Extract text from Description files (DESC)
To convert DESC Descriptions to another format, you need Notepad++ or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Metadata Configuration File" file type, you need software like Notepad++ or a similar tool.
The .desc file extension stands for "Description" and is a highly fragmented format used by dozens of different applications to store secondary metadata. Common uses include game mapping data for the Battlefield 2 engine, TV recording logs for DVBViewer and Topfield PVRs, and video transcoding scripts for FFmpeg. Because these files are usually companions to larger media or data files (like TS videos or DCM DICOM exports), they rarely contain the actual media or 3D models.
The main disadvantage of .desc files is their complete lack of standardization. Depending on the source, the internal structure could be plain text, XML, JSON, or proprietary code. You cannot "play" a .desc file in a media player, even if it accompanies a TV recording. It strictly requires the original software to interpret the metadata correctly, making it frustrating to manage if you lose the parent application.
Users often need to convert or read .desc files to extract the underlying XML or JSON data for archiving, scripting, or database migration. For simply viewing the contents, convert to TXT. If the file contains structured data, convert to XML or JSON. Drop your file here to analyze and convert it - free, online, and without installing software.
Convert.Guru analyzes your DESC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted TML, LICENSE and RML files.
If you want to convert DESC file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Notepad++ or similar software from the "Metadata Description Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to DESC, try Notepad++ or another comparable tool in the "Metadata Description Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our DESC converter.