What’s M3U8, How to Play M3U8? What’s the best M3U8 Converter?

What’s M3U8 ?

M3U8 file is an ‘extensible playlist’ file format. It is basically a playlist containing UTF-8 encoded text that points at video files. These files are used by a variety of media applications and online radio stations. These files contain a playlist of songs including the names of the songs and the song locations. These files do not contain any actual audio data. M3U8 files are stored in a plain-text format. Files with the .m3u8 extension are a unicode version of the M3U file format.

How to Open an M3U8 File

The easiest way to open an M3U8 file is to double-click on it and let your PC decide which default application should open the file.

M3U8 files can be opened with Apple’s iTunes program, Windows Media Player, as well as other media player and media management software programs.

Programs that open M3U8 files on main operating system:

Windows: Apple iTunes, Microsoft Windows Media Player, VideoLAN VLC Media Player
Mac: Apple iTunes, VideoLAN VLC Media Player
Linux: Videolan VLC Media Player
iOS: Videolan VLC Media Player
Android: Videolan VLC Media Player

In the following table, you can find a list of programs that can open files with .m3u8 extension.This list is created by collecting extension information reported by users through the ‘send report’ option of FileTypesMan utility.

The product name, description, and company name are taken from the version information of the .exe file.The ‘Actions’ list is taken from the context menu items added to Explorer by the specified program.The ‘Popularity’ column displays one of the following 4 values: Low, Medium, High, and Very High, which is determined according to the number of users that sent the specified record.

EXE Name Product Name Description Company Actions Popularity
AIMP3.exe AIMP3 AIMP3 AIMP DevTeam open Low
amp.exe Add to FLV and Media Player’s Playlist, Play, Play with FLV and Media Player Low
foobar2000.exe foobar2000 Application foobar2000 Enqueue in foobar2000, Open in foobar2000, Play in foobar2000 Medium
iTunes.exe iTunes iTunes Apple Inc. Open, Play Very High
MC19.exe JRiver Media Center 19 JRiver Media Center 19 JRiver, Inc. open, Play in Media Center Low
mpc-hc.exe Media Player Classic – Home Cinema Media Player Classic – Home Cinema MPC-HC Team open Low
MPC-HC.exe MPC-HC MPC-HC MPC-HC Team open Low
mpc-hc.exe open Low
Spider.exe Spider Player Spider Player VIT Software, LLC open Low
vlc.exe VLC media player VLC media player the VideoLAN Team Add to VLC media player’s Playlist, Play, Play with VLC media player Very High
vlc.exe VLC media player the VideoLAN Team Add to VLC media player’s Playlist, Play with VLC media player Low
winamp.exe Winamp Winamp Nullsoft Enqueue in Winamp, Enqueue Play in Winamp, Add to Winamp’s Bookmark list, open, Play in Winamp, Add to Winamp’s Media Library Very High


In the following table, you can find a list of file types information that is associated with .m3u8 extension.

Type Name Description Perceived Type ContentType DLL/EXE File DLL/EXE Details Popularity
Playlist text audio/x-mpegurl Low
AIMP.m3u8 AIMP3: M3U (Unicoded) Playlist aimp_icons.dll Low
ApplianMP.m3u8 FLV and Media Player media file (.m3u8) Low
foobar2000.M3U8 Playlist Low
iTunes.m3u8 M3U Audio Playlist (UTF-8) text audio/x-mpegurl iTunes.exe iTunes, Apple Inc. Very High
iTunes.m3u8 text audio/x-mpegurl Low
iTunes.m3u8 Lista de Áudio M3U (UTF-8) text audio/x-mpegurl iTunes.exe iTunes, Apple Inc. Low
m3u8_auto_file Low
MediaCenter.19.File Media Center file text audio/x-mpegurl Low
mplayerc.m3u8 Playlist mpc-hc.exe Media Player Classic – Home Cinema, MPC-HC Team Low
mplayerc.m3u8 Wiedergabeliste Low
mplayerc64.m3u8 AIMP3: M3U (Unicoded) Playlist audio audio/x-mpegurl Symbolic_Ho.dll Low
PotPlayerMini64.M3U8 Playlist Low
Spider.Player.M3U8 Spider Player audio file (M3U8) Low
VLC.m3u8 AIMP3: M3U (Unicoded) Playlist aimp_icons.dll Low
VLC.m3u8 Winamp playlist file winamp.exe Winamp, Nullsoft, Inc. Low
VLC.m3u8 VLC media file (.m3u8) vlc.exe VLC media player, the VideoLAN Team Very High
Winamp.PlayList Winamp playlist file winamp.exe Winamp, Nullsoft Very High
Winamp.PlayList Winamp Wiedergabeliste winamp.exe Winamp, Nullsoft, Inc. Low
Winamp.PlayList Archivo de lista de Winamp winamp.exe Winamp, Nullsoft, Inc. Low
Winamp.PlayList text audio/x-mpegurl Low


How to Convert an M3U8 File

There are two main ways to attempt to convert an M3U8 file to another file type:

a. Open the M3U8 file in its default program and choose to save the open file as another file format.
b. Use a File Conversion Online Service or Software Program to convert the M3U8 file to another file format.

How to Encode Videos to M3U8

Just like the new H.265/HEVC codec, M3U8 also has its own advantages:

1. It can be dragged to any point correctly if you want to enjoy on your m3u8 players immediately fast because of no extra data.

2.It will be played with Apple’s built-in player like Quicktime and Safari.

3. The player will ensure smooth m3u8 playback without interruption of network speed and resolution when playback.

Using an M3U8 Converter thus offers a neat advantage for both video producers and video consumers who will certainly be wowed. This is great news for producers of video who want to maximize quality and minimize costs. Online commercial distribution of video will certainly be less expensive on the storage side and highly interesting in terms of video supply variety, especially for businesses offering video-on-demand services. Here we strongly recommend Pavtube Video Converter / Mac Version, which is a top-ranked M3U8 Converter.

It enables users to convert any video format MOV, MKV, FLV, M4V, WMV, MPG, 3GP to M3U8 with original quality kept. What’s more, it has built-in optimized profiles for popular devices iPad, iPhone, Galaxy tablets/phones, Surface tablets and more. Thanks to the built-in video editor, you can personalize and retouch your videos in clicks.

Good news: Pavtube Studio announced all Pavtube Windows products including BDMagicByteCopyDVDAidVideo Converter UltimateVideo ConverterHD Video ConverterMTS/M2TS Converter ConverterMXF ConverterMXF MultiMix and Mac OS products: BDMagic for Mac,ByteCopy for MacDVDAid for MaciMedia Converter for MacVideo Converter for MacHD Video Converter for MacMTS/M2TS Converter for Mac,MXF Converter for MaciMixMXF. New elements for M3U8 encoding are added into full line of Pavtube products. Registered users could download and install the latest version for solution to their issues.

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