M3UtoFile

[DLPB]

Wasn't sure where to place this, so I've put it here. If you think it needs moving elsewhere, then feel free to do so.

M3UtoFile
Download HERE
Donate HERE

More info

A quick program I've written which copies the files listed in a M3U playlist to a destination folder. Not sure many of you will need this, but I did Perhaps I should make a dll for winamp, but to be honest, this served what I needed.

Remember to run program as admin.

[Victhor]

Simple and useful, I can use it when preparing files to burn to a mp3 CD (yeah I know, too old school, but I´m lazy to change my car´s default radio); do the selection on winamp and export the final mix on a M3U which your soft turns into a clean, nice folder .

Good job, it works exactly as it says (didn´t tested on a M3U with lost files, how it behaves in that case?).

[DLPB]

If file doesn't exist it will skip it (You'll also know by the end when it reports the number of files copied). I've just been notified though, that certain programs are not creating m3ufiles with the header on line 1. So I will update this soon to account for that (my friend tested it and the first file wasn't copied). Winamp M3U files are fine. Glad you find this useful

[DLPB]

Updated app. Allows you to keep folder structure, and use a basic filter.

[DLPB]

Latest Change 2.0 ListToFile

29-Nov-2015
1. Unicode support.
2. File checker added (place a * on its own, or at the end of a filter, in the filter box).
3. Filter now works with full path or the filename alone.
4. Code optimized and other major improvements to code.

Download here


It has only been tested with m3u. It won't work with pls files, but if anyone needs me to add support, I will.

[Aminifu]

Hi DLPB,

Winamp uses the ".m3u8" file extension for Unicode playlists. Will your app do the same?

It is expected that the next version of Winamp will only create Unicode playlists by default (with an option to create ".m3u" playlists also).

[DLPB]

Yeah, it allows m3u8 files to be loaded. Since I am new to utf8 / unicode coding, there may be issues. But so far... so good. I used Japanese kanji to test.

If you find any issues, please do report them.

[Aminifu]

That's great! I will test it. I currently use the Yar-matey plug-in (http://winampplugins.co.uk/gen_yar/index.html). It is getting old and it's good to have a fall-back if it stops working.

[DLPB]

What I like about this program is it also allows easy filtering of songs or albums you want / don;t want (assuming you have used proper folder structure). If I want all songs by the beatles, I can just set the filter to "beatles" and make sure the filter is set to "Include (full)" and it will copy those files, since it finds "beatles" in the path. And by using "beatles*" (note the asterisk) it will do a check for you first without any copy.

[Aminifu]

It doesn't work for me. It's not determining the correct pathname (which may be because I'm not using a standard file storage structure).

The error log is returning statements like this:
"Could not find: d:\music\playlists\\music\mp3 files\s names\shaggy & chaka khan - get my party on.mp3"

I keep all my music on my "D:" drive and all my playlists in a folder called "d:\music\playlists". Also, the m3u8 playlists themselves (created by Winamp) don't include the drive letter in the pathname in the listing, e.g. "\music\mp3 files\s names\shaggy & chaka khan - get my party on.mp3" is what is in the playlist. So the correct pathname in this case should be "D:\music\mp3 files\s names\shaggy & chaka khan - get my party on.mp3".

[DLPB]

I was under impression Winamp uses the the playlist path to find the files. Are you saying it in fact just uses the drive letter? I do take into account missing full paths, but I assumed that when there is no full path, it was just using the playlist address as a base.

When I save a winamp playlist to a folder like you have, even Winamp can't find the file.

edit.

hang on this time it's doing as you suggested. Dropping the drive letter only.

[Aminifu]

No, I'm saying the playlist's pathnames includes everything but the drive letter. I think there may be an option in Winamp to make it use full instead of relative pathnames. I'll have to look for it. But that is not the only problem. Your app is including the path to the playlists in the pathname for the files.

These playlists (created by Winamp) work for me because Winamp assumes the files are on the same drive as the playlists. What version of Winamp are you using?

[DLPB]

Yeah, that is what winamp SHOULD be doing... there's no way it should just be dropping the drive letter, that's crazy. There's no purpose for that. But looks like that's how it works. I was sure it was taking the playlist as the root - but it isn't. Give me a moment and I'll fix this.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by DLPB

I was sure it was taking the playlist as the root - but it isn't.

It would in the case of an album playlist that only contained the files in the album and the playlist was placed in the same folder as the files.

I've done a little testing and it appears that Winamp only saves the files' pathname drive letters when the playlist is saved on a drive different from the drives the files are on.

I guess there was a reason for this at some point in time. A lot of the Winamp core code is over 15 years old. But it seems like a waste of processing time to me. The simple thing to do would be to always include the drive letter in the pathnames.

[ryerman]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

I guess there was a reason for this at some point in time. A lot of the Winamp core code is over 15 years old. But it seems like a waste of processing time to me. The simple thing to do would be to always include the drive letter in the pathnames.

I agree. A playlist is not portable without full paths.

And omitting drive letters is just a special case of the way paths are written in a M3U8 file.
Sometimes other "upper" levels of the file paths are omitted.
eg. If the playlist is saved in a folder that contains all the files, only file names with the extension are written, no matter how deep the filing structure.

That is easier to see if you use a artist-album-track structure.

[DLPB]

OK, try now. Redownload from the link above.

It should now work properly on all paths.


Maybe I get round to making an icon at some point haha , rather than us looking at the Delphi 7 icon.

[Aminifu]

Hi,

"ListToFile" is working fine for me now. Good job.

Will it also handle the case ryerman stated in post #15 above?

Yeah, an icon better suited to it's purpose would be nice. I also like that it is a stand-alone app (no need to open Winamp to use it).

There is another app you may be interested in. It is called "listFix()" (http://listfix.sourceforge.net/). It can repair most playlists when their file pathnames are incorrect due to moving files to different locations after the lists were made. It is a Java app, which is a no-no for some people.

[DLPB]

Cool! And yeah, it should also take into account the scenario he mentioned

Remember that * in filter box is used for checking.

* on its own = check all
he*= check all files with "he"

If * isn't there = start copying files based on the filter.

If no filter, then copy all.

[DLPB]

I don't seem to be able to edit the first post.

M3UtoFile
Download HERE
Donate HERE

Copy files from an M3U list to a folder of your choice.
Filter files.
Check an M3U list for any errors (missing files or duplicates).

I created this program to aid in copying MP3s to my music player.

Latest Change:
Sep-17-2016 v2.2

1. Filter box code updated.
2. General code improvement.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by DLPB

I don't seem to be able to edit the first post.

You only have 2 or 3 hours to edit a post. After that, you need to ask a moderator to make changes for you.

Thanks for the update.