asf/asx files

liamboyle06 · 20-04-2006, 10:44

Hi All, I am hoping some one can help here
I access a certain webpage with audio samples on it, and i am trying to get the actual audio file, but when I save target as , it saves it as an asf/asx file.
is there any way I can get the original audio file?

This has only happened since they changed the website at the start of the month, when I was usually able to download the audio samples.

Gareth · 20-04-2006, 11:13

The problem here is that Advanced Streaming format (.asf) is a data format for streaming audio and video content, and a .asx is merely the metafile. As the audio is being streamed, it's really being held in your PC's memory, which holds a buffer of a certain amount of the audio file (that's a bit of a Blue Peter explanation, lemme know if you want the real techie version

).

The media player handles updating the buffer, so in a roundabout kinda way, only a few seconds of the audio file are held in memory at any one time.

Now, to get around that, you can use tools such as Streambox VCR, or Total Recorder, which instead of flushing the buffer from memory when it has played what it has held in memory, it actually writes it to a file, so that you end up with an MP3 of the total recording.

You can get Streambox VCR from here or Total Recorder can be found at www.totalrecorder.com. I'm sure there are other applications that others will recommend too

nicke261192 · 20-04-2006, 19:16

companies use it to try and stop people nicking stuff

cookie_365 · 20-04-2006, 21:48

Use Firefox?

If so, is this any use to you?

Or if you use IE I think you can faff about finding it in you temporary internet files.

Playing/converting to mp3's a different issue though

liamboyle06 · 21-04-2006, 10:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicke261192

companies use it to try and stop people nicking stuff

I aint trying to nick something off a company, it is for customer surveys answer for where I work.
Before they upgraded the website, they allowed us to download the audio samples, but now when you try to download it, it downloads the asf file, which does not play in WMP with access denied error.

Thakns to all others for their help, I was using audacity to record the samples but was hoping for a much easier way of downloading it.

Graham M · 21-04-2006, 10:24

Try opening the ASX/ASF file in Notepad, sometimes they are in plain text and the address to the proper media can be found.