M3U vs M3U8
Both use the same plain-text format. The real difference is character encoding, and the .m3u8 extension is used for two different things, which causes confusion.
The difference in short
| M3U | M3U8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Plain-text list | The same list format |
| Character encoding | Often a local encoding | UTF-8 |
| Characters such as Turkish or Russian | May be garbled | Display correctly |
Why it gets confusing
The .m3u8 extension is used both for a channel list and for the segment list (manifest) of HLS streams. A channel list holds the addresses of many streams, while an HLS file describes the pieces of a single stream. A player tells them apart by looking at the content.
Which should you use?
Use whichever your provider gave you; Emileyt IPTV Player opens both. If channel names look garbled, save the file as UTF-8 (or ask for the .m3u8 version) and try again. See What is M3U? for details.
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