Is there a way to open an m3u8 playlist on android

Question

I'm using Android 2.2. Trying to open an m3u8 playlist file directly from a http source. Dolphin browser just asks me to save the file.

Any ideas on how I can stream the content.... is there a market app for this?

Jason

Answer 1

Without doing any research about it at all, this sounds like something that's right up WinAmp's alley. I know it supports streaming audio, but streaming video might be a different matter.

Edit: Also, this guy suggests renaming .m3u8 files to .m3u as .m3u has wider support in apps. Perhaps save the .m3u8 file you want from the web, rename the extension, and play it that way?

Answer 2

I think VPlayer can stream it for you. They have a free trial but after the trial it is like 4USD to unlock the full version.

Answer 3

M3U8 is the Unicode version of M3U, which is simply a playlist file, providing a media player a list of media files to play. Open it up in a text editor & you'll see from the contents.

It's a very simple format & most media players will pick it up. The default media player included in the Android OS uses M3U for its internal playlists. More info here.

I suspect that's not what you're asking though, since you mentioned streaming. You don't "play" an M3U file, you play the content it refers to within. Your best chance of success is to open the M3U[8] file on your PC and look at the actual video content URL(s) and try to load one directly in your media player of choice. If that doesn't work, ask back here but provide the media URL so we can attempt to work out its format.

If you do find the underlying video stream format, this handy reference lists the supported stream types.