Free and simple utility to create an M3U playlist of all the files in a folder.
Oplisker (an acronym of “Open Source Play List Maker”) is a simple utility designed to create M3U playlists out of any combination of audio and video files present in a folder of your choice.
After creating my playlists for years using just various combinations of audio files, I found this little utility truly original, as it allowed me to put together in the same playlist my favorite selection of both audio and video files. If the media player you are using supports all of the codecs included in your playlist, it will play back all the tracks seamlessly regardless of their format. I used VLC to try this out and it worked just fine.
The way the program works is even more surprising (and not entirely in a positive way) than the type of playlists it creates. Instead of allowing you to select your media files on a one by one basis – including files located in different folders or subfolders – and to put them in your preferred listening order, Oplisker automatically generates a playlist with the files contained in a folder (and its subfolders, if so desired) that you have previously selected. This means that you will have to move all the files you wish to combine into a specific folder first, and check that their filenames are in the right order.
By default, the program will use all the media files selected to create the playlist, but you can always make your own selection of codecs in the Options dialog. Then, just point Oplisker at the folder containing your audio and video files, and it will create a playlist according to your preferences. If you decide to leave out a specific file from the playlist in the last minute, you will need to go back and take it out of the folder.
Certainly, I do not think this is the most intuitive and flexible way of creating a playlist. Were it not for this, Oplisker is a fine open-source tool that offers you a functionality not easy to find in similar tools.
Pros
- Supports all the most widely used audio and video formats
- Simplicity of use
- Allows you to mix different audio and video formats in the same playlist
Cons
- You need to isolate the files that will be included in the playlist in a specific folder