How to view groups in .m3u playlist (IPTV)?

[TheFalcon]

I have a .m3u playlist (IPTV) in which all the channels are grouped to a category. Is there a way in the playlist to show the playlist in groups? Or do I have to use a different solution for that like Kodi?

[Lotesdelere]

I'm afraid VLC is missing this sorting option.

[ePirat]

I am not aware that M3U playlists have any support for grouping? Do you have an example for such a playlist file?

[TheFalcon]

I am not aware that M3U playlists have any support for grouping? Do you have an example for such a playlist file?

Below I have included an example of a .m3u8 file with groups included (I have removed the URLs). The line item "#EXTGRP" concerns the grouping category. There are two groups below: music and educational. Programs such as Kodi recognise these as groups.

Code: Select all

URL1.m3u8 #EXTINF:0 tvg-rec="3",Жар Птица #EXTGRP:music URL2.m3u8 #EXTINF:0 tvg-rec="3",AIVA TV #EXTGRP:music URL3.m3u8 #EXTINF:0 tvg-rec="3",История #EXTGRP:educational URL4.m3u8 #EXTINF:0 tvg-rec="3",Моя Планета #EXTGRP:educational

[Lotesdelere]

You should create a new ticket on the VLC Trac with your above report and the link to this thread:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

From VLC 4.0, the playlist is flat, so grouping wouldn't work anyway. In other words, this is not going to be supported.

A more portable solution is to prepend the group to the name and sort the playlist lexically.