Free online EPUB to MKV converter

An EPUB reader cannot play an ebook as video; MKV is useful when a TV or media player accepts video but not ebooks, or when you need a timed, page-by-page presentation. The conversion renders the book’s pages as a slideshow rather than creating moving scenes or narration.

What the EPUB format is

EPUB is an ebook format that packages text, images, stylesheets, and navigation, usually as reflowable content that adapts to screen size. Readers such as Apple Books, Kobo, and Thorium open EPUB files; authoring and conversion tools such as Sigil and Calibre can create them. You commonly encounter EPUBs when downloading ebooks from bookstores or libraries.

What the MKV format is

MKV, or Matroska, is a container for video, audio, subtitles, and related tracks. It can hold different video and audio codecs, so MKV describes the container rather than a specific compression method. A converted ebook is typically represented by still pages shown for a set duration; MKV can also carry added audio or subtitles if a video editor supplies them.

How to convert EPUB to MKV

Online on 101convert.com

1. Upload the EPUB file on the converter page. Multiple files can be added for batch conversion; check the per-file size limit shown on the page.
2. Choose MKV as the output format and set show each page for to the desired display time.
3. Start the conversion and download the resulting MKV file.

Offline with desktop software

A free workflow for Windows, macOS, and Linux uses Calibre to render the ebook as PDF, Poppler to create page images, and FFmpeg to assemble those images into an MKV slideshow. Install all three tools, then run:

1. Convert the book to PDF with Calibre: ebook-convert book.epub book.pdf.
2. Render PDF pages as PNG images with Poppler: pdftoppm -png -r 150 book.pdf page.
3. From the directory containing the generated images, use FFmpeg to show each page for five seconds: ffmpeg -framerate 1/5 -start_number 1 -i page-%d.png -vf fps=25,format=yuv420p -c:v libx264 slideshow.mkv.

Change 1/5 to another reciprocal duration, such as 1/8 for eight seconds per page. This command uses the H.264 video codec inside an MKV container.

Quality and limitations

Page rendering fixes the EPUB’s layout to the PDF page dimensions; text is no longer reflowable or selectable as ebook text in the video. Higher PDF rendering resolution improves legibility but increases image and video size. EPUBs with DRM may not convert, and the FFmpeg image sequence requires consistently sized page images.