.ASF from Mac

[Mike Chapman]

Hi, Folks,

Anyone out there know how to convert .mov files to .asf using either Cleaner 6 for the Mac or Quicktime Pro? Some websurfing claims that it can be done, but I haven’t figured out how yet. We have a client that wants .asf files to log tapes, but our Mac-only platforms don’t seem to speak the language. Any help or advice would be appreciated!

Mike Chapman

[Ben Waggoner]

By .asf, do you really mean .asf, or do you mean a Windows Media file? ASF was the old extension for WMV years ago, but all modern tools make .wmv. You can take a .wmv and rename it .asf and it’ll work fine. But if they’re specifically asking for .asf, maybe they want ancient codecs as well.

Assuming that a modern WMV file would work for you, you have two options worth mentioning:

Squeeze 4.1 + Flip4Mac

or

Compression Master

Both do a great looking WMV9 WMV file.

My Book: https://www.benwaggoner.com/books.htm
Squeeze and ProCoder tutorials: https://www.classondemand.net/benwaggoner/
Compression Class at Stanford: https://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/compression.html

[Mike Chapman]

Hmmmm…in that case, I’m guessing they want WMV files and that perhaps their terminology hasn’t kept up with the times. If .asf plays nicely on a Wintel box (assuming they have semi-recent drivers, etc.) that should work. This is the occasional disadvantage of working in an all-Mac house.

Just so I understand, .asf is the just the wrapper, right? A WMV file will behave the same way on a fairly-recent Windows Media Player?

Thanks.

Mike

[Ben Waggoner]

ASF and WMV are both “Advanced Streaming Format” files – exact same wrapper, different extensions.

WMV works fine from (I believe) Windows Media Player 7 on.

My Book: https://www.benwaggoner.com/books.htm
Squeeze and ProCoder tutorials: https://www.classondemand.net/benwaggoner/
Compression Class at Stanford: https://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/compression.html

[Craig Seeman]

I’ve played WMV9 files created in Flip4Mac on Windows 98 (pre 98 SE) with WMP7.1 just fine. There’s a free update for WMP7 which will allow it to play WMV9 files. Update default for WMP is “auto udpate” but if disabled, they’d have to update manually.

Flip4Mac will work in Quicktime Pro, FCP, iMovie directly but having Squeeze4.1 (or Cleaner 6) will allow for much additiional tweaking.

[Mike Chapman]

Thanks so much — you saved us a lot of wasted time! Turns out that the client had an ancient player, and is upgrading. Thanks again.

MBC