How to Cast MKV Video from Mac to Chromecast

A Chromecast can play back local video files hosted on a computer running Google Chrome with the Chromecast extension installed. To access files hosted on the computer and play them on a Chromecast-enabled TV, a Chrome user simply needs to access their file directory by hitting Command+O on a Mac and select the desired video file. You can also just drag and drop the video into the Chrome Web browser. While you can do so on video types such as MP4, you probably will find difficulty doing the same on other video formats like MKV(It appears MKV files only play video, with no audio). In this article, we aim to give you the possible solutions to cast MKV from Mac to Chromecast smoothly without playback issue.

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Why MKV failed to cast through Chromecast

Chromecast provides you with so many amazing entertainment experience, but the MKV limitation for input video formats has made you frustrated. Actually, only videos in MP4 container with H.264 High Profile in AAC, MP3 audio codecs are compatible with Chromecast. When MKV contains audio codecs like DTS or AC3, you can't stream these files through Chromecast.

Solutions to Chromecast MKV Videos from Mac

First, simply rename MKV to .MP4

Well, yes, it's just that simple, at least on my computer. Renaming a .MKV file to a .MP4 seems to trick Chrome to treat a MKV file as a MP4 file so it plays smoothly without any trouble.

Second, install VLC media player

If renaming doesn't work, you will need a proper media player plug-in installed and enabled. If you already have Chrome browser installed, installing VLC media player will install a VLC media player plugin for Chrome automatically.

Third, convert MKV to Chromecast supported MP4 video

If neither of the options described above works for you, especially hearing no sound on some of the MKV files, here is another one you can try.

Download and install Brorsoft iMedia Converter for Mac. This professional MKV to Chromecast video converter can help you successfully transcode MKV to MP4 in amazing fast speed without any quality loss. So, you can send MKV to Chromecast from your Mac easily.

Besides the ability to convert MKV for smoothly playback with Chromecast, this powerful MKV converter can also convert MKV to Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, PS4, Xbox One, Plex, etc. Moreover, other formats that not friendly with Chromcast like Blu-ray, DVD, Video_TS, ISO image files can also be converted keeping the best quality. With its built-in video editor, you can also customize and edit your MKV videos before converting it to MP4 format. If you are running on Windows, please turn to its equivalent Windows version Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate.

Download MKV to Chromecast converter:

Step 1: Load MKV files

Download the MKV video converter on your computer, install and run the program, add .mkv videos. You can choose to import videos or the entire folder by clicking the top left two icons.

Step 2: Choose an output format

Chromecast perferred video format is MP4. So you can click Format drop-down menu and choose "H.264 Video(.mp4)" from "Common Video" as output format, which can be recognized by Chromecast easily.

Tip: If you wanna some advanced settings, you can click "Settings" icon to adjust the video, audio parameters bitare, frame rate, sample rate, audio channel, etc. Plus, you can click "Edit" button to do some editing work cropping, trimming, settings effect, adding subtitles.

Step 3: Start MKV to Chromecast conversion

After all necessary settings, you can hit the "Convert" to start converting MKV to MP4 with best video settings for Chromecast.

Once the conversion finished, click "Open" in main interface to quick locate the converted video. Then, you can cast the converted files through Chromecast effortlessly.