On Monday we reported that Archos released new firmware for several of their devices, including the older pre-Android Generation 6 models (Archos 5IMT, Archos 7IMT).
Further investigation of this firmware has revealed that MKV (Matroska video) container support has been added to these older devices. I have tested some MKV videos on the A5, and everything works beautifully, including embedded subtitle streams, multiple audio streams and anamorphic aspect ratios.
It should be noted that video codec support has not changed. The device still supports the same video/audio codecs as before, and still has the same hardware-dictated restrictions (bitrate, resolution, framerate, etc). H264 playback is limited to Main-Profile and standard-def (720x576).
The main benefit is that you can now package your videos in the MKV container if you so wish. The MKV container is an open-standard free video container format, see Wikipedia for more information.
Sweet, nice to see they have not abandoned the older stuff!
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