Play MKV on Sony Xperia Series

The Xperia is the brand name of smartphones and tablets from Sony Mobile. Have some MKV video downloaded from online video sites and wish to play them on Sony Xperia series smartphones or tablets? You may be find that you can successfully play certain MKV video files but fail to view others. The following article will illustrate the reason for you and offer some beneficial solutions to get all MKV files played on Sony Xperia series phones or tablet.

Model list of Sony Xperia series smartphone and tablet

Sony Xperia smartphones: Xperia® XZ1, Sony Xperia® XZ1 Compact, Xperia® XZs, Xperia XA1 Plus, Xperia® XA1, Xperia® XA1 Ultra, Xperia L1, Xperia® XZ Premium, Xperia® X Compact, Xperia® XZ, Xperia® XA Ultra, Xperia® X Performance, Xperia® XA, Xperia® X, Xperia® Z5, Xperia® Z5 Compact, Xperia® Z3+, Xperia® C4, Xperia® Z3

Sony Xperia tablets: Xperia® Z4, Xperia® Z3 Compact, Xperia® Z2, Xperia® Z

Why Sony Xperia fail to read certain MKV files?

From Sony Xperia supported file formats, we can see that it has included native importing support for MKV files. However, it is well known that MKV is a multimedia container file format which can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks in one file. However, the built-in video player app of Sony Xperia may only supports to handle very limited video or audio codec used by the MKV files. The good news is that there are many free yet powerful media player apps that you can download and install on Sony Xperia to handle MKV file playback.

Free MKV media player app for Sony Xperia series

#1. VLC media player for Android

The first recommendation is VLC, which will play just about any video or audio file thrown at it and MKV is no exception. VLC recently came out with some pretty significant changes, and even if you don't plan on using it to play .mkv movies, it's a worthwhile app to have on any Android device. Some users report performance issues with playing MKV from VLC, but I've had no such problems.

#2. MX Player

This free player is said to have the ability to take the task of playing any media file format and capable of accepting other plugins for extensibility. The developers of this perfect movie player claim that it plays everything and sure enough MKV is no exception. This monster of a player with over 10 million downloads has a powerful hardware acceleration support with multicore decoding thus a significant boost is expected for users in multicore processor environments.

#3. Mobo Player

MoboPlayer is another one of the best 3rd party video, audio players available for Android devices. It can also be used to stream MKV to Android. Though it has a relatively complex interface, it isn't as complex as some of the other players out there and is still very much usable. It was once on the top of Android Players list. Over the years, its popularity has decreased a bit.

#4. VPlayer

VPlayer promises to get the best out of your handset with a choice of hardware or software decoding. Smooth HD playback proves no problem on a dual core device, and it boasts less battery drain than its rivals to boot.

#5. DicePlayer

Another great Android video player which let make your overall video playback experience better and Smoother. Dice Player is best droid video player and Suites great for MKV video formats. Great for Low-end smartphones. Which is considered as best for Multitasking.

Features of Dice Player:
Supports all Video formats and Subtitles.
Fits perfectly for low-end smartphones.
Hardware acceleration for Smooth video playback.
Basic video player for Android with well designed and great functions.
POP-UP tray for seamless Multitasking. ( Best feature )
The pop-up can be re-sized or moved anywhere over the Screen while running any other app.

Transcode MKV for Sony Xperia phone/tablet playback

Using a third-party app for video playback on Sony Xperia is a possible workaround, but often not recommended. The main reason is that the third-party app might not provide the optimal performances and experience, and may be less battery-friendly compared to its native video player app. Therefore, when taking all those factors into consideration, some people would choose to insist on to play local video with the native video player app offered by their Sony Xperia phones or tablets.

The good news is that you can still extend the media playback capability of your Sony Xperia built-in video player app with the assistant of third-party video conversion app. Here comes our best MKV Video Converter - Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate. The program has full importing support for SD/HD/2K/4K MKV files wrapped with various different video and audio codec listed below:
Video codec: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (A)SP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, VC-1/WMV, Real Video, MVC
Audio codec: MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3, DTS, PCM, LPCM, FLAC, ALAC, DTS-HD

Thanks to its batch conversion mode, you can load multiple MKV video into the application for conversion at one time.

The biggest merits of this program lies in that it allows you to direct output MKV to Sony Xperia phones or tablets preset profile formats so that you can get the optimal playback settings without tweak those settings on your own.

Adjust output video aspect ratio

If the original MKV video is using an aspect ratio that doesn't match with the display screen aspect ratio used by your Sony Xperia phone or tablet, there will be black bars around the video when viewing the MKV video on it. The good news is that you can easily fix this problem by by adjust output video aspect ratio to let it fit with the Sony Xperia devices with the "Crop" function in the video editor window.

For Mac users, you can go to download Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac to complete the conversion on macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan, Mac OS X Yosemite and Mac OS X Mavericks.

Get Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate with 20% off discount, coupon codec: 45K2D47GJH

Step by Step to Convert MKV for Sony Xperia Phone or Tablet Playback

Step 1: Load MKV files into the application.

Download the free trial version of the program. Launch it on your computer. Click "File" menu and select "Add Video/Audio" or click the "Add Video" button on the top tool bar to import source MKV video files into the program.

Load unsupported MKV files

Step 2: Define the output format.

Clicking the Format bar, from its drop-down list, here, you can directly select Sony Xperia phone or tablet preset profile formats "Sony Xperia Tablet Series Video (*.mp4)" under "Sony" main category.

Step 3: Change output video aspect ratio.

Go the "Crop" tab in the "Video Editor" Window, switch to the "Advanced Mode". To change output video aspect ratio, there are several aspect ratios for you to choose from, including 16:10, 16:9, 5:4, 4:3, 3:2, and 2:1, you can choose Sony Xperia phone or tablet accepted aspect ratio. Once you select a "Display aspect ratio", the "green crop frame" will keep this ratio to crop video and you are able to preview the final effect in real time. If you want to keep the same aspect ratio in your final output files, do remember to set the Video "Size (pix)" in "Settings" section as the same ratio as display aspect ratio.

Adjust output video aspect ratio

Step 4: Begin the conversion process.

After all setting is completed, hit the "Convert" button at the right bottom of the main interface to begin MKV to Sony Xperia phone or tablet preset profile format conversion process.

What's Next? Price: $65