What Media File Formats are Supported?

There are many file formats that are supported by the Plex Media Server. There are specific formats for both video files and audio files. The formats that can be direct played, however, is dependent on the client that is streaming the media file.

The various formats that are compatible with Plex are listed in the tables below. There is also an additional table for video files that lists the best file format for Plex Media Server that can be streamed by most clients using direct play.

Video formats

The following table shows the video formats that are supported by Plex.

The mp4 container is chosen as the recommended specification since it has the widest support. Web browsers can natively play mp4 files. You may be wondering: "can plex play MKV files?" Yes, plex can play MKV files, as long as the Plex client can play those files.

While Plex supports the the formats listed in the table above, the clients you use to play your files must also support the formats. If a client does support the format, then Plex will direct play the file instead of transcoding, or direct stream, the file to the client.

The best solution would be to have Plex direct play as much of your content as possible, especially for movies. There is a simple method you can use to get Plex not to transcode movies very often.

Audio formats

The audio formats supported by Plex are listed in the following table.

For music, the most widely-supported format is the mp3 format. The mp3 format, however, is lossy (quality is loss during compression), so if you prefer the best quality from your music, a format such as FLAC might be a better choice for you. The FLAC format is compressed, however, it is a lossless compression so no quality is lost.

Best file format for Plex Media Server

Plex supports a wide range of video file formats. There is a known specification that allows for the widest support among media players. A highly supported format is as follows: