, and the ability to import videos directly from your mobile device, to name just a few. Now that you know more about the software, let’s take a quick look at how it works.

1. Open DVDFab 11 and pick the Converter module from the top menu. Load the file you want to convert by using the Add button or the drag & drop method. As mentioned, in DVDFab 11 it’s possible to also load files directly from your mobile device so make sure to use the Add from Mobile option if that works best for you.

play mkv on ipad

2. Go to the Profile Switcher to choose the format for the video you want to convert. Since this article is about MKV to iPad conversion, we’re going to select the Device tab of the Profile Switcher and then pick the Apple category. We’re choosing the iPad Air 2 for this example but you can find a lot of other models there so pick another option if you own a different type of iPad. iPads can natively support MP4 files so you can also select the MP4 option found under the Format tab if you that works better for you.

play mkv on ipad

3. Before you convert the MKV file to iPad you may want to check out some of the customization options. There are two different menus that will help you with this, namely Advanced Settings and Video Edit. The Advanced Settings menu is where you can change things like video resolution, quality, frame rate, encoding method, as well as changes related to the audio. Meanwhile, the Video Edit menu is useful for trimming and crop the video, settings proprieties like contrast, brightness and saturation or adding subtitles and watermarks.

play mkv on ipad

4. Once you’re done customizing the video, it’s time to choose where you want to save it. You can pick a suitable destination for the output by using the “Save to” menu located near the bottom of the UI or by clicking one of the icons next to it. If you chose MP4 or an iPad profile during the second step, you can actually connect your iPad with DVDFab 11 through DVDFab Remote and select the MobileDevice (your iPad)as the output directory. When you convert using this method, the file will be sent to the Photos of your iPad. Click the Start button to begin the conversion when you’re ready and wait until the software finishes processing your file. Once the process is complete, you can transfer the output to your mobile device (if you haven’t already transferred it directly) and play the former MKV file on your iPad without any issues.

play mkv on ipad

 

Conclusion

Although you can’t play MKV files on iPad by default, you will definitely be able to play them after using one of the methods described above. If you’re looking for a free MKV player on iPad there’s probably no better choice right now than VLC Media Player. However, if you’re looking for a tool that can not only help you play MKV files on iPad but also offers a lot of other useful tools, including file customization, we recommend trying out DVDFab Video Converter.