FMP256 Instructions : Extended-M3U playlist format

The playhead dynamically plays MP3 format files from an HTTP server or servers. It collects a list of MP3 files by reading a playlist, which can be in either XSPF or Extended-M3U format.

An Extended-M3U playlist is a simple text file you can edit in any text editor. The format of M3U files is very important, so if you make mistakes the playhead will not run properly. Below is a sample of an Extended-M3U file:-

#EXTM3U #EXTINF:163,Vampire Kiss - Scream if you Want Me http://www.vkiss.x/music/stream.php?track_id=5188&format=mp3 #EXTINF:155,Garth Brooks Unplugged and Unhinged assets/garth/audio/upau.mp3 #EXTINF:234,Exploding Fish : Audible Underwater /mytunes/audible.mp3

The first line defines the playlist as Extended-M3U and should never be changed. The remainder of the code defines the playlist using pairs of lines:

#EXTINF:123,title of track
URL of track

The first line in each pair starts with #EXTINF: followed by the track duration in whole seconds, then a comma, followed by the track title.
The second line in each pair is just the URL of the audio file itself - relative or absolute.

Although Extended-M3U is a very common format, it does not allow any other information to be included. It cannot tell the playhead about artists' websites, images, descriptions, etc. For this reason we strongly recommend users stick to the XSPF format. One important factor to note about Extended-M3U is the need to find track durations - our playheads ignore the duration information, so if you don't want to spend the time looking for it, just set it to something like 100. Of course this might confuse playback on another brand of software.


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