how to download m3u8 files What Is an File? Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology experience. He focuses on support and topics but is an expert in all areas of tech. He's also the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. LinkedIn. Tweet Share Email. File Types Apps Windows MS Office Google Drive Backup & Utilities Design Cryptocurrency. What to Know. An M3U file is an Audio file. Open one with VLC, , iTunes, and other media players. Convert to other playlist formats like M3U8 or XSPF with VLC. This article describes what M3U files are, how to use one to queue up in a compatible player, and how to convert one to a different playlist format that works with your media player. What Is an M3U File? An M3U file is an Audio Playlist file that stands for MP3 URL , and as such, isn't an actual audio file in and of itself. An M3U file just points to audio (and sometimes video) files so that a media player can queue them for playback. These text-based files can contain URLs and/or absolute or relative pathnames to the media files and/or folders. M3U files that are UTF-8 encoded are instead saved in the M3U8 file format. How to Open an M3U File. VLC is my favorite free media player because of its support for a huge variety of audio and video formats. Plus, it supports not only the M3U format but also similar playlist file types you may run into, like M3U8, PLS, XSPF, WVX, CONF, ASX, IFO, CUE, and others. Though Winamp was one of the first programs to support them, other media players can open M3U files too, like Player, iTunes, and . Keep in mind that the M3U file itself is not a media file. So while the files that the M3U points to may open just fine in a different media player than those I've linked to above, it's possible that the program can't understand the playlist file, and therefore won't know what to do with it when you try to open it. M3U files can, of course, be opened with any text editor since the files are text-based (see what I mean below). See our Best Free Text Editors list for our favorites. How to Build an M3U File. M3U files are usually not built from scratch. In media players like VLC, for example, you can use the Media > Save Playlist to File option to save the list of currently open songs to an M3U file. However, if you do want to build your own M3U file, it's important that you use the proper syntax. Here is an example of an M3U file: All M3U files will have similarities, but also differences, to this example. The number following the "#EXTINF" sections is the length of the audio in seconds (you might see a -1 here if the audio is being streamed online and has no set length). Following the time is the title that should display in the media player, with the location of the file below that. The example above is using absolute pathnames to the files (the whole path is included), but they can also use a relative name (e.g. just Sample. ), a URL ( https://www.lifewire.com/Sample.mp3 ), or an entire folder ( C:\Files\My Music\ ). The benefit of using relative paths over absolute paths is that you can move the media files and the M3U file to another computer and still use the playlist without having to make changes to it. This works so long as the media files and M3U file remain relative to one another just as they were on the originating computer. You can sometimes point to another M3U file from within one M3U file, but the media player you're using may not support it. How to Convert an M3U File. As you can see in the previous section, an M3U file is just a text file. This means you cannot change or convert the file to a playable MP3, MP4, or any other media format. All you can do with an M3U file is convert it to another playlist format. You can convert M3U to M3U8, XSPF, or HTML using VLC by opening the M3U file in the program and then using the Media > Save Playlist to File. menu option to pick which format to save it in. You can also convert an M3U file to text if you just want to open the file in a text editor to see the files it's referencing. Open the M3U file in a text editor from the list above, and then save it to TXT, HTML, or another text-based format. Another option is to rename the extension to .TXT and then open it with a text editor. This technically isn't an M3U file conversion, but if you want to gather together all the audio files that an M3U file is referencing, and copy them to a single folder, you can use the program M3UExportTool. Once you have them together, a free file converter can be used on the files to convert them to the format you want them to be in, like MP3 to WAV, MP4 to AVI, etc. How to Play M3U8 Files and How to Convert M3U8 to MP4. We can often see that many people are asking “What exactly are M3U8 files? Why my computer failed to open M3U8 files?” Or “How can I convert M3U8 to MP4 ?” in forums and question-answering stations. So, this article will give you technical details of M3U8 files and tell you how to convert M3U8 to MP4 with a common M3U8 converter. Firstly, let’s free download an M3U8 to MP4 Converter for easily downloading as well as converting M3U8 videos: What are M3U8 Files? Are they Related to M3U? Recommended M3U8 Players - How to Play M3U8 Playlist. How to Convert M3U8 to MP4 with M3U8 Converter? What are M3U8 Files? Are they Related to M3U? The M3U8 file is an "Extensible Playlist" file format, which uses UTF-8-encoded characters. These files are used by various media applications and online radio stations for describing where media files are located. They are plain text files that do not contain any actual audio data. A file with the M3U8 file extension is the version of M3U file format. Recommended M3U8 Downloader. HD Video Converter Factory Pro is a powerful program that allows us to download