M3U to CSV converter

What goes into the CSV

An M3U playlist stores each channel as an #EXTINF line full of attributes, followed by the stream address. That is easy for a player and hard for a person: a provider's playlist can run to tens of thousands of lines. The CSV puts one entry per row and one attribute per column, in the order of the playlist, so you can sort, filter and count in a spreadsheet.

From one M3U entry to one row

An entry in an M3U playlist is two lines: the #EXTINF line with the attributes and the name, then the stream address.

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="example.uk" tvg-name="Example News" tvg-logo="https://img.example/news.png" group-title="News",Example News HD
http://provider.example:8080/live/USERNAME/PASSWORD/1234.ts

With the default columns, that entry becomes this row:

#,Name,Group,Type,tvg-id,Logo
1,Example News HD,News,Live,example.uk,https://img.example/news.png

-1 after #EXTINF: is the duration, which is always -1 for live streams and is not exported. Option lines such as #EXTVLCOPT (user agent, referrer) or #KODIPROP belong to the player, not the channel list, so they are left out too. The # column numbers rows in playlist order, which helps you find an entry again in the original file. Rows can be limited to live channels, movies or series episodes before you download, which is handy when a provider's playlist mixes 5,000 channels with 100,000 films.

What people use it for

• Finding guide gaps. Filter the tvg-id column for empty cells to see which live channels can never show a TV guide, then fix them with the EPG mapper.
• Planning a cleanup. A pivot table of groups and counts shows which categories are worth keeping before you trim them in the M3U editor.
• Asking for help safely. With links left out, the CSV shows what is in the playlist without your login, so you can share it with support or a friend.
• Comparing two playlists. Convert both and compare names or tvg-ids side by side after a provider update.

Opening it in Excel, Sheets or Numbers

The file is UTF-8 with a byte order mark, so accented and non-Latin names (Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Cyrillic) show correctly when Excel opens it with a double-click. If your Excel uses a comma as the decimal sign, it expects semicolons between columns: pick Semicolon before downloading. Google Sheets (File, Import) and Apple Numbers read any of the three separators. Cells are quoted where needed, so names that contain commas or quotation marks stay in one cell.

If the names look broken in the preview, the playlist itself is probably not UTF-8. The M3U checker can read it in an older code page and tells you which lines are affected. Converting again after a fix takes a second, so it is fine to try a few column sets and separators until the spreadsheet looks the way you want.