What Is an MPL File?

MPL files are related to videos, either as a playlist file or a subtitles file

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Updated on November 29, 2022

What to Know

Some MPL files are playlists a media player like PowerDVD can use to understand which videos to play.
Other MPL files are text files used as subtitles for video playback. VLC can open one.
You can convert an MPL file to another playlist format or subtitles format with special tools.

This article explains what an MPL file is, how to open one on your computer, and how to convert from MPL to a different playlist file.

What Is an MPL File?

A file with the MPL file extension is an AVCHD playlist file. Since they are playlists, they're not the actual recordings made with your camcorder or other video recording device. Rather, they're just a reference to the actual videos, which are probably the .MTS files you should also see.

This file extension is also used for MPL2 subtitles. These are text files that contain subtitles for media players to display during video playback.

A HotSauce graphics file is a less common format that uses this extension.

How to Open an MPL File

MPL files saved as playlist files can be opened with Roxio Creator and CyberLink PowerDVD products, as well as for free with VLC and BS.Player. Since the format is in XML, you should be able to use a text editor to see the file paths of where the media files are located.

MPL files are typically stored on the device under the \AVCHD\BDMV\PLAYLIST\ folder.

While text editors can open MPL2 subtitles to read the contents manually, the more practical use is in programs like VLC so that they're displayed along with a corresponding video. Remember that these are just text files that display text based on timestamps; they're not actually the video files themselves.

Although MPL files can be edited with any text editor, Subtitle Edit is one example of an app built specifically for this kind of thing.

How to Convert an MPL File

Since MPL playlists don't actually contain any media files, you can't convert one directly to MP3, MP4, WMV, MKV, or any other audio/video format. If you're wanting to convert the actual media files, open the MTS files (or whatever format the media files are in) with a video file converter.

The Subtitle Edit program mentioned above can convert from MPL to a huge variety of subtitle formats. Like AVCHD playlists that are just text documents, you can't convert MPL to MP4 or any other video format.

Converting MPL to MPG might refer to the conversion between miles per liter and miles per gallon, neither of which have anything to do with these file formats. You can use a conversion calculator to do the math for you.

Still Can't Open It?

If your file isn't opening using the suggestions from above, you might be dealing with a file of a different format that just looks like an .MPL file, like WPL (Windows Media Player Playlist).

MLP is another similar-looking extension. It's used for audio files compressed with the Meridian Lossless Packing compression algorithm.

Yet another is MPI (uppercase "i"), which are project files created by a program called InstallJammer.

More Information on MPL2 Subtitles Files

This subtitle format uses square brackets and decaseconds. For example, to explain that the subtitle text should display at 10.5 seconds and then disappear 15.2 seconds later is written as [105][152].

Multiple text lines are configured with a line break like [105][152] First line|Second line.

Subtitles can be italicized with a forward slash, like so: [105][152] /First line|Second line. Or, to make the second one italic: [105][152] First line|/Second line. The same can be done on both lines to make both of them appear italicized.

The original file format used frames for setting up subtitle times, but was then switched to decaseconds in the second version.

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