5 Ways to Download YouTube to MKV Format in High Quality

Nowadays, people can watch various videos online to spend spare time or learn a new skill or language. YouTube, as the largest sharing media website, undoubtedly attracts billions of people to visit it every day. To meet people’s download demanding, diverse kinds of YouTube video downloaders are produced for people to get certain digital format based on personal purpose.

For convenience, a large number of people apt for downloading YouTube to MP4 by default. However, for those who prefer high-quality videos for an ultimate enjoyment, MKV will be a better option that can store audio, picture, subtitle, track effortlessly in one file too. Thus, in this article, we will show how to download YouTube to MKV on computer and mobiles to enjoy high-quality videos offline.

1. Complete YouTube Video Download with the Best YouTube to MKV Desktop Downloader

The excellent multifunctional software, Cisdem Video Converter stands out from countless software with its stable performance, advanced features and 30X faster speed. Only with the shortcut of the video link, it can batch download videos or download YouTube playlist in one click. Besides, it saves videos in high quality like 1080P, 4K, 8K or higher resolution, and can also save YouTube videos to any format due to the powerful conversion function.

Steps on how to batch download YouTube videos to MKV on computer with Cisdem:

Step 1. Download the software

Download and install Cisdem YouTube Downloader according to your computer system.

Free Download macOS 10.13 or later    Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7

Launch it, tap on to go to the interface for downloading online videos.

Step 2. Copy and paste the URL

Visit YouTube website, open a video and copy the link address.

Back to the interface of Cisdem, paste the copied link into the bottom blank field, hit on “+” or “enter” key to parse out. As it supports batch processing, repeat the copy-n-paste process to add more videos if you want.

Step 3. Choose the quality (optional)

It will set the highest resolution by default. If you want to change the quality, click the "Format" list to choose a suitable resolution.

Step 4. Download YouTube videos in batches

Simply click Download icon or the lower Start button to start save all videos to your computer. When finished, click icon to check them on your local folder.

Step 5. Convert YouTube to MKV

Switch to the conversion interface by clicking on the top, drag-n-drop the just downloaded videos to the program, click “convert all tasks to” button or highlight Format button to open the format list, then click “Video” to select “MKV”, source video quality. Finally, hit the Start button to save YouTube to MKV format.

2. Download YouTube to MKV with Command Lines

Yt-dlp is the alternative of youtube-dl to use command lines to download YouTube videos to your local devices. With certain command lines, it is capable of downloading YouTube playlists and channels with subtitles. With the help of FFmpeg, you are allowed to download and convert YouTube to any format you want.

Steps on how to download YouTube video to MKV using command lines:

1. Download the right version of youtube_dlp and FFmpeg based on your computer.
2. Open Command Prompt or Terminal.
3. Move to YouTube and copy the URL of a video that you want to download.
4. Back to the program, run the command: yt-dlp --list-formats [video link] to see the available formats.
   
5. Then download the video and audio track by running the command: yt-dlp -o "D:\videos\%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s" -f 137+140 “video link” --merge-output-format mp4.
6. After getting the YouTube video in MP4 format, run a new command line: ffmpeg -i inputvideoname.mp4 outputvideoname.mkv. Note: for convenience, you can rename the video name to another simple name before running the command.

3. Download YouTube to MKV with the Online YouTube Video Downloader

After testing all possible “online YouTube to MKV Downloaders” presented by the browser, youtube4kdownloader.com is the only available online service to directly download YouTube to MKV at current. It is easy to use, and can download YouTube video to MKV, MP4 and WebM format from 240P to 4K resolution.

Steps on how to download a YouTube video to MKV online free:

1. Open a browser, open youtube4kdownloader.com.
   
2. Move to YouTube site, copy the URL of a video that you wish to save.
3. Paste it into the URL field of youtube4kdownloader.com. The online tool will then start to analyze the pasted URL automatically and immediately.
4. After finishing, it will show you the basic video information with multiple download options. Click the “Download” button in MKV format of your desired quality.
   

4. How to Download YouTube to MKV on Android

4K Video Downloader for Android is a simple yet professional application that can download videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, TikTok and more popular media websites. It can download YouTube videos, playlist and channel contents in multiple audios or video formats under different quality. However, the free version doesn’t remove the ads and only allows people to make 5 downloads per day or 5 videos from a playlist or channel for free. For a better experience, you need to paid $5 for upgrading.

Steps on how to save YouTube video to MKV on Android:

1. Download and install the Android application on its official website.
2. Visit YouTube to open the video that you want.
3. Touch on the Share button below the video, and choose Copy link option.
4. Back to the App, tap on the “gearwheel” icon on the top right corner to make output settings. Choose MKV Video option under Profile and choose a desired resolution under Quality.
5. Press on the “+ Paste Link” option. The the App will automatically analyze the link and download video on Android.
   

5. How to Download YouTube to MKV on iPhone

For iOS users, Documents by Readdle makes great contribution on video downloading. Although it is an outstanding file manager on iPhone, it is designed with a built-in app browser that can direct to any online page. In other words, it can download videos from any websites by searching for the according functional online services. The crucial point of it is to find an effective tool that can make YouTube as the MKV format easily.

Steps on how to save YouTube video to MKV on iPhone:

1. Download and install the software on APP Store.
2. Run it, press on the compass icon at the bottom right corner, and type in https://youtube4kdownloader.com/en88/convert-youtube-video.html to visit it.
   
3. Launch YouTube app, open a video that you want to save, choose the “Share” icon under the video and then copy the link address.
4. Back to the just opened page in the built-in browser of Documents by Readdle App.
5. Paste the copied link into the box to start the analyze process automatically.
6. Choose MKV format and the output video quality, and tap on Download button to download the video.
7. When done, switch to the home interface of the App and go to the Download section to see the video.
8. If you want to see the downloaded video to your local folder, click the three-dot icon under the video, choose Share and then Save Video to send and backup it to your Photos app.

Can you Upload MKV to YouTube?

Undergoing experiments, although MKV is not the list of YouTube supported formats, we got the positive conclusion that YouTube actually supports MKV files, so you can upload MKV to YouTube directly. However, due to the HD quality of he MKV video, MKV videos are much larger in size than other formats at the same length. Thus, it takes more time to upload an MKV video to YouTube.

So if you want to upload a long MKV video or an MKV movie to YouTube, you’d better convert MKV to a YouTube supported format that is smaller, so that you can make a quick transmission to save your time. Also, you can choose either one based on your needs. Below are the supported video formats by YouTube.

• MP4
• AVI
• MPG or MPEG
• WMV
• 3GPP
• FLV
• MOV
• M4V
• WEBM

For converting MKV movie to YouTube, a professional MKV to YouTube converter is highly recommended, because it not only concludes all video formats you need but also can make bulk conversions in a super fast speed without data loss.

Final Words

After reading this article, I believe that you must have grabbed the most appropriate method for yourself to download YouTube to MKV on your device for enjoyment. However, considering to the copyright and privacy of the uploaders, please don’t disseminate or monetize the downloaded videos without permission.