META File Extension

What is the .META file type?

Most frequently, the .meta filename extension occurs in relation to metafiles created by RealPlayer Cloud when downloading videos from the Internet. RealPlayer Cloud is a freeware multimedia player with an integrated cloud service by RealNetworks that lets users play streamed multimedia content directly on web sites, or download it as video files to watch locally.

Not all downloaded video files can be readily played by RealPlayer Cloud, as third-party codecs are often required (e.g., as with the HTML5 standard WebM video codec). On certain occasions, like downloading video files from HTML5-enabled web sites or having an outdated version of the Adobe Flash plugin, RealPlayer Cloud would create an additional metafile (.meta), a small (a couple of kilobytes) file holding descriptive information (metadata) about a video being downloaded.

A common mistake is treating .meta files as shortcuts to video files. With RealPlayer Cloud, it is not so, as such .meta files simply serve as informative labels for video files, to be automatically processed by the player. Absence of a .meta file does not affect playback of the related video in any way.

Apart from denoting files, ".meta" also acts as a directory name with Acronis Backup & Recovery, a commercial disk tool by Acronis International GmbH. A ".meta" directory is created for every backup made with the above tool, storing important metafiles. If the ".meta" folder is deleted, there may be difficulties processing the affected backup or appending data to it.

Besides, the .meta extension is also used to label various metafiles, i.e. files that contain metadata for some other files. Especially popular in computer programming, such .meta files often contain various bits of version control, describe deployment and module options, and generally store any metadata pertinent to a given object. As a rule, these are plaintext files that follow some kind of syntax and can be opened with a text editor.

Software to open or convert META files

VLC media player by VideoLAN

 

RealPlayer

 

Notepad++ by Notepad++ Team

 

Media Player Classic - Home Cinema

 

RealTimes (RealPlayer) by Realnetworks

 

Free File Viewer Pro

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