M3U8 video effortlessly. Besides, it allows us to convert downloaded video to 500+ formats and devices such as iPhone X, iPad, Android phone, TV, etc. with great quality and fast speed. Try it out now! Recommended M3U8 Player - How to Play M3U8 Playlist. M3U8 files are supported by a wide variety of media players, and you can also open the M3U8 file with a text editor since the contents of the M3U8 file are stored as text. These recommended M3U8 players may help you play M3U8 playlist on main : Windows: Nullsoft Winamp, Roxio Creator NXT Pro 6, Apple iTunes, RealNetworks RealPlayer Cloud, Media Player, VideoLAN VLC media player. Mac: Apple iTunes, RealNetworks RealPlayer Cloud, VideoLAN VLC media player, CocoModX, . Linux: XMMS, VideoLAN VLC media player. These M3U8 files can be opened in the normal way of playing media files, and double-click to play M3U8 files when these files are associated with these players. How to Convert M3U8 to MP4 with M3U8 Converter? If you want to convert M3U8 to MP4, or any other media format, I have to remind you that M3U8 files are just playlist files and that they do not contain any actual audio & video data. This means that unlike MP4 or MP3 files, M3U8 file contains only text that cannot be actually played in any media player. They are just the path of media files. If you are looking for a video converter that can directly convert M3U8 file to MP4 or MP3, I don’t think there is such M3U8 converter on the market, let alone the so-called M3U8 converter online tool. But after you got the actual M3U8 video URL, some media players can act as M3U8 file converter to convert M3U8 to MP4 or other formats. Here we take VLC media player as an example to tell you how to convert M3U8 to MP4: Now follow the following steps in VLC media player. Step 1: In order to convert .m3u8 to .mp4. Firstly, open VLC media player and select “Open Network Stream” under the Media tab. Step 2: Paste M3U8 video URL into the network URL box, and then select “Convert” in the lower right. Step 3: A new window will pop up after clicking Convert. Select MP4 as output video format and then set the output folder path. Tips: VLC allows you to edit selected profile by clicking “Edit selected profile” icon including container format, video codec, audio codec and subtitles. Step 4: After all settings are done, you can click “Start” to convert M3U8 file to MP4. The output MP4 video will be found in the destination file. A video tutorial is provided to help users convert M3U8 to MP4 better. Moreover, to help users export M3U8 files, we recommend using the M3U and M3U8 Export Tool. It is a Windows program that takes a Winamp playlist, finds the music files, and copies them to a single location such as a folder, USB stick, portable device, or network location. HD Video Converter Factory Pro. Directly download M3U8 files easily to your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, TV, X-box, etc. Directly convert the downloaded M3U8 files to MP4, AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV and more other popular video formats. Download regular videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Twitter, LiveLeak and more video-sharing sites. What Is an M3U8 File? Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology experience. He focuses on support and Microsoft topics but is an expert in all areas of tech. He's also the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. Tweet Share Email. File Types Apps Windows MS Office Linux Google Drive Backup & Utilities Design Cryptocurrency. What to Know. An M3U8 file is a UTF-8 Encoded Audio Playlist file. Open one with VLC, iTunes, Songbird, and other media players. Convert to M3U, XSPF, or HTML with VLC. This article explains what an M3U8 file is used for, which programs are able to use it to play media files, and how to convert one to a different playlist format. What Is an M3U8 File? A file with the M3U8 file extension is a UTF-8 Encoded Audio Playlist file. They are plain text files that can be used by both audio and video players to describe where media files are located. For example, one M3U8 file may give you references to online files for an radio station. Another might be created on your computer to build a playlist for your own personal music or a series of videos. An M3U8 file can use absolute paths, relative paths, and URLs to refer to specific media files and/or entire folders of media files. Other text information in an M3U8 file might be comments that describe the contents. A similar format, M3U, can use UTF-8 character encoding, too, but may include other character encodings as well. Therefore, the .M3U8 file extension is used to show that the file is, in fact, using UTF-8 character encoding. How to Open an M3U8 File. M3U8 files can be edited and read by most text editors, including Notepad in Windows. See this list of the Best Free Text Editors for some other options. However, as you can see below, opening this M3U8 file in Notepad only lets you read the file references. You can't actually play any of these music files like this because text editors are not the same as media player or media management software programs. VLC, Apple's iTunes, , and Songbird are just a few examples of programs that can open and use M3U8 files. Another way to open M3U8 files on Linux is with XMMS, while Mac users should be able to play M3U8 files with CocoModX (in addition to some of the Windows-compatible programs mentioned above). Here's an example of the same M3U8 file from above but open in VLC, which will gather all the music files referenced in the text file and load them into the media player for playback. One quick way you can open an M3U8 file online is through HSLPlayer.net. However, this website will not work if