Downloading a video from online sources might seems to be an easy task. However, you might be able to download an MP4 or AVI video form online easily with some online video downloader tools, but for some other video related formats, such as M3U8, there is not many easy ways to download as they are not widely spread, therefore are not supported by most of online video downloader tools. However, although M3U8 is not very popular, there are still some ways to download M3U8 videos. You can use some powerful, all-in-one video downloader tools such as Leawo Video Downloader, or some small yet efficient tools such as Lj Video Downloader. So today in this article, we will introduce some of the most efficient M3U8 video downloader toos to you and show you the detailed step-to-step guides on how to download M3U8 videos to your computer with ease. Now let's get started. 

Part 1: What is M3U8 Video?

Before we start talking about how to download M3U8 videos, let's have a look at the M3U8 format itself. M3U8 is an UTF-8 Encoded Audio Playlist file. It's an M3U file but with UTF-8 encoding. So what is M3U file? Well, M3U, or Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3 Uniform Resource Locator in full, is a computer file format for a multimedia playlist. One common use of the M3U file format is creating a single-entry playlist file pointing to a stream on the Internet. In other words, the M3U file is an indication of a video playlist. When the file is encoded with the UTF-8 method, it becomes M3U8 file.

Because most of the M3U8 video playlists contain many excellent video contents, a lot of people would love to download the videos in an M3U8 playlist directly. But there is not many video downloading tools that allows you to download a M3U8 video playlist directly. So now that we have some basic ideas of what M3U8 video file is, let's have a look at some of the tools you can use to download M3U8 videos from online to your computer.

Part 2: How to Download M3U8 Video with Leawo Video Downloader

The first video downloader tool that you can use to download M3U8 video contents to your computer is Leawo Video Downloader. Leawo Video Downloader is standalone video downloading program that allows you to download videos from Facebook, YouTube and more than 1000 other online video streaming services with ease. Having millions of loyal users all around the world, Leawo Video Downloader can be easily regarded as one of the most popular video downloader programs in the entire world.

  • Leawo Video Downloader
  • Leawo Video Downloader

    1. Download Video & Music from 1000+ Sites
    2. Download Live Stream Videos from YouTube Live and Others
    3. 720P and Even 1080P HD Video Downloading
    4. 6X Faster Online Video Downloading
    5. Smarter Downloading Settings
    6. 1-Click to Play Downloaded Videos
    7. Provide Precise Video Info

Thanks to the efficient online downloading protocol and advanced online video downloading engine, Leawo Video Dwonloader can download 720P, even 1080P videos with a super high speed and retain the quality of the video at the same time. Besides the leading download technology, Leawo Video Downloader also provides smart download settings, making the download result more personalized and customized. Not only is Leawo Video Downloader powerful in the video downloading tasks, it's also easy to use for all kinds of users. If you want to use Leawo Video Downloader to download M3U8 videos but don't know how, here is a detailed guide for your reference.

Step 1: Download and install Leawo Video Downloader. When you launch the program, you will see the "Video Downloader" function module in the function hub. Click on the "Video Downloader" to enter the function module.

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Step 2: Leawo Video Downloader will automatically open a built-in web browser once you enter the function module. You can past the URL of the video that you want to download into the URL box and go to the video page.

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Step 3: Once you land on the video page, you will have the option to download all the videos on that page. Click the "Download" icon at the right, and Leawo Video Downloader will download the video immediately.  

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Step 4: After clicking the Download button, you can check out the downloading video in the Downloading Tab, and when the download is finished, you can easily manage all the finished videos in the "Downloaded" page right beside the "Downloading" tab.

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Part 3: How to Download M3U8 Video with CleverGet Video Downloader

Being one of the best M3UB downloaders on the market, CleverGet can easily download live videos automatically through M3U8 links. This program can could not only download live streams, but also movies, and even paid movies, could help you easily complete online free movie download tasks in simple clicks. With it, you could easily download videos from various websites like Twitter, Tubi, Facebook live, various other free movie sites and YouTube to MP4.

  • CleverGet YouTube to MP4 Downloader
  • CleverGet 8K Downloader

    1. Download Video & Music from 1000+ Sites
    2. Download Live Stream Videos from YouTube Live and Others
    3. Up to 8K UHD Video Downloading with 320 kbps Audio Quality
    4. Smarter Downloading Settings
    5. 1-Click to Play Downloaded Videos
    6. Provide Precise Video Info

Step 1: Set output directory. You can download the installation package of CleverGet for free by visiting the homepage of CleverGet directly. Install it on your computer and run it. CleverGet has a default output directory, but you probably don't want that. You can click the "..." icon in the upper right corner, and then reset the output directory under the "General" in the "Settings" window.

