Ursprünglich für MP3 Dateien entwickelt (M3U steht für MP3 URL), lassen sich beliebige Medienformate durch M3U Dateien aufrufen. M3U - ist ein offenes Playlisten Dateiformat für Mediendateien, die als Liste zusammengefasst sind. m3u8 Type MIME audio/x mpegurl Développé par Winamp Type de format Liste de lecture Spécification Format ouvert … Wikipédia en Français m3u8 Type MIME audio/x mpegurl Développé par Winamp Type de format Liste de lecture Spécification … Wikipédia en Français * Includes guide to hand-coding m3u files. This is the same file as above, saved as sample.m3u in C:Documents and SettingsIMy Music #EXTM3U #EXTINF:123,Sample title Sample.mp3 #EXTINF:321,Example title Greatest HitsExample.oggThis format in an M3U allows you to copy it to another device for playback, if you copy all files and folders it refers to. This method is more compatible as it doesn't rely on the file path staying the same. The M3U file is placed in the same folder as the music, and directories must be preserved when moving the playlist to another device if subfolders are used. Here is another example, in relative format.
After starting up, the media player will play all contents of the folder: C:Music
The m3u file should contain only one string: the path to the folder.
#EXTM3U #EXTINF:123,Sample title C:Documents and SettingsIMy MusicSample.mp3 #EXTINF:321,Example title C:Documents and SettingsIMy MusicGreatest HitsExample.oggThis example shows how to create an m3u file linking to a specified folder (Flash drive, CD-ROM, for example).
On the Mac OS X and Linux platforms, Unix paths are used. The value after the length is the title to be shown, which is generally the same as the location of the file which is on the second line. A length of -1 may be used when the media file is a streaming file, as there is no predefined actual length value possible. Sample.mp3 and Example.ogg are the media files.
Here is an example of an extended M3U file on the Windows platform. * B4S (file format) Winamp3 XML based playlist format Many applications can treat a m3u file as UTF-8, however. "m3u" files properly use the Latin-1 charset, the unicode version of "m3u" is "m3u8", it can include UTF-8 unicode characters.
The file is saved with the "M3U" or "m3u" filename extension. The created file provides easy access to that stream and can be used for things like downloading from a website or for emailing, or for Internet radio listening. One common use of the M3U file format is creating a playlist file that contains a single entry pointing to a stream on the Internet. In extended M3U, "#" also introduces extended M3U directives. The file can also include comments, prefaced by the "#" character. The locations can be either absolute or relative local pathnames (e.g., "C:My MusicChanson.mp3" or "Chanson.mp3") or they can be URLs. It was originally implemented in Winamp, although it is now supported by many applications.Īn M3U file is a plain text file that contains the locations of one or more media files that the mediaplayer should play. The plain text files cannot function and create playlists unless the locations of the audio or video is accurately copied or expressed in the file.M3U ( Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3 Uniform Resource Locator, MP3 URL) is a computer file format that stores multimedia playlists. When created or edited, the file must be saved in the Windows-1252 format (a superset of ASCII). M3U files are often used for single-entry playlist file pointing used for streaming of internet audio or video. The absolute local pathname (C:\My Music\Song Title), local pathname of the file (songtitle.mp3), or a website url cintained in the file specifies where the file can be found for playback. Sending files with the M3U extension is difficult and useless unless streaming is involved, since the file needs to be able to access the files related to the audio or video.ĭespite the association with audio and video, M3U files are plain text files that specify the location of various media files contained in the playlist. Mobile devices do not create the files however, but can access them especially for the use of listening to online radio stations. Both Windows and Mac OS’s can use these files along with many mobile devices.
With an original intent for audio files, it can now support video playlists or point a media player to online streaming audio, leading to a large number of players and software utilizing the M3U file extension.