you have an M3U8 file 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 files it references are also online. Some of these programs also let you create an M3U8 file. For example, if you load a bunch of files into VLC, you can use the Media > Save Playlist to File. option to create an M3U8 file. How to Convert an M3U8 File. If you're looking to convert M3U8 to MP4, or to MP3, or to any other media format, you first need to understand that an M3U8 file is a plain text file —nothing more and nothing less. This means it just contains text, nothing that can actually "play" like how an MP4 or MP3 file can play in a media player. What you're probably after is a file converter that can convert the audio or video files that the M3U8 refers to, to and from other audio/video file formats, like an MP4 to AVI converter or a WAV to MP3 converter (or any other variation of these types of files). The only problem with doing this is that sometimes an M3U8 file points to media files that are in several different locations at once. This may include various folders on one or more internal hard drives, flash drives, and/or external drives. If this is the case, we don't recommend manually searching through all of them to find your files. Instead, just use the free program M3UExportTool. It uses the M3U8 or M3U file to identify where all the media files are located and then copies them to a single location. From there, you can easily convert them with a video or audio converter. M3U8X is a similar program that should work much like M3UExportTool. You'll need a RAR opener or an unzip program to use this software. We don't have any download links to dedicated playlist converters that do conversions like M3U8 to M3U, but some M3U8 openers like VLC can re-save an open M3U8 playlist to another format like M3U, XSPF, or HTML, which is essentially the same thing as a conversion. Still Can't Open the File? If you can't open the M3U8 file using the methods above, there's a good chance that your file isn't actually in this playlist file format. Some file types use a file extension that looks a lot like it reads .M3U8, so you'd be wise to double-check the file extension. One example of a file extension that looks a lot like M3U8 and M3U is MU3, but that file is actually in the Myriad Packed Musical Score file format. You need Myriad's Harmony Assistant or Melody Assistant program to open it. How to Use VLC to Convert .M3U8 File to MP4 for Free. Here is the step-by-step guide on how to convert M3U8 file to MP4 with VLC. Also an VLC alternative tool is recommended for M3U8 to MP4 faster without quality loss. A file with the M3U8 file extension is a UTF-8 Encoded Audio Playlist file. They are plain text files that can be used by both audio and video players to describe where media files are located. VLC, Apple's iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Songbird are just a few examples of programs that can open and use M3U8 files. If you're looking to convert M3U8 to MP4, or to MP3, or to any other media format, you first need to understand that an M3U8 file is a plain text file - nothing more and nothing less. This means it just contains text, nothing that can actually "play" like how an MP4 or MP3 file can play in a media player. How to Convert an M3U8 file to an MP4 with VLC for Free. In fact, there is no such a M3U8 converter on the market. Then what if you want to convert an M3U8 file to an MP4 file? Fortunately, there are still some media players that act as M3U8 file converter to extract MP4 files from M38U files. Here I will take VLC Media Player as an example to tell you how to change ,m3u8 file to .mp4 file step by step. Step 1: Download and install the VLC for Windows or Mac version from the official site that suit your computer OS. Step 2: Run VLC, and then click on "Media" and select "Convert / Save", after that a "Open Media" window will pop up and click the "file" tab and then click "add" button to load the file you want to convert. Step 3: Click on the "Convert/Save" button when you are done. Finally select the destination folder, give a desired file name and select the desired video profile. The default output is an MP4 file with H.264 codec. Step 4: Once all settings are done, you can press the "start" button to begin the m3u8 to mp4 conversion. Part 2. Best VLC Alternative for M3U8 to MP4 Conversion | Lossless Quality & Faster. Although VLC is shipped with all the necessary codecs, you still may have some troubles while converting videos like unsupported video codec, slow conversion process, etc. One of the solution is to try installing a codec pack; alternatively you can turn to an easier-to-use yet professional video encoder and decoder tool - EaseFab Video Converter (available for Windows and Mac users). This M3U8 to MP4 converter helps you to both download the M3U8 playlist from the URL and then fast convert it to MP4 (H.264/H.265) afterward in a hassle freeway while keeping the original quality. As a powerful M3U8 downloader and converter, it can help you transcode M3U8 files to MP4 files with H.264 codec, or change the codec to HEVC at the lowest possible bit rate without loss in visual quality. As a result, the output file size will be greatly reduced to save storage, and the conversion will be turbo fast basically due to the industry-leading hardware and software accelerations utilized synchronously. You can also edit enhance & personalize and merge your video files. What's more, the program can also help you adding external subtitles during the M3U8 to MP4 conversion. ※ For macOS 10.14 or lower, you can also Download 32-bit installer here ↓ How to convert M3U8 to MP4 Quickly using EaseFab. Step 1. Download and load the M3U8 file. Install and launch EaseFab Video Converter. Drag and drop the M3U8 file to the program. A M3U8 file loading window will pop up, it will then automatically grab the copied URL of your M3U8 file and starts downloading it. Note: The video loading (or downloading) time from the M3U8 file depends on the video length and the broadband speed. Step 2. Select MP4 as the output file. After loading, click Profile and select MP4 or HEVC MP4 from Common Video category as the output format. If you want to convert M3U8 to MP4 for iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus, etc., you can browse to find any video preset as the output format. For advanced functions. 