.asx files?

[13ack.Stab]

Hey, I'm really new to this thing, and so I have no idea what to do. Here's my problem: I have a couple of files with the .asx extension, and no program I have can run it. Is there some program that I can get from somewhere that can run/convert it? I tried the FFmpeg program, but all the encoded things I saved contained 0kb of information. I would really appreciate some help here. And, in case you didn't know, I'm on a Mac.

[redwudz]

From this site: http://www.webreference.com/js/column51/asf.html

ASX files are textual command files that manage streaming of ASF files. They are very small in size (about 1K) because they contain no data, just instructions. When a user clicks a link to an ASX file, the browser downloads it to the cache directory, launches the Windows Media Player, and then starts the streaming. The advantage of using ASX files over ASF files is their server location.

Check their size. If they are small as mentioned, that may be what they are. You may be able to use them in Windows Media player. (Mac version?)

And welcome to our forums.

[Cornucopia]

Yeah, ASX files are really "meta"-files. That is, Files that describe other files.

It's just a text file in XML which is a pointer to the real media file.

Open it up in any text editor and see where the real file resides and DL/copy THAT.

Scott

[13ack.Stab]

Ç

[13ack.Stab]

Erm. Interesting. I posted something a second ago and all it did was show up as a wierd C. Oh well. Here goes again:

So when I open the file in the text editor all I get is a bunch of really wierd symbols (that aren't in any alphabet to my knowledge). And when I try to open the file in windows media player, I get an error saying that it cannot be opened. Any more ideas?

Thanks for the warm welcome.

[Case]

Like redwudz said, what's the file size?

[Cornucopia]

Here's a sample .asx file (would be same also for .wvx or .wax file):

<Asx Version = "3.0">
<title>Sample ASX File</title>
<Abstract></Abstract>
<Copyright></Copyright>
<Author>Scott Warren</Author>

<Entry>
	<Ref href = "movie1.mpg"/>
</Entry>

<Entry>
	<Ref href = "video2.avi"/>
</Entry>

<Entry>
	<Ref href = "program3.wmv"/>
</Entry>

</asx>

Plain XML text. Even if it was created in Arabic or Chinese, the XML should still be standard ASCII.

Sounds like what you've got isn't really an asx.
Use Gspot, or some file identifier program to find out what kind of file it actually is...

Scott

BTW, MediaPlayer on the Mac probably would have difficulty with ANY asx file.

[13ack.Stab]

It doesn't look like Gspot is for Mac....

The filesize is 1MB.

[Ai Haibara]

Try loading it in VLC or mplayer and see what information those give about the file.

[13ack.Stab]

VLC can't run it - it says that no suitable access module can be found, and then displays more of that wierd code.

And MPlayer.... the site isn't letting me download codecs or skins. I have the actual application, though. The site keeps saying that it's forbidden.

[Cornucopia]

1 MB. Hmmmm.

Too large to really be an ASX file (usually just couple of kB).

Way too small to be an even halfway decent media file.

Sounds like garbage to me. (or maybe a virus).
I'd give up on those, and either try the source again (correctly getting the real media this time) or move on.

Scott

[Case]

Too large for a real .asx file. Try renaming to .asf and see if your usual tools will play it now, just in case the tool bases it's file recognition on the suffix.

[13ack.Stab]

I tried renaming the file to .asf and it still didn't work.

[Ai Haibara]

As .asx files should be stream reference files, are these streams you saved from a website? And, if so, can you give us an example link, so that we can take a look at them?

You can also try renaming the file with the extension of .wma (audio) or .wmv (video), but if giving it an .asf extension didn't work, using the wm extensions probably won't, either.

[TugBoat]

I tried renaming the file to .asf and it still didn't work.

Have you even tried using QuickTime with the Flip4Mac component installed? As others have said, asx files are usually associated with web videos. With the QT Flip4Mac component you can view these videos and either save them as source, which usually gives you a 4KB asx file that says this in TextEdit;
<asx version = "3.0">


<entry>
<ref href="mms://wmscnn.stream.aol.com.edgestreams.net/cnn/world/2006/07/25/sadler.beirut.strike.cnn.ws.wmv"/>
<ref href="http://wmscnn.stream.aol.com.edgestreams.net/cnn/world/2006/07/25/sadler.beirut.strike.cnn.ws.wmv"/>
</entry>


</asx>

Or, you can save them as "QT MOV" which usually gives you a "video.ws" video that QT will open and describe as;
Windows Media Audio 9 Standard, Mono, 44.100 kHz
Windows Media Video 9 Standard, 464 x 260, Millions

Either way, QuickTime deals with these files as long as you have the Free Flip4Mac package installed. You can usually convert these videos, for free, with ffmpegX by using the Decode with QT option.
8)