Thread: Question about m3u format

quite simple, nutted this out myself for my application....

#EXTM3U - just a header line to tell you to expect a m3u playlist.
#EXTINF:xxx,Song Name - The [xxx] is the track time in seconds, [song name] is the mp3 song name (not the filename - remember this could be the song title after getting the ID3 tag info).

and then the next line is the filename/location of the mp3 file.... easy aint it? and so on so forth.......

the main reason for the m3u file is to aviod re-calcs of track times and reading of ID3 tags everytime a playlist is loaded..... this can be good on a large playlist of mp3's.... remember that track time is variable on the filesize/bitrate of the file...... (and VBR makes that harder too!)

Thanks a lot bud!!! I thought it would be something simple... just never found it anywhere.... I appreciate your help very much... now i can sleep and let my wheels continue to turn.... I'm so excited.. can't wait till i have time to program....




Well... i'm editing this... Now that i see how that works. WHat about the creation of a m3u? Is there more to a m3u than what i see in this text file? See I assumed that the filename, was the actual filename with the ".mp3" suffix whacked off(which it is) and not just the title.(from an ID tag)

Is there more to a m3u than what i see in the text file? Because if it actually was just the title, and not the filename, then it means that there has to be something hidden somewhere with the filename... right??? I'm in no hurry on this one... going to bed. Thanks again guys...

~DD

PS- Mag... I've been laughing SOOOO damn hard at your avatar.... hilarious...

thanks dude, yeah Im a HUGE simpsons nut, the new season has just started here in Australia and im loving that!

there is no more to a m3u, period.... if you understand that you will have not trubble making em.... I make them with my mp3car player. I have a util that scans for mp3s in directories and spits out m3us..... check my website on the software page for details of that...

i think you may be missing something reading your assumption....... take this for example (from your m3u example...)

#EXTINF:298,Creed - In America
Creed - In America.mp3

okay the #EXTINF line is the TITLE of the mp3 that the player/playlister program has decided to call it. How did it come to this conclusion? thats entirely upto the program.... in the case of winamp 2.7x it is either gonna be ID3v1/v2 tags, or failing that just the filename. but its totally independent to the m3u itself....

there is nothing else 'hidden'...... take this for example...

#EXTINF:298,Creed - In America
c:\mymusic\crap\temps\sortthis\foobar_backup.mp3

that is TOTALLY valid, as long as 'foobar_backup.mp3' is found in that long winded path specified it is fine...... and when it plays the title will be 'Creed - In America'..... once again the filename and the title is totally independent...... try it yourself and you will see...

writing software to work/make .m3u's is TOTALLY easy. in VB6 i wrote some functions for my mp3car player that takes a subdirecotory, opens each .m3u it finds.... and then reads each file and from that creates a 3 element * [number of mp3s] array storing the data.... for example.... to get track number 1's info...


mp3_array[1,0] = Creed - In America
mp3_array[1,1] = d:\mp3\top40\Creed - In America.mp3
mp3_array[1,2] = 298

make sense? its very easy to do if you have some VB skills..... if you do need a hand drop me a line and I can give you some code snippets that will be of use to ya.....

I gotcha dude. I thought that you meant that.... oh well.. nevermind... I undertstand what your saying. I have no VB skills.... c++ though

Thanks for clearing it up!!!!

~DD

if you are depending on winamp to create that playlist for i will strongly suggest u create it ur self, cuz as u can see from your original post, winamp DOES not 100% of the time DO the whole playlist.....it caching things... long story

Originally posted by cenwesi
if you are depending on winamp to create that playlist for i will strongly suggest u create it ur self, cuz as u can see from your original post, winamp DOES not 100% of the time DO the whole playlist.....it caching things... long story

agreed...... I have never noticted that behaviour before tho? weird.... hmph.... oh and BTW, you need to fix up your sig charles...