What kind of file is M3U8 file?

Files with the .M3U8 extension are files that contain audio playlists encoded in UTF-8 (UTF-8 Encoded Audio Playlist file).Basically, they are pure text files used by both players and video players to describe the location of multimedia files.

For example, an M3U8 file can give you references to online files for an internet radio station.Others can be created right on your personal computer to build your own music playlists or a series of videos you want to watch.

An M3U8 file can use absolute paths, relative paths and URLs to refer to specific multimedia files or the entire multimedia file folder.Other textual information in the M3U8 file may be comments describing a certain content.

There is another similar format that can also use UTF-8 character encoding, but it can also include other character encodings that are M3U.Therefore, the .M3U8 file extension works to tell us that the file actually uses UTF-8 character encoding only.

How to open an M3U8 file

Basically, M3U8 files are editable and readable on most popular text editors today, including Notepad in Windows.However, as you can see in the image below, opening an M3U8 file in simple applications like Notepad only allows you to read file references.In addition, you really cannot proceed to play any music files because text editors do not support this feature like multimedia players or other media management software programs.

What kind of file is M3U8 file? Picture 1

VLC, Apple's iTunes, Windows Media Player and Songbird are just some of the most basic examples of programs that support opening and running M3U8 files.There is another way to open M3U8 files on Linux is to use XMMS software (XMMS is a Unix-based multimedia player. XMMS stands for X MultiMedia System and can play media files like MP3, MOD's, WAV and other files with the use of input plugins).

Here's an example with the same M3U8 file as in the image above but open in VLC or notepad.VLC will collect all the music files referenced in the original text file and download them to the multimedia player to conduct playback of these files.

What kind of file is M3U8 file? Picture 2

Another quick way to help you open an M3U8 file online (in case you don't want to use traditional multimedia players) is via HSLPlayer.net.However, you will not be able to use this website if the M3U8 file you want to open is still stored on your computer or some other device.You can only use HSLPlayer.net if you have a URL to the .M3U8 file and the reference files are also online.

Note, some of these programs also allow you to create an M3U8 file.For example: After you have downloaded a series of music files to VLC, you can use the Media> Save Playlist to File . option to create an M3U8 file based on those files.

How to convert the format for an M3U8 file

If you want to convert M3U8 files to MP4, or MP3 or any other media format, you first need to understand that the M3U8 file is a plain text file.This means that it contains only text, nothing can actually "play" the way an MP4 or MP3 file can play in a multimedia player.So what you need will still be a file converter that can convert the audio or video files that M3U8 refers to.For example, convert MP4 files to AVI or convert WAV to MP3 (or any other variant of these file types).

The only problem is that sometimes an M3U8 file can reference multiple multimedia files in different locations at the same time, which can include different folders on one or more internal hard drives, flash drive or external drive.In this case, you should not manually search for files you want to convert.Instead, just use thefreeM3UExportToolprogram.Basically, this program will use M3U8 or M3U files to determine the specific location of all media files placed and then copy them to a single centralized location.From there, you can easily convert these files with the available video or audio converter.

Currently there are no software that can support converting M3U8 files to M3U, but some multimedia players can open M3U8 as VLC still supports saving playlists on M3U8 to other formats like M3U , XSPF or HTML.This can also be seen as a transformation.

Can you still not open the M3U8 file?

If you still cannot open the M3U8 even though you have used the above methods, it is possible that your file is not really in M3U8 format.Some file types with extension extensions look very similar to the .M3U8 file extension, so you should also double-check the file extension to see if it is standard.

An example of a file extension looks very similar to M3U8 and M3U is MU3.These MU3 files are actually in the format of Myriad Packed Musical Score.You need programs like Myriad Harmony Assistant or Melody Assistant to open it.

See more:

1. What is MP4 file? How to open MP4 file?
2. List of some types of files that are potentially dangerous on Windows
3. What is a DLL file? Why does the computer sometimes notice that the DLL file is missing?
4. What are AIFF, AIF and AIFC files?