Extract text from streaming playlists (M3U8)
To convert M3U8 playlists to another format, you need VLC Media Player or other Video software.
To convert other file formats to the "HLS Media Playlist" file type, you need software like VLC Media Player or a similar tool.
The .m3u8 file is a UTF-8 encoded plain text file used as a media playlist for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). Originally standardized by Apple Inc., it contains structured lists of local file paths or web URLs pointing to audio or video streams, rather than containing any actual media data.
These playlists are primarily opened and streamed by software like VLC Media Player or Apple QuickTime Player.
Users frequently attempt to convert .m3u8 files to standard video formats like MP4 or MKV. Standard online converters instantly fail because an .m3u8 file is only a few kilobytes of text. It does not hold video frames; it simply points to fragmented video chunks (often TS files) hosted on a remote web server. Without downloading those chunks, media conversion is impossible.
Converting an .m3u8 file technically means translating the playlist text into another playlist format like M3U or PLS. If your actual goal is to save the video locally, you must use stream-downloading software or command-line tools like FFmpeg to fetch, sequence, and merge the remote media chunks together.
Because this is a text-based pointer file, traditional media conversion tools cannot process it into a video. However, just drag and drop your file to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible on convert.guru. We will instantly parse the file and display its raw text content so you can easily extract the underlying streaming URLs.
Convert.Guru analyzes your M3U8 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted M3U, HLS, MOVPKG, MP4, VLC, TS, TXT, MP3, ZIP, PLAYLIST_M3U8, DESCRIPTOR, MPD and M3U81 files.
If you want to convert M3U8 file to MP4, M3U, TS, MPD, WPL, WAV, SRT, GIF, MP3, AAC, FLAC or OGG, you can use VLC Media Player or similar software from the "Media Stream Playlist" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MIDI, AAC, TTA, AU, WV, DTS, MID, FLAC, RA, MP3, PCM or WAV files to M3U8, try VLC Media Player or another comparable tool in the "Media Stream Playlist" 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 M3U8 converter.