ASF to Wav / MP3 - How I do it, comments?

[Xtasy2002]

I have a need in my office to take ASF files that another company sends me and convert them to WAV/MP3 format. Thus stripping out the video from the file entirely, and just keeping the audio track. This is so I can listen to bits of the file in my car as an audio CD or even on my portable MP3 player. The ASF files come to me in a format that is called WMV1.

Now, I've researched this issue a lot and I've only been able to find a single way to do what I need to do:

Open the ASF file in TMPGEnc using their directshow render.

Then click on File/Export - To WAV.

This process saves a WAV file from the ASF. But there's a problem, it's real time!!! No matter how fast my CPU is, it always take 1:1 to get the audio out. If the ASF video clip is 5 hours long, I have to wait 5 hours just to get the audio out of the file to a WAV. Then I have to go one step further just to take that audio from WAV and convert it to MP3.

There must be an easier way? I want to rip the audio out as fast as I can and have it preferrably to MP3 format during save, skipping all those steps and definately NOT working in real time. Is this possible?

[Xtasy2002]

Another note: I have found another way. I program called Asftools will take the asf file and will dump a .wav file out, VERY quickly. But this leads to another problem.

The .wav file it exports is in some kind of funky file format as well. To even play it in Windows Media, I need to have the K-light (sp?) codec pack installed.

There seems to be no way to open this .wav file in any editing application or convert it to MP3 at all.

Anyone have a better solution?