.ASF File Type Probs

[Guest]

In Windows Movie Maker, I use video files that are .asf format (a predcessor
to the .wmv, I suppose) and I can "Import into collections" and as soon as I
put it onto the timeline, "Windows Movie Maker has encountered a problem and
must shut down" (along those lines) and I cannot use my movie files. If it
means anything, i did make them into clips. Thank you.

 

[Wojo]

ASF files have issues with just about every movie player and editor I've
ever worked with. Either they crash the program or they play poorly or you
simply can't advance the video manually. It is best to convert the ASF files
to AVI before importing them into Movie Maker.
Check this website for a list of different programs to do the job as well as
a wealth of information.
http://www.videohelp.com/convert

 

[Guest]

Thank you, so... exactly how would I go about changing into an AVI? I don't
have spendable money at the moment, and the video file is somewhere around
being 12- 15 minutes long.

 

[Rehan]

ASF files have issues with just about every movie player and editor I've
ever worked with. Either they crash the program or they play poorly or you
simply can't advance the video manually. It is best to convert the ASF files
to AVI before importing them into Movie Maker.
Check this website for a list of different programs to do the job as well as
a wealth of information.
http://www.videohelp.com/convert

Wojo, ASF is a Windows Media file format. (WMV files are a special type
of asf format). ASF is a wrapper/container format much like AVI is.
Internal data streams can be encoded with many different codecs. Here is
more info on ASF specifications:
http://www.microsoft.com/asf/

This means this file format should be relatively more stable in windows
player and editor (WMM)... If your experience is different then may I
ask you to elaborate how do you got this impression. Any specific
incidents? May be we can resolve those somehow.

Now the crashing behaviour reported by original poster seems to me to be
more like the ususal codec issue. Which can be cured by solutions
reported at:
www.papajohn.org > Problem Solving > Hangs and Crashes

What do you think?

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

Go to the Microsoft website and get Windows Media Encoder, its free. It
is the best way (and certainly better than Movie Maker of any version) for
converting these files. You will find it an excelent program and you might
wonder why the MVP's have not suggested it....such is life

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

I'm not an Ex Spurt but I know someone who is (Instant).

 

[John Kelly]

As far as I am aware. WMV is not a container for any other format, but ASF
is including non standard codecs.

the following in contex quote applies...

Typically, ASF files that contain audio content that is compressed with the
Windows Media Audio (WMA) codec use the .wma extension. Similarly, ASF files
that contain audio content, video content, or both, that is compressed with
Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) codecs use the .wmv
extension. Finally, content that is compressed with any other codec use the
generic .asf extension. For more information about ASF, visit the following
Microsoft Web site:

From the above it easily follows that the OP has an ASF files that will be a
GREAT problem for the known unreliable abilities of Movie Maker.

I am not an Instant Expert
www.the-kellys.org

 

[Wojo]

None of what you just said changes anything that I said.
ASF files (I don't care if they are essentially WMV files or not) simply
cause problems.
I guarantee that the op will have far less problems if the files are
converted to AVI.
Now maybe an ASF file "should" be more stable but it isn't more stable and
this I have experienced first hand many many times.
-Wojo

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I agree... someone was wrestling getting a video clip into Movie Maker a
month ago.... he said it was taken by a Panasonic D-Snap Digital Camera
SV-AV50.... capturing it directly from RCA connections to a Halo 2 game
playing.

He emailed a sample. The file is an .ASF and I don't have the codec needed
to play or handle it.... such files need conversion...

--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 website - http://www.papajohn.org

None of what you just said changes anything that I said.
ASF files (I don't care if they are essentially WMV files or not) simply
cause problems.
I guarantee that the op will have far less problems if the files are
converted to AVI.
Now maybe an ASF file "should" be more stable but it isn't more stable and
this I have experienced first hand many many times.
-Wojo

 

[Wojo]

Thank you
I can playback .ASF files but any program I use the ASF file is a problem
leading me to believe the codec is unreliable. I have had luck converting
them to .WMV using Windows Media Encoder however.

I agree... someone was wrestling getting a video clip into Movie Maker a
month ago.... he said it was taken by a Panasonic D-Snap Digital Camera
SV-AV50.... capturing it directly from RCA connections to a Halo 2 game
playing.

