Coversion Gurus: Difference between asf and wmv

[hoomi]

Friends
I am trying to find out which is the best format for me to compress the Dat/MPG files from VCDs.
I want to cut some clips from Dat/MPG files, compress them so that they can be hosted on websites for downloading by users. Users will play on local PCs, not streaming.
I have made WMV files so far with media encoder and so far so good.
But what I am confused about it is what is asf format? Which one is better asf or WMV ? After reading the following article I am even more confused.
http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=how+to+make+asf+files&ei=UTF-8&url=Ys0ZBk-GC2gJ:...ticle/101.html
Can some tech guru please enlighten me in brief and suggest what is best way to compress the dat/mpg files with as little loss of quality?
Thanks in advance..

[Gees]

I'm no guru, but asf is designed for streaming: https://www.videohelp.com/glossary#ASF

and can contain mixed content.

You have many more choices if what you want is a downloadable file. :c)

[hoomi]

I'm no guru, but asf is designed for streaming: https://www.videohelp.com/glossary#ASF

and can contain mixed content.

You have many more choices if what you want is a downloadable file. :c)

yes but the question is
To make asf or WMV or something else ?

[Gees]

You have the wmv already, right? And it looks good? And you don't want to stream it? Just use what you have. :c)

[theDruid]

If you want people to be able to download and view your clips, you really have to ask yourself questions about compatibility & the users you anticipate your site having.

As you'll know ASF and WMV are both microsoft formats. This is not to say that only people on a M$ platform will be able to access them, but it certainly puts a bias towards that.

Popular alternatives to the M$ formats include QuickTime (apple/mac) and Real. Then of course there's DivX etc..

DivX is growing in popularity & compatibility, with standalone players getting certification for DivX, and the format becoming more widely accepted as a 'standard'.

The MPEG-1 and 2 formats are true standards, and therefore arguably would be the most compatible with users' systems.

What you really have to ask yourself is whether your priority is compatibility, or the quality/size tradeoff.

Many of the formats above (e.g. WM9, QT, Real, DivX etc..) will offer fairly good quality/size ratios, but you've no guarantee the codecs are going to be installed on your users' systems.

What's the best codec to use? ... is an impossible question to answer... a Windows/M$ codec won't be much good if most of your users are going to be running Macs/Linux (although this is maybe unlikely!) - and MPEG-1 is very compatible, but not great in terms of size/quality for downloads.

WMV is pretty popular for video downloads - but then so is QuickTime. There are pros and cons for all the possible formats.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[Gazorgan]

There is no difference between ASF and WMV. ASF tend to be lower bitrates for streaming and WMV's tend to be higher quality, up to HDTV quality.

However, you can stream both of them. And in fact you can change the extensions and it doesn't matter.

If you want true cross-platform capabilities instead of just the 95% M$ penetration, then go with MPEG1. No codecs downloads required....(assuming they can even play a video in the first place).

[hoomi]

Thanks Guys for all your replies.
I was confused becuase I noticed that many webmasters used asf format in 2001, 2002 but this year the trend is more towards wmv.
I guess I will stick to WMV for now as most users that download these clips prefer to see them on computers using media player.
Also I guess it is not that difficult for them to convert these WMV files to mpg/dat format.

[theDruid]

I guess it is not that difficult for them to convert these WMV files to mpg/dat format.

I'm not so sure about that... I've got a few wmv files I've downloaded from sites which I've found pretty hard to convert to anything else - VirtualDub 1.3c (the last one with ASF support) cannot open them, and any more recent version brings up the error message about M$ having the patent on the ASF format.

gSpot says the files are WMV/ASF and use the WM7 codec.

TMPGEnc will usually open them though - so it's possible, but not necessarily easy.

As far as I'm aware, this is one of the major complaints about the WMV format - it's sometimes hard to convert it to anything else.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[--juggernaut--]

.wmv files use the Advanced System Format (.asf). .wmv is just the file extension used when audio + video is encoded to the Advanced System Format with the Windows Media Codec. All other codecs use the .asf file extension. More information here.