m3u = Mp3 URL
A Playlist is basically a collection of online URL addresses or 'absolute' paths to a file on your computer system somewhere.
Gather them addresses or paths up and put them into an .m3u file. Then you'd have an m3u Playlist file.
You'd have to create an .m3u file and that is rather simple to do on your windows computer.
C/P
An M3U file is a plain text file that specifies the locations of one or more media files.
The file is saved with the "m3u" filename extension if the text is encoded in the local system's default non-Unicode encoding (e.g., a Windows codepage, notepad for instance), or with the "m3u8" extension, if the text is UTF-8 encoded.
end C/P
None of that matters much to us because any current Operating System will recognize either extension as the same or maybe not the same but will override any differences in how it Plays back (.m3u or .m3u8).
What does matter is that it is indeed saved as an .m3u file and not a .txt file.
The encoding gives it the structure to give directives (give orders in other words), a plain .txt file will not have them abilities.
An .m3u file consists of Directives and each Directive does something specific.
The first Directive for example, signifies that this is an .m3u file and should be read as such, by what ever is reading it (eg. an android or a Windows PC).
The next Directive seen would be a Channel Line, and of course there will be other channel lines to follow. And that is why it's called a Playlist, because its a collection of channels.
When m3u Playlists were first 'invented' we had .Mp3 music and you could gather online URL addresses or Paths ('absolute paths' if the .mp3 track was from your storage on your PC).
You then would take this .m3u file and open it thru a Player.
The VLC Player was a popular one for audio and would also play video but VLC Player does not have alot of abilities that these Playlist Directives give you.
I dd not mention yet that in each of those channel lines (with a new Directive to each line), there are other things in each lines, lets call them tags... this is how you see the Channel title, the Box Cover .jpg image, the description and a host of other things.
The VLC Player does not read most of them other things. That is why a Player like Perfect Player is much better for m3u Video files or URLs
I told you all that about the VLC because to start off with I suggest to get a copy of VLC (VideoLAN Media Player) for your PC, it's found online for free.
I suggest this because its so easy to get this going with Window's VLC and PC or Laptop.
You will need a copy of the server's m3u Playlist and I will tell you how to get that next but here is the easy part first.
With that hard-copy of the m3u Playlist placed on your desktop and with the new VLC Player opened on your Desktop, make the VLC smaller then drag and drop that hard-copy of the Playlist onto the VLC and it will open and then click on it and the contents will open right there on the VLC
Click a channel and start viewing. Easy Peasy.
Get your correct version...
Code:
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
Get your Rocket Playlist ...
http://iptvtalk.net/showthread.php?27179-How-to-get-a-Rocket-Playlist
Get your Mag Playlist directions ...
http://iptvtalk.net/showthread.php?26924-How-to-use-the-supported-Playlist-on-Mag-STB
Using the Playlist on the Mag usually does not help with the Blocked issue thou, at least not as far as i know, so you could try it.
That's how easy it is, but there are many many more things t be seen with this m3u method.
To begin with, you could get the m3u Playlist from the server (a hardcopy version of it) or you could get the URL of that Playlist and get that from the service too, then no need for the hard-copy.
With the URL, you would have to enter that URL into what-ever Player you would be using. The VLC for example.
That other Easy Peasy way was just to show how easy it could be, but not the best way for all this, for reasons such as no EPG or no Updates on channels and etc, etc...
So we wanna use Perfect layer on Android or even some iptv boxes work well with m3u... New Dreamlinks and BuzzTV boxes are about the best at this time.
Your Mag box does m3u too and was one of the first to do it. They have the ability to embedded hard-copy channels into their memory and things like that. I think you should be able t use URL with mag too.
Okay, I gotta head off to my work now.
This is just a start on the understanding and use of the m3u Playlists, so i will continue some time later.
There is a huge amount of things to know
The next part will include some of the stuff that shooty created
To be continued ...
Oh yea before I sign off...
grab one of them 'Generic Plus' m3u files from the service and open on your desktop.
Open it with Notepad. have a look at it... It can be daunting
Close it and then Right click on it and open properties and look there that is has been still saved as an .m3u File Type.
Using the URL of the Playlist has huge advantages over using the hard-copy.
The hard-copy does have advantages too, but mainly has to do with editing abilities.
To be continued ....