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What is an M3U playlist

An M3U playlist is a plain text list of media addresses. Learn what is inside one, how to read it, and how a player like SmartMate uses it.

3 min read · Updated

An M3U playlist is a plain text file that lists media addresses, one after another, so that a player knows what to play. It carries no video itself. It only points to where each stream lives.

SmartMate is a media player. It does not provide or sell any content, so an M3U playlist always comes from you or from a provider you have chosen.

The short version

  • M3U is a text file format for playlists. The file name usually ends in .m3u or .m3u8.
  • Each entry is a name plus a URL the player can open.
  • An M3U link is a web address that returns this file. Players download it and build their channel and movie lists from it.

What is inside

A typical extended M3U file starts with #EXTM3U on the first line. Every entry then takes two lines: an #EXTINF line that describes it, and the address of the stream.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="news.example" tvg-name="Example News" tvg-logo="https://example.com/logo.png" group-title="News",Example News
https://example.com/live/news.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="sport.example" tvg-name="Example Sport" group-title="Sports",Example Sport
https://example.com/live/sport.m3u8

The -1 after #EXTINF means the length is unknown, which is normal for live channels. For a movie the number can be its length in seconds.

The attributes you will see

Extra details sit inside the #EXTINF line as key="value" pairs. The common ones are:

Attribute Meaning
tvg-id An identifier used to match the channel with program guide (EPG) data.
tvg-name The channel name used for guide matching.
tvg-logo A web address of the channel logo.
group-title The category the entry belongs to, such as News or Sports.

The text after the final comma is the display name. These attributes are conventions, not strict rules, so providers do not always include all of them.

How a player uses it

  1. It downloads the file from the link, or reads the file you gave it.
  2. It reads each entry and groups entries by group-title.
  3. It shows the entries as channels, movies or series, depending on how the playlist is organised.
  4. It opens a stream address when you press play.
  5. If an EPG source is available, it matches guide data to channels using attributes like tvg-id.

M3U and M3U8

You will see both extensions. Both are text playlists in the same family. .m3u8 is the same idea saved as UTF-8 text, which helps with names that use accented or non-Latin characters. HLS streams also use .m3u8 files for their own segment lists, which is a different use of the same format. In an IPTV playlist, the entries inside can point at HLS streams as well as other stream types.

Limits to know about

  • A link can expire or change. If channels suddenly stop loading, the link or the provider is the first thing to check.
  • An M3U file has no login system of its own. If a link carries a username or token inside the address, treat it like a password and do not share it.
  • Very large files can contain tens of thousands of entries. They can take time to download and parse, which is one reason a fast player matters.
  • Catch-up and guide data only work if the playlist and the provider support them.

Next steps

If your provider also offers a username and password instead of a link, read M3U vs Xtream Codes. To load your playlist, follow How to add a playlist in SmartMate.

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