I have been producing and utilizing .asf files for streaming audio and/or photos for over 5 years on my web sites. They are very efficient in terms of kb and play while downloading. Why aren’t .asf’s utilized more?
Advanced systems format files are a Windows Media-specific format, and therefore not portable to unsupported platforms. For information, check out this link.
Thanks for the link. But I don’t understand? Are .ra’s or other format’s any better?
For photos? What’s wrong with JPG? I hate ASF but have only seen it used for video. (I also hate RA) What’s wrong with MP3?
Umm, you have to really dredge the bottom of the sea to find anything worse than RealMedia (.ra,.rm, etc.) It’s so bad that MS formats like .asm and .wmv, which are awful, are actually better!
Rule 1: Avoid proprietary products. That includes all RealMedia and most MS.
Rule 2: Avoid MS software. In particular, with things like .asf files, links to other files, web sites, etc. can be embedded. So you can easily end up with Bad Stuff on your computer playing those files.
Rule 3: Use formats that can be played on many hardware and software platforms.
Stick to open format (or as close as you can get) systems.
CoatOfArms I would never play one of your .asf files on your web page. I mean never. Since there a hordes of much better media formats, you have lots of choices. Ever heard of “mpeg”???
'Nuther second for .mpg video. Small, high-quality, cross-platform.
If someone hosts content in .asf or .wmv format, I don’t see it. I could if I took a little extra time, but generally I don’t think it’s worth it.
I say keep using the ASF. Any platform out there can play them along with wmv. There used to be problems playing them on non-MS platforms years ago, but its not a problem today. MPEGs are too big.