M3U is what file? How to open, edit and convert M3U files

Files with.M3Uextension extensionsare files that contain audio playlists, and stands for MP3 URLs.However, essentially, M3U files are not audio files.

An M3U file is responsible for 'directions' for multimedia players so that they can find the main locations of audio files or folders containing audio files, and then proceed to play the This audio file.An M3U file can contain text data such as absolute paths, relative paths andURLsto reference specific multimedia files or the entire multimedia file folder.

The M3U files after being UTF-8 encoded will be saved in the .M3U8 file format.

How to open an M3U file

VLC is one of the most popular multimedia players that is extremely popular because it supports many different audio and video formats.In addition, VLC not only supports opening files in M3U format but also many types of files containing playlists similar to M3U can be listed as M3U8, PLS, XSPF, WVX, CONF, ASX, IFO, CUE and other file types.

If you don't want to use VLC, there are other bright names that are always ready to complete tasks like Winamp, Windows Media Player, iTunes and Audacious.

Remember that M3U files are not media files themselves.So if you use other media players outside the above list to open an M3U file, it is very likely that the program will not be readable because they only support media files such as MP3, MP4 while M3U is a plain text file.

Since it is a text file type, of course, M3U files can be fully opened by any text editor (such as Windows notepad).

How to create an M3U file

M3U files are usually not created from programming but by media players.For example, in media players like VLC, you can use the Media> Save Playlist to File . option to save the list of open songs as an M3U file.

However, if you want to build your own M3U file manually, the most important thing is that you can use the proper syntax.Below is an example of the syntax of M3U file:

 # EXTM3U #EXTINF: 105, Example artist - Example title C: MusicMample MusicExample.mp3 #EXTINF: 321, Example Artist2 - Example title2 C: FilesMy MusicFavoritesExample2.ogg 

All M3U files look at them with similarities, as well as differences.In the above example, the number behind the "#EXTINF" is the length of the audio in seconds (you can see -1 here if the audio is streaming and there is no specific length).After the time, the title will be displayed in the multimedia player, and the lower charge is the file's address.

The example above uses absolute path names for files (all paths are included), but we can also use relative path names (eg Sample.mp3), or a URL ( https://quantrimang.com/Sample.mp3), or the entire directory (C: FilesMy Music).

Note: The benefit of using relative paths to absolute paths is that you can move media files and M3U files to another computer, still using the playlist without having to do it. Any changes, as long as the media files and M3U files are still related to each other as on the originating computer.

Sometimes you can use an M3U file to refer to another M3U file, but many of the media players you're using may not support this type of file.

How to convert an M3U file

As you can see in the previous section, an M3U file is basically a plain text file.This means you will not be able to change or convert them to MP3, MP4 or any other portable media format.So all you need is a file converter that can convert the audio or video files referenced by M3U8, or convert the file itself to another playlist file format.

You can convert M3U to M3U8, XSPF or HTML easily with VLC by opening the M3U file in VLC, and then using the Media> Save Playlist to File . option to select the file format to be saved.

You can also convert M3U to PLS right on your phone (and also on your computer, of course) with the free Playlist Creator application.

In addition, you can convert an M3U file into text when you want to open the file in a text editor to view the address of the files it references.Open the M3U file in a text editor, then save it in TXT, HTML or other text format you want.Another option is to rename the extension to .TXT and then open it with a text editor.

Tip: Technically, this approach is not a form of M3U file conversion, but if you want to gather all the audio files that the M3U file is referring to and copy them to a folder, you can use M3UExportTool program.After you've gathered them together, you can use a free file conversion software to convert them to the formats you want, like MP3 to WAV, MP4 to AVI, etc.

See more:

1. What is an MP3 file? What software do you listen to MP3 music on your computer?
2. What are AIFF, AIF and AIFC files?
3. What is MP4 file? How to open MP4 file?
4. List of some types of files that are potentially dangerous on Windows