Free online AVI to M3U converter

Some audio players, media centers, and playlist tools require an .m3u playlist instead of a folder of .avi files. This conversion creates a playlist that points to the AVI files; it does not extract, recompress, or otherwise change their audio.

What the AVI format is

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is a Microsoft RIFF container that can hold audio and video streams. Audio inside an AVI file may use codecs such as PCM, MP3, AC-3, or AAC, depending on the program that created it.

You commonly encounter AVI files exported by older Windows video software, VirtualDub, desktop editing applications, screen recorders, and older cameras. Although AVI is primarily a video container, an audio player can use it only if the player supports both the AVI container and the codec stored inside it.

What the M3U format is

M3U is a plain-text playlist format. It stores filenames, relative paths, absolute paths, or URLs that a compatible player opens in sequence; it does not contain the media streams themselves.

A basic playlist can contain one path per line. An extended playlist begins with #EXTM3U and may include #EXTINF lines containing track duration and display title. The UTF-8 variant is commonly saved with the .m3u8 extension.

M3U is useful when you need one selectable list for multiple AVI files, want to preserve a playback order, or need to move a playlist between applications. The referenced AVI files must remain available at the paths recorded in the playlist.

How to actually convert AVI to M3U

The simplest desktop method is VLC Media Player:

1. Put the AVI files in one folder, or decide which files should be included.
2. Open VLC and select View → Playlist.
3. Drag the AVI files into the playlist, or select Media → Open Multiple Files and add them.
4. Arrange the entries in the required playback order.
5. Select Media → Save Playlist to File, choose an output filename such as playlist.m3u, and save it.
6. Open the saved playlist in the destination player and verify that every AVI file loads.

For a folder containing only AVI files, a text-based method is also sufficient. In PowerShell, run:

Get-ChildItem -File *.avi | ForEach-Object { $_.FullName } | Set-Content playlist.m3u -Encoding utf8

On Linux or macOS, run:

find . -type f -iname '*.avi' -print > playlist.m3u

The shell commands write file paths but no duration or title metadata. Use VLC when you need to inspect and reorder entries or create extended playlist information.

You can also use the free online converter on 101convert.com without installing software, if its AVI and M3U workflow is available for the files being processed. Since M3U is only a playlist, retain the original AVI files after saving the playlist.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

Creating an M3U causes no audio-quality loss because the AVI files are not transcoded. The resulting playlist is unusable if its paths are wrong, the files are moved, or the destination player lacks support for AVI or the embedded audio codec.

Relative paths make a playlist easier to move with its media. For example, a playlist stored beside the files can contain track01.avi instead of a computer-specific path such as C:\Music\track01.avi. Use UTF-8 and .m3u8 when filenames contain non-ASCII characters and the target player supports that variant.

Some audio-only devices reject AVI even when the AVI contains a supported audio stream. In that case, first extract or transcode the audio to a device-supported format such as MP3, AAC, or WAV, then create an M3U playlist containing those resulting audio files.