Can we watch MKV movies on ipad? which formats does ipad support for movies?.

Search the AppStore for mkv. There are a bunch that say they can play .mkv files. Read the reviews to see which one will work for you..

Supported video formats native to the pad.

Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

iPad 3rd Gen now supports 1080p MP4. More specs quoted from http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

MKV is not supported format. Refer to the below guide if you'd like to preserve 1080p quality:

http://tablet-tips.com/put-1080p-720p-mkv-movies-on-ipad-3-the-new-ipad-with-bes t-hd-video-format/

iPad 3 is friendly with .mp4, m4v or parts of .avi video formats, not including .mkv video files, so what you need is to change .mkv to .mp4 or .mkv for your new iPad 3, read this tutorial about how to transfer mkv to iPad 3 mac step by step, easy to understand.