m3u file may not be tolerated by some players.Ī handy way of using an M3U playlist is to include an Internet radio stream URL in it and have your media player play the desired station. VBR (Variable Bitrate) M3U is a computer file format for a multimedia playlist. In an M3U file, there can be references to local and remote media files, Internet audio and video streams, but a reference to another. m3u file can be processed on any platform that can handle text (TXT) files. Comments and extended directives allow to store track names, position and duration data inside. M3U8 is also used for streaming video and audio content over the internet, especially for mobile devices, whereas M3U is a more general playlist file format that can be used for different.

M3U files normally include relative, absolute or URL-based paths pointing to media resources included in the list, so the player 'knows' where to find the files. The main difference between these 2 formats is that M3U8 supports Unicode characters, making it suitable for international languages, while M3U does not. M3U files do not contain any media data, only plain text. M3U files can be identical to M3U8 files, as both can contain text coded in UTF-8, however the latter also support other types of character encoding. M3U (file extension.m3u) is a file format that stores a list of audio files and/or video files or just the online URL to the actual audio/video content. m3u file extension is associated with playlist files created and understood by all popular software media players and portable media devices.Ī typical M3U file is a plaintext list of MP3 or other media files queued in a certain order to be played by a software or hardware media player. The principle behind the formatting is the same as in M3U files, with a potential distinction in terms of coding of text, which allows for the use of a wide range of special UTF-8 characters.

What is the m3u file format