>>>Does anyone know if there is a plugin you can download that will add the .asf rendering option to Vegas? If not, is there any other way you would recommend to convert a file to .asf?

ASF format has been dropped by SoFo because they want to focus all their efforts on WMV/WMA. this means that in order to render to ASF you have to install Vegas 2.0a or 2.0b and then you'll be able to render to ASF from VV3. the only problem is you can't configure your render templates unless you do it from VV2. once you create some custom templates in VV2, you can then render to asf using your templates from VV3.

I really don't understand why they couldn't have left the ASF plugin in VV3 since it functions perfectly other than the fact that customization is disabled. they claim that they are focusing on WMV, but why does that mean ASF has to be disabled? I just sent another client away with VV3 (having purchased it at my recommendation) and the look of astonishment on his face when I told him they dropped ASF support was priceless.

"so, you have to have VV3 to open ASF files on the timeline, but you have to have VV2 to render to ASF?!"

"correct."

"so where do I get VV2?"

I've heard people suggest rendering to WMV and renaming the file to ASF but that is pointless as far as I can tell. something about tricking the WMP into streaming? anyway its just a hack/workaround for an unrelated problem to mine.

rendering to ASF means you can deliver perfectly acceptable video and audio to just about ANY windows user without requiring a download or plugin. to do the same with WMA/WMV your audience has to be using WinXP/WinMe. When you consider how many people are still using WinNT4, Win9x, and Windows 2000 it seems like a rather arrogant decision to drop ASF rendering and tell everyone to render to WMV. ("Take the WMV plunge" is what SoFo told me. lol!)

it's great that we can bring ASF/WMV files onto the timeline in VV3. I use this feature all the time. but I don't like it when they take features *out* of an upgrade.

to the original poster: another way to get an ASF file is to render an intermediary file from VV3 and then use the ASF encoder downloadable from Microsoft to compress your final file. the one I recommend is On Demand Producer which was co-developed by Sonic Foundry and is excellent. maybe the close ties SF has with MS is the real reason they dropped ASF support. MS would love to see that format go away as the WM6.4 player isn't nearly as *commercial* as the WM7/8 players.

it's sad but what can you do. VV3 is still the best... it's just frustrating when you feel like your at the mercy of decisions made by product managers who compromise features based on what the big corporate partners want. anyway, that's just my analysis and I could be wrong! who's to say?

anyway you can ge the On Demand Producer from MS still:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp
go there and pick "Third Party Tools and Software"
then pick Sonic Foundry On-Demand-Producer

Uh, despite everything you have read here, there is *no difference* between ASF and WMV/WMA (except the letters of the extension). ASF was the sole designation up to the release of WM7, when MS put on the push to get Windows Media into consumer devices. There was a request from hardware manufacturers that the extension reflect whether or not video was present or not -- thus WMA for audio and WMV for video. You can rename a WMV file with the ASF extension and it will work fine, as will an ASF file renamed WMA or WMV based on content.

The ASF-suffix lives on in the Windows Media Encoder for the "stream format file" one needs to use to set up a multicast (all this is is a file describing codecs and bitrates without any payload within -- needed because folks joining a multicast never contact the server directly and have no way of reliably getting that information). I suspect the extension has only survived because the previous ways of defining a stream format (ASD files, namely) have been deprecated and the current version of the server hasn't changed since April '99.

So anyway, ASF/WMV extensions for video files are interchangable, and ASF/WMA for audio files are interchangable. An ASF and an WM* file are otherwise identical bit for bit.

>>>So anyway, ASF/WMV extensions for video files are interchangable, and ASF/WMA for audio files are interchangable. An ASF and an WM* file are otherwise identical bit for bit.

the difference becomes meaningful when you take into account what codecs you can use to encode with in Windows Media 6.4 (ASF) vs. Windows Media 7/8 (WMV).

by ASF I mean Windows Media 6.4 and by WMV/WMA I mean Windows Media 7/8. there is a distinct difference between the two versions which become important when you are trying to deliver video/audo to an audience who doesn't always have a fast computer or an internet connection. many laptops are 200MHz-400MHz and are still running Win98/Win2000, both of which come with Windows Media Player 6.4 pre-installed. those systems are not suitable to run Media Player 7/8, which runs like a pig on a slow system.

it is much easier for the end user when there aren't any software installs or plugins to worry about. that's why many websites and software products choose Windows Media 6.4 (ASF) as their primary delivery format.

besides, if you haven't tried it, Windows Media 7/8 (WMV/WMA) files don't play well in Windows Media Player 6.4. they work, but repositioning the seek bar is very sluggish. since there is no noticeable difference in quality between the versions at the resolution and bitrates that I am using, there is no reason for me to use the new version, which only has disadvantages to the end user and no benefits at all.

Vegas's Windows Media capabilities and the Windows Media 6.4 (ASF) rendering is what attracted me to the product in the first place. but VV3 does not allow me to render to that format unless I install VV2 and create ASF render templates from there.

the fact is, there is a difference between the rendering capabilities of VV2 vs VV3. WM6.4/ASF rendering shouldn't have been left behind in my opinion. there is a lot of confusion over this issue thanks partly to the way Microsoft has handled it. maybe SoFo didn't understand the significance of this omission.

it doesn't seem like it would take much to switch the 'Customize' button back on, and thereby re-enable ASF rendering in VV3. perhaps it could be addressed in the next update.

I'll concede that the newer codecs are more processor intensive, but I (respectfully) can't buy the blanket statement that the 7/8 codecs "don't work well under 6.4" since we routinely embed the 6.4 player in web pages, use the 7 (usually) codec and view them on PII's in the 300-450 mHz range (I run the streaming media operation at the University of Cincinnati). I'm not being facetious when I say I *respectfully* disagree, because there are certainly accomodations that have to be made with respect to frame sizes and rates (we usually max out at 350kb 320x240 15fps). Higher bit and frame rates do get dicey under 6.4 (which is a shame. And I join you in not caring for the WM7 player).

What you may want to try is rendering out to the ISO MPEG-4 codec, which is the same as the original MPEG-4 codec that shipped in 6.4 (except it can't be used to compress AVI's like the original V1 codec). Use that codec and you're rendering to about as pure a 6.4 environment as is possible. And remember, V7 was really just basically MPEG-4 V4 -- the code didn't really fork to something else until V8. (Theory has it that a Win 98 or better install of Media Player should be able to play content encoded with the current ISO codec without having to do a codec update. Can't say I've tested it, but that's the claim.) So you can do MPEG-4 V1, not V2 or V3, but V4.