1. Click the Edit button to open the Video Editor window to achieve editing M3U8 file like trim, crop, image, watermark, effect, subtitles and rotate and etc in the corresponding editing pane. 2. Click the Settings button to open the Settings window to adjust the output video codec, resolution, bitrates, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio codec, channel, volume and etc in the advanced tab. Step 3. Begin conversion. When you click the Convert button, the process of converting M3U8 to MP4 will begin in earnest and it will be very fast. Part 3. VLC vs EaseFab, Which Is The Better Solution? You can refer to the table below to see the comparison Between VLC and EaseFab Video Converter As conversion Tools an array of parameters. How to Play M3U8 Files and How to Convert M3U8 to MP4. We can often see that many people are asking “What exactly are M3U8 files? Why my computer failed to open M3U8 files?” Or “How can I convert M3U8 to MP4 ?” in forums and question-answering stations. So, this article will give you technical details of M3U8 files and tell you how to convert M3U8 to MP4 with a common M3U8 converter. Firstly, let’s free download an M3U8 to MP4 Converter for easily downloading as well as converting M3U8 videos: What are M3U8 Files? Are they Related to M3U? Recommended M3U8 Players - How to Play M3U8 Playlist. How to Convert M3U8 to MP4 with M3U8 Converter? What are M3U8 Files? Are they Related to M3U? The M3U8 file is an "Extensible Playlist" file format, which uses UTF-8-encoded characters. These files are used by various media applications and online radio stations for describing where media files are located. They are plain text files that do not contain any actual audio data. A file with the M3U8 file extension is the Unicode version of M3U file format. Recommended M3U8 Downloader. HD Video Converter Factory Pro is a powerful program that allows us to download M3U8 video effortlessly. Besides, it allows us to convert downloaded video to 500+ formats and devices such as iPhone X, iPad, Android phone, TV, etc. with great quality and fast speed. Try it out now! Recommended M3U8 Player - How to Play M3U8 Playlist. M3U8 files are supported by a wide variety of media players, and you can also open the M3U8 file with a text editor since the contents of the M3U8 file are stored as text. These recommended M3U8 players may help you play M3U8 playlist on main operating system: Windows: Nullsoft Winamp, Roxio Creator NXT Pro 6, Apple iTunes, RealNetworks RealPlayer Cloud, Microsoft Windows Media Player, VideoLAN VLC media player. Mac: Apple iTunes, RealNetworks RealPlayer Cloud, VideoLAN VLC media player, CocoModX, Songbird. Linux: XMMS, VideoLAN VLC media player. These M3U8 files can be opened in the normal way of playing media files, and double-click to play M3U8 files when these files are associated with these players. How to Convert M3U8 to MP4 with M3U8 Converter? If you want to convert M3U8 to MP4, or any other media format, I have to remind you that M3U8 files are just playlist files and that they do not contain any actual audio & video data. This means that unlike MP4 or MP3 files, M3U8 file contains only text that cannot be actually played in any media player. They are just the path of media files. If you are looking for a video converter that can directly convert M3U8 file to MP4 or MP3, I don’t think there is such M3U8 converter on the market, let alone the so-called M3U8 converter online tool. But after you got the actual M3U8 video URL, some media players can act as M3U8 file converter to convert M3U8 to MP4 or other formats. Here we take VLC media player as an example to tell you how to convert M3U8 to MP4: Now follow the following steps in VLC media player. Step 1: In order to convert .m3u8 to .mp4. Firstly, open VLC media player and select “Open Network Stream” under the Media tab. Step 2: Paste M3U8 video URL into the network URL box, and then select “Convert” in the lower right. Step 3: A new window will pop up after clicking Convert. Select MP4 as output video format and then set the output folder path. Tips: VLC allows you to edit selected profile by clicking “Edit selected profile” icon including container format, video codec, audio codec and subtitles. Step 4: After all settings are done, you can click “Start” to convert M3U8 file to MP4. The output MP4 video will be found in the destination file. A video tutorial is provided to help users convert M3U8 to MP4 better. Moreover, to help users export M3U8 files, we recommend using the M3U and M3U8 Export Tool. It is a Windows program that takes a Winamp playlist, finds the music files, and copies them to a single location such as a folder, USB stick, portable device, or network location. HD Video Converter Factory Pro. Directly download M3U8 files easily to your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, TV, X-box, etc. Directly convert the downloaded M3U8 files to MP4, AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV and more other popular video formats. Download regular videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Twitter, LiveLeak and more video-sharing sites.