Step 2: Open target video page or paste the M3U8 link. Open the M3U8 file with Notepad to get the URL of the target video. Paste the URL directly into CleverGet's address bar, then tap "Enter" on the keyboard. CleverGet will directly access the page where the target video is located.

Step 3: Download the video. CleverGet will identify various information about the video available for download on the page, such as: video format, definition, etc. You can see this information in the popup window, select the video you want to download and click the "Download" button. CleverGet will download the video to the output directory you set.

Part 4: How to Download M3U8 Video with VLC

Leawo Video Downlaoder is for sure one of the best online video downloading solutions you can have. But if you prefer more options, there are also some other tools that can help you download an M3U8 video from online sources to your computer. Among all those alternatives, VLC Media Player is definitely one of the most recommendable choices. You might know VLC Media Player as a powerful media player application, but little it is known to people, VLC is actually a great online video downloader tool as well. Especially for M3U8 playlists, VLC Player has a great support that allows you to directly paste the M3U8 source URL and download the M3U8 videos to your computer and save them as MP4 video files. If you need to save the M3U8 playlist videos as MP4 video files, then VLC Player can for sure do that for you. This method works even better for those who don't have a video downloader tool installed on their computer. Because with this method, you can download, and watch the M3U8 videos within one single program. However, the drawback is the downloading speed and the quality. Because VLC is not a professional video downloader, it might take you a long time to download M3U8 video files. Now let's see how to download M3U8 video files with VLC.

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Step 1: Launch VLC, then click on "Media" and choose "Open Network Stream…".

Step 2: Paste your M3U8 playlist URL in to the "Source" box, and then choose a target format in the "Profile" dropdown box.

Step 3: After that, click on "Browse" to choose a target path to save your downloaded file.

Step 4: Finally, click on "Start" to convert the .m3u8 stream to MP4 with M3U8 player VLC and download the M3U8 video to your computer.

Part 5: How to Download M3U8 Video with Lj Video Downloader

The two solutions provided above can help you download M3U8 videos to your computer with ease. But what if you want to download the M3U8 videos to your mobile phone? Well, Lj Video Downloader is a mobile app on Android that allows you to download M3U8 videos easily to your smartphone. You can acquire the app from Google Play Store for free, and it works pretty well for M3U8 video files. The app can Download m3u8, as well as mp4, mpd, and mov videos, it supports extract video links from websites directly, multi-thread downloading, automatic MP4 converting, and allows plugin to extract m3u8 links from website links directly. If you want to process M3U8 files on your Android phone, then Lj Video Downloader can definitely be of great help. Now let's see how you can use Lj Video Downloader to download an M3U8 video file.

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Step 1: Download and install Lj Video Downloader from Google Play Store.

Step 2: After installation, launch the app, and go to the "m3u8 Link" tab.

Step 3: On the "m3u8 Downloader" page, paste the M3U8 file URL in the "m3u8 url" blank, and then the app will fetch the videos for you. After a while, you can tap the video name and download the video immediately.

Part 6: How to Download M3U8 Video with AnyConv

If you cannot find your desired M3U8 file online, you can use AnyCon to create an M3U8 video playlist file and then download the M3U8 file back to your computer. AnyCov is an online video converter tool that allows you to convert and download M3U8 files to your computer. This online converter tool can accept almost any video files, and help you convert it to M3U8 file, and then provide you a download link so that you can download the M3U8 file back to your computer. You don't need to download or install any additional program or tool for this method to work. All you need to do is to visit the website and convert, then download the M3U8 video file. If you are interested in downloading M3U8 file using the online tool AnyConv, we have also prepared a simple guide for your own reference. Have a look:

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Step 1: Visit the official website of AnyConv. AnyConv provides various video converting and downloading utilities. On the website, find the M3U8 converter function module and enter.

Step 2: Click the "CHOOSE FILE" button to choose a file to upload.

Step 3: Then click "Convert" and wait for a while. After a couple of seconds, AnyConv would give you a download link to download the converted M3U8 video file. Just click "Download" and you can use your web browser to download the M3U8 video from AnyConv.