Could somebody please explain the difference between an m3u playlist and an mp3.cue file. I tried to search but the four letter limitation won't take "m3u" and I get no results for mp3.cue. I'm ripping and encoding live CDs as one file, but I don't want to be limited to playing them back on Winamp and I'm not clear on how to get other MP3 players to recognize the track names and breaks. I have browsed the forums but have not been able to find this specific info. Thanks.

very simple explanation:

.M3U

is a (text)file describing the location of various files. A Playlist

.CUE

is also a textfile, but it describes the pauses & tracklayout on a cd. Originally developed by Goldenhawk I believe (for CDRWIN) used to describe the layout of a cd.
Now also used by mp3cue for instance (a winamp plugin) so u can jump inside the 1track cdfile as if it was separate tracks.

Afaik there's no real standard on how to write a cuefile, but the basics is quite simple. If u create a .cue for an audiocd with EAC and then view the .cue, you will learn much.

you can search for three letter words by using a wildcard.

eg.: m3u*
or *m3u

Thanks for the response pike but I'm still not clear on a couple of points. What purpose exactly does an .m3u file serve. When I double click on one it actually starts playing the songs it's associated with, rather than opening up a text file I can read.

The other issue is whether other mp3 players such as Rio Volt will be able to read a disc with single track, full album mp3s burned on it using mp3.cue, or am I limited to Winamp with the mp3cue plug-in for identifying the individual tracks? If mp3 cue only works with Winamp , perhaps there is some other way to identify those tracks on other players.

Also, thanks Jan S. for the search tip.

??? ???

That's the purpose of .m3u file. It's playlist that tells the order in which tracks should be played. Mostly used to define albums, but can also be used to define desired compilations. You can open the file in any text editor to see it's contests, basically it includes just names of the tracks, but it can also hold the playing times of the tracks.


I can't say I know what I'm talking about, but I'm fairly sure no hardware device supports cue sheets. Cue sheets were never meant for mp3 playing but for CD burning applications. I don't think hardware players even support m3u playlists.

Yup, you don't know what you're talking about Most MP3 players (Rio players and the TDK Mojo are examples) support M3U playlists. But I think you're right about portable players not supporting cue sheets.