Why would I want to use MKV?

Question

Why would I ever want to use MKV for video files and not AVI? What is the benefit of this little known format?

Answer 1

If the MKV version is HD (high definition => high resolution), then it's not strange for it to be much larger. However, MKV in itself has just about nothing to do with filesize - you can put the same stuff in MKV as you can in AVI (plus a whole lot of stuff that you CAN'T put in AVI). As always, the encoder chooses the filesize.

In many cases an MKV version might be smaller or even much smaller than the corresponding AVI version, due to the encoder using a more efficient codec (or possibly just choosing a smaller target filesize). There are several examples of this; one is gg's Night Head Genesis which is 85 MB/ep, as opposed to Shinsen's 140 MB/ep in AVI.