What's the correct way to escape characters in m3u playlist?

Question

I have a file name that contains a "#" character and I am having issues creating a playlist that both VLC and MPV will accept (those are the two players I have tested.)

It seems if I use the following, it will work in MPV but not VLC.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:282,Marilyn Manson - Revelation #12
01. Revelation #12.flac

And if I use the following it will work in VLC but not MVP.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:282,Marilyn Manson - Revelation #12
01.%20Revelation%20%2312.flac

Is there something I am missing or is one or more of these programs simply buggy and there is no compatible solution beyond removing troublesome characters from file names all together?

Answer 1

It seems the reading of m3u files without url-encoded file names was not possible in VLC 3.0.16 and probably certain previous versions. It has been fixed in VLC 3.0.17

See https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=158920&start=25#p529284

In the current version though, as of this writing (3.0.17.3), there still are characters that need to be url-encoded for VLC being able to read them, one of them being the # character as the VLC developer points out in aboves post. It's unclear if this is about to be fixed in a future version of VLC.