What is M3U?

M3U is a plain-text playlist format that lists media addresses in order. IPTV players show each line in the list as a stream.

In short

• M3U: a text file where each entry is a media location (a link or a file path).
• M3U8: the UTF-8 encoded version of the same format, so channel names in many languages display correctly.
• The file is a list of addresses. It does not contain the content itself or permission to access it.

What does an M3U file look like?

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="sample1" group-title="General",Sample Stream
https://example.com/stream1/index.m3u8

This is only an example; the address does not point to a real stream.

What do the lines mean?

• #EXTM3U: the header that marks the file as extended M3U.
• #EXTINF: the duration (usually -1 for live streams), optional tags and the display name.
• tvg-id: the identifier used to match a channel with the program guide (EPG).
• group-title: the category the channel appears in.
• The next line: the address of the stream.

The .m3u8 extension is used for two different things

The same extension is used both for playlists and for the segment list (manifest) of HLS streams. A playlist holds the addresses of many streams, while an HLS manifest describes the pieces of a single stream. A player tells them apart by looking at the content.

How is it used in a player?

There are two common ways: paste the link your provider gave you, or pick a file on your device. Emileyt IPTV Player supports both. See How to use for the steps.