Bulk convert Ansi-m3u playlists into UTF-8-m3u8 playlist workaround

[Domoberry]

@touwys
I need to have a .m3u8 copy of all my .m3u playlists for some use with iTunes. ListFix can 'Save as' a playlists in .m3u8, so that is the absolute recommended way to go. However, if you have a lot of .m3u playlists to convert, having a 'bulk convert' option would be nice.
With some digging, AI, trial & error, here an idea to do such conversion in bulk. Please correct/amend, I'm not an expert, use at your own risk, intended to address mentioned iTunes issue only, etc.
A key assumption is that the relevant difference between an .m3u audio playlist and an .m3u8 audio playlist is how characters are encoded. .m3u typically uses the Windows standard 'Ansi' encoding, where .m3u8 uses 'UTF-8' character encoding. iTunes for example cannot correctly import an .m3u playlist which uses Ansi encode special characters. The same playlist in .m3u8 works fine.
In essence, the conversion is done by the convertcp tool. This Windows Command Line program converts from Ansi to UTF-8. Download and place convertcp.exe and an .m3u file in a test folder, open a Windows command box in the same test folder and type:

convertcp 0 65001 /i "My playlist.m3u" /o "My converted playlist.m3u8"

The resulting .m3u8 file will end up in the same test folder.
Next is to process an entire folder with many .m3u files. Make a copy of your .m3u files and place them in the same (test) folder and type the following command in the CMD box:

for /f "delims=|" %f in ('dir /b "d:\Users\Public\Test\*.m3u"') do convertcp 0 65001 /i "%f" /o "%~nf.m3u8"

A set of .m3u8 playlists can now be found in this test folder.

Lot's of refinements are possible: use (relative) source and target folder-paths, use convertcp from a program folder, create a batch file, any smarter way to do the same, verify assumptions, etc. But first check if this works in the 1st place.

[touwys]

@Domoberry 👍🏻

Thank you. I am using this to bulk convert using PowerShell:

To create a PowerShell script that bulk-converts .m3u files (ANSI) to .m3u8 files (UTF-8) on Windows 10, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open PowerShell

You can open PowerShell using one of the following methods:

1. Start Menu Search:

   • Click the Start button or press the Windows key.
   • Type PowerShell in the search box.
   • Click on Windows PowerShell or right-click and select Run as Administrator.

2. Power Users Menu:

   • Press Windows + X to open the Power Users menu.
   • Select Windows PowerShell or Windows PowerShell (Admin).

3. Run Dialog:

   • Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog.
   • Type powershell and press Enter.

4. File Explorer:

   • Navigate to a folder where you want to open PowerShell.
   • Hold down the Shift key, right-click in an empty space, and select Open PowerShell window here.

Step 2: Create the PowerShell Script

1. Open a Text Editor:

   • You can use any text editor like Notepad. To open Notepad, press Windows + R, type notepad, and press Enter.

2. Write the Script:
   Copy and paste the following script into Notepad:

   # Define the directory containing the .m3u files
   $sourceDirectory = "C:\path\to\your\directory"
   
   # Get all .m3u files in the directory
   Get-ChildItem -Path $sourceDirectory -Filter "*.m3u" | ForEach-Object {
       # Define the new file name with .m3u8 extension
       $newFileName = $_.FullName -replace '\.m3u$', '.m3u8'
   
       # Read the content of the .m3u file and write it to a new .m3u8 file with UTF-8 encoding
       Get-Content $_.FullName | Set-Content -Path $newFileName -Encoding utf8
   
       # Output the conversion status
       Write-Host "Converted $($_.Name) to $(Split-Path $newFileName -Leaf)"
   }

3. Modify the Directory Path:
   Replace C:\path\to\your\directory with the actual path where your .m3u files are stored.

4. Save the Script:

   • Click on File, then select Save As....
   • In the Save dialog, change the "Save as type" to "All Files".
   • Name your file ConvertM3UtoM3U8.ps1 and choose a location where you can easily find it (like your Desktop).

Step 3: Run the PowerShell Script

1. Navigate to where you saved your script using File Explorer.

2. Right-click on an empty area in that folder while holding down the Shift key, and select Open PowerShell window here.

3. In the PowerShell window, run your script by typing:

   .\ConvertM3UtoM3U8.ps1

4. Press Enter to execute the script.

Conclusion

The script will process all .m3u files in your specified directory, converting them to .m3u8 format with UTF-8 encoding. You will see output messages indicating which files have been converted successfully.

[Domoberry]

@touwys
Thanks for the very nice description on using a powershell script! Preferred over the "manual" method :-) !
Is it correct to say that both the "Set-Content ... -Encoding ..." command and the "convertcp" tool basically do the same thing: Ansi to to UTF-8 file conversion?

[Borewit]

Probably if you do it like:

Get-Content $_.FullName -Encoding ansi | Set-Content -Path $newFileName -Encoding utf8

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/get-content?view=powershell-7.4

Despite it is used to select the text encoding, please note that ansi is not a formal reference for character encoding. It is probably referring to ANSI IEC_8859-1, also known as latin1, and which is in reality usually replaced by: Windows-1252.

[touwys]

@touwys Thanks for the very nice description on using a powershell script! Preferred over the "manual" method :-) ! Is it correct to say that both the "Set-Content ... -Encoding ..." command and the "convertcp" tool basically do the same thing: Ansi to to UTF-8 file conversion?

@Domoberry : Disclosure — all that information was provided courtesy of "perplexity.ai". Their service is well-worth trying out. I also suggest that you follow @Borewit 's advice, as I fall short on knowledge here.

@Borewit : Thank you for helping out. Nice to see you around.