He emailed a sample. The file is an .ASF and I don't have the codec needed
to play or handle it.... such files need conversion...

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I tried it with the Encoder and got an error message that the needed audio
codec isn't on the computer... and it doesn't tell me what codec it is...

 

[Rehan]

I tried it with the Encoder and got an error message that the needed audio
codec isn't on the computer... and it doesn't tell me what codec it is...

Hi Papajohn,
I would be interested to analyze the file you have. Can you send it to
me or let me download it from your website. Thanks.

 

[John Kelly]

Hello Wojo,

After such a firm and definite denial of your comments we have another
turn around. Lol. The Microsoft web page I quoted from holds all the info
needed and a hint at the drawbacks of using ASF. Seems plain enough to me.
For whats its worth, In the past (quite a while back) I had trouble visiting
a programmers website. He had ASF videos which I could not play. I do not
remember the error code now. So, when I started putting video on my site I
resolved not to use what seemed to me to be a very out of date file format.
Microsft by their very definition of what an ASF file can do and their move
to (seemingly exclusive use of) WMV as being their standard seem to indicate
that files with an asf extension are now dated and not their prefered method
of displaying video/audio. It also seems to be an acknowledgement by
Microsoft that the definition of ASF leaves far to many "styles" of content
resulting in the problems you and I both acknowledge, and WMV is far from
being a special instance of anything...the definition is quite clear when it
defines the content of a WMV. I don't see any problem with that even though
others thought it so important that they had to take you down a peg or two
over problems with ASF and what a number of people knew to be correct
comments from you.

I don't think I have been on a website in years that uses ASF, its all MOV,
WMV or Flash now. I guess there might be a few still around though if you
look hard enough

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

The day after more than 50 people were murderd by cowards in London, England

The TRUTH is that I am not an INSTANT EXPERT

None of what you just said changes anything that I said.
ASF files (I don't care if they are essentially WMV files or not) simply
cause problems.
I guarantee that the op will have far less problems if the files are
converted to AVI.
Now maybe an ASF file "should" be more stable but it isn't more stable and
this I have experienced first hand many many times.
-Wojo

 

[Wojo]

I can be wrong, but not this time.
I read about ASF on Microsoft as well.
There are actually quite a few ASF files floating around the web
unfortunately and my thinking is since, as you said Microsoft basically
abandoned them, there are no decent codecs out there that make the filetype
work properly. So I guess converting them to AVI is a good idea. (Hey it's
like DeJaVu all over again) LOL
-Wojo

Hello Wojo,

After such a firm and definite denial of your comments we have another
turn around. Lol. The Microsoft web page I quoted from holds all the info
needed and a hint at the drawbacks of using ASF. Seems plain enough to me.
For whats its worth, In the past (quite a while back) I had trouble
visiting a programmers website. He had ASF videos which I could not play.
I do not remember the error code now. So, when I started putting video on
my site I resolved not to use what seemed to me to be a very out of date
file format. Microsft by their very definition of what an ASF file can do
and their move to (seemingly exclusive use of) WMV as being their standard
seem to indicate that files with an asf extension are now dated and not
their prefered method of displaying video/audio. It also seems to be an
acknowledgement by Microsoft that the definition of ASF leaves far to many
"styles" of content resulting in the problems you and I both acknowledge,
and WMV is far from being a special instance of anything...the definition
is quite clear when it defines the content of a WMV. I don't see any
problem with that even though others thought it so important that they had
to take you down a peg or two over problems with ASF and what a number of
people knew to be correct comments from you.

I don't think I have been on a website in years that uses ASF, its all
MOV, WMV or Flash now. I guess there might be a few still around though if
you look hard enough

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

The day after more than 50 people were murderd by cowards in London,
England

The TRUTH is that I am not an INSTANT EXPERT

 

[John Kelly]

Love it

Best Wishes.....John Klly
www.the-kellys.org

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I'll email you a capy... it's just under 2 MB

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

It just left.... The model of the camera is SV-AV50 and my checking so far
show that it records MPEG-4 files using an EM4A codec, a codec that is
pretty rare..

--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 website - http://www.papajohn.org

I'll email you a capy... it's just under 2 MB