WMV vs MPG

[jyeh74]

Whats the diff in b/t these files? I looked at the glossary of wmv, asf and mpg but it didnt tell me much. I know u can just click and change the extension of the file to mpg. Asf is streaming, you cant fast forward, although for some weird reason some of my asf files can rewind and fast forward.

so whats the difference b/t wmv and mpg?

[jimmalenko]

WMV and ASF files normally use WMV codecs from Microsoft.

MPG files are usually MPEG-1 or MPEG-2.


I wouldn't recommend just "changing" extensions of files willy-nilly - this doesn't change the data within them at all, only the filename.

[jyeh74]

wmv can only be played by windows media player?

why is it that some asf files are streaming, but others are not?

[thecoalman]

wmv can only be played by windows media player?

They'll open in other programs, PowerDVD and another player I have installed worked fine. Couldn't open it with the regular version of QT though... gee I wonder why? :P

The difference is the codec used to encode them. WMV is generally used for instances where high compression is required such as web video. MPEG can be used for the web too, files labled mpg cane be MPEG2 files which are usually DVD files.

As far as ASF I'm not entirely sure but I think they are identical to WMV or very close.

[celtic_druid]

WMV = ASF, MS just changed the extension when they released WMV7, before that ASF files tended to use MS MPEG-4. Both mpg and asf/wmv are just containers though. No reason why an mpg has to contain MPEG1/2 or a wmv file has to contain WMV/WMA.

Try ASFTools to remove the streaming flag and you should be able to seek. Probably get better seeking though by remuxing to mkv.