Add #EXTINF data to playlist exports (for Soundiizz/etc compatibility)

[Mxgoldbloom]

I have tried to export a Playlist from Poweramp and then try to load the playlist in soundiiz but it indicates that the list is empty.

Could someone give me an orientation on this topic?

[andrewilley]

Poweramp exports its playlists as M3U8 files, which are plain text and simply contain lines that point to the path & filename for each song on your device's storage. It's nothing fancy, and it doesn't contain any extra information about the songs apart from where they are located.

If you want to use such a playlist in PA on another device, as long as the folder structure is broadly the same they ought to work. On PCs/etc you may need to edit the M3U8 file in any regular text editor to ensure that each individual line correctly points to the path where your local songs are stored (global search and replace should achieve that). I don't know anything about soundiiz I'm afraid, but if it's running on the same device it ought to be able to find the songs.

Andre

[6b6561]

https://soundiiz.com looks like a tool that would allow you to move your playlists between streaming services and it's also able to read a m3u8 playlist and turn that into a cloud streaming list. 

I guess the issue is that the m3u8 created by Poweramp is a simple list and not extended. The extended list has one additional line per track that includes track length,track - artist.

Example of m3u8 from iTunes with the EXTINF row:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:223,Rock The Casbah - The Clash
M:\Clash\S05 - Combat Rock (1982)\The Clash - Combat Rock - 04 - Rock The Casbah.mp3

While Poweramp m3u8 skips the EXTINF but adds a EXT-X-RATING.

#EXT-X-RATING:0
62D9-1D1E/Musik/Clash/S05 - Combat Rock (1982)/The Clash - Combat Rock - 04 - Rock The Casbah.mp3

I guess Soundiiz is using the "track - artist" info from the EXTINF in the m3u8 in order to perform it's magic, as trying to parse random filenames wouldn't be feasible.

IMHO the EXTINF should be in the m3u8 export and it shouldn't be much of an hazzle to add it to the export.

@andrewilley How about changing the subject  to something like "Add EXTINF to playlist to support Soundiiz"?

[flyingdutchman]

@6b6561 try my app New Playlist Manager, it reads from the Poweramp media database and creates .m3u playlists with the required information

[andrewilley]

2 hours ago, 6b6561 said:

IMHO the EXTINF should be in the m3u8 export and it shouldn't be much of an hazzle to add it to the export.

@andrewilley How about changing the subject  to something like "Add EXTINF to playlist to support Soundiiz"?

Thread title changed as suggested.

I agree that it does seem like a nice idea to add the extra metadata line to exported Playlists. @maxmp I know Poweramp doesn't need or use it, but it might help with compatibility for other uses beyond the simple requirement of finding the same physical song files on local storage. Could even include some of the other optional items, such as #EXTALB (album), #EXTART (album artist) and #EXTGENRE (genre). I can't see the slight file size increase would be an issue, even with bigger playlists it'd still be no larger than a single song.

Andre 

[Wildfowl]

Any updates on this feature? (add the extra metadata line to exported Playlists)

[maxmp]

@Wildfowl no updates, though this is in the backlog. Thanks!

[andrewilley]

To be fair, Poweramp is in good company in that even a heavy-duty stalwart like foobar2000 doesn't bother creating an #EXTM3U header or #EXTINF:<length>,<Title> - <Artist> lines for each file.

Not that it would be very hard to generate them of course, as all the info is in the Library anyway. But as most applications are only really bothered about the filename and/or folder(s), and they discover the metadata for themselves anyway, it does seem a bit irrelevant in most cases. Perhaps Soundiiz should be a bit more comprehensive in its file handling if it can't read even the simplest list of filenames such as a foobar-generated playlist?

Andre

 

[6b6561]

There should be a setting for it in Foobar2000

Preferences -> Advanced -> Tools -> Write EXTM3U playlists.

https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,117519.0.html

Soundiiz challenge is that it's quite hard to dig out artist/album/song from only a filename as we all know what those can look like. EXTINF gives you a chance to make a proper match.

Anyway @flyingdutchmans New Playlist Manager should be able to export playlists with EXTINF in them.

[andrewilley]

@6b6561 I actually looked for that in foobar, as I expected there might be an option, but couldn't find it. It's pretty well hidden! Certainly the default is to write a plain list of paths\filenames, and let the reading app process them.

However I do agree it ought to be a really simple thing to add #EXTINF: lines to exported Playlists as all the necessary information is in Poweramp's music database already.

Andre