Free online MKV to TXT converter

Source format: MKV

MKV (Matroska Video) is a flexible multimedia container format used to store video, audio, subtitles, chapters, and metadata in one file. It is widely used by video enthusiasts, archivists, and anyone distributing high-quality video because it supports many codecs and multiple subtitle or audio tracks. MKV is common for movies, TV recordings, screen captures, and downloaded video files.

Target format: TXT

TXT is a plain text format that stores only readable text characters with no video, audio, or formatting. It is useful for subtitles, transcripts, captions, notes, logs, and extracted metadata. Converting MKV to TXT usually means extracting subtitle text or creating a transcript from the video’s spoken content, because a video container itself cannot be directly turned into plain text without first identifying the text or speech inside it.

How to perform the conversion

The best method depends on what you want from the MKV file:

1. Extract embedded subtitles to TXT

If the MKV contains subtitle tracks, you can extract them with MKVToolNix or FFmpeg. MKVToolNix is especially convenient for inspecting tracks and extracting subtitles.

With MKVToolNix GUI:

1. Open the MKV file in MKVToolNix GUI.
2. Check the subtitle tracks listed in the file.
3. Use Extract or Save selected tracks to export the subtitle track.
4. If the subtitle is in a text-based format such as SRT, ASS, or SSA, save it and rename or convert it to .txt if you only need plain text.

With FFmpeg on the command line:

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:s:0 subtitles.srt

This extracts the first subtitle stream to an SRT file. If needed, you can then open the subtitle file in a text editor and save it as .txt. If the subtitles are already text-based, the content can be copied directly into a TXT file.

2. Extract subtitles directly to text

Some subtitle tracks can be converted into plain text by removing timing codes and formatting. Open the extracted subtitle file in a text editor such as Notepad++, VS Code, or LibreOffice, then clean the timestamps and save as .txt. For large files, subtitle editors such as Aegisub can help.

3. Create a transcript from spoken audio

If the MKV does not contain subtitles, you need speech-to-text transcription. A practical desktop option is Whisper or another speech recognition tool. First extract the audio, then transcribe it.

Extract audio with FFmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -vn -acodec pcm_s16le output.wav

Then run a transcription tool on output.wav and save the result as .txt. This is the most appropriate approach when the goal is a readable text version of the video’s speech.

4. Use the built-in converter on 101convert.com

You can also convert the file on 101convert.com for free without installing any software. This is convenient for quick subtitle or text extraction tasks when the MKV already contains text-based subtitle data.

Notes on quality, compatibility, and limitations

MKV to TXT is not a direct format conversion in the usual sense. MKV is a video container, while TXT is plain text, so the result depends on what text information exists inside the file. If the MKV contains subtitle tracks, conversion is straightforward. If it contains only video and audio, you must use speech recognition to generate text, and the accuracy will depend on audio quality, accents, background noise, and language support.

Some subtitle tracks are image-based rather than text-based; these cannot be saved as TXT without OCR. Also, formatting such as colors, positioning, and speaker styling is lost in TXT. If you need subtitles with timing preserved, keep them in .srt or .ass instead of converting to plain text.