Originally Posted by ron13

no no no xD

You're completely off base. you mix everything ^^
More than 20 years ago, mkv did not exist, and yet other video containers already existed, such as avi, wmv, asf etc..

Just like them, mkv can encapsulate video, audio and subtitle streams. and you're going to tell me: why the mkv when others did the same job before?
well, quite simply because the AVC h264 codec also arrived almost the same year as the mkv, in 2002 or 2003.

It's all a question of technological advancement and industrial needs. It's all about that. the arrival of the H264 codec was hastened with the arrival of HD DVD, Bluray disc, and broadcast TV mainly.

The audio and video industry has taken a big step with this codec. and the mkv goes hand in hand with all that, and this mkv was a godsend, since it is open source. so no need to pay to use your code

and in the end, to answer you regarding WMP, why can't it read the mkv and its subtitles? because at the time well before 2000, WMP was all the rage with DivX Avis with embedded subtitles. We had the 700mb divx or dvdrip, and we looked no further, quite simply because we didn't know that the H264 was going to revolutionize everything. we made do with what we had.

and if you look now, I challenge you to find me more than 5 torrent trackers that only accept movies in avi format xD

Yeah, I still remember DivX was a breakthrough at 2003, 2004 with it's aided subtitles, then the appearance of blueray with it's big size, but I have no idea that DivX was providing with embedded subtitles, now we have a software which could operate many video and audio formats with it's outsider subtitles regardless subtitle format