Firsthand recommendation for personal asf player

May 9, 2009 2:43 PM

Please suggest a small mp3 player that you know plays .asf and .wma files?

My girlfriend is trying to find a small mp3 player that plays .asf and .wma files so she can listen to downloaded radio shows. Lots of players list .asf in their supported formats, but the ones she's tried recently actually don't, despite the claim on the box. We know that the downloaded files themselves are OK because they play on her old Samsung device that she wants to replace.

Can you suggest a small personal music player that you know firsthand will play non-encrypted .asf and .wma files? Thanks!

posted by metaBugs to technology (4 comments total)

A Zune would work, as should most other non-ipods. Also, try renaming the asf files to wma (if they are audio-only).

If you can give a link to one of the asf files that doesn't work, I could verify if a) a zune can play it, and b) if there's something wrong with the file itself.
posted by Diddly at 2:57 PM on May 9

asf containers are pretty frequently streaming media, so all that's in there may just be a redirect to a stream. Are the files playable when she's not connected to the internet?

Is she completely against converting the files?
posted by azarbayejani at 5:51 PM on May 9

Easiest thing would be to convert them. There are plenty of programs out there that help with converting files to .MP3 free of charge. Why waste the money on a player? Cheaper just to convert them and play them on what you have.
posted by Cubanisimo at 11:27 PM on May 9

Diddly - I'll ask her for a link to the files. We know that they all _can_ work because they work perfectly in her current player, a little Samsung device. Unfortunately that player's USB connection is getting increasingly unreliable, which is why she's looking for a new one.

azarbayejani - she downloads the .asf files and puts them on a small, cheap(ish) Samsung portable music player, where they work perfectly. So these files aren't just stream links, and do work when offline. We know that the files work in her old player, she's just having problems finding a new player that also supports them.

Cubanisimo - Converting them is possible, but because she downloads a lot (several hours' worth of radio programmes every week) the conversion takes an annoyingly long time and she'd rather not need to. Her current device can play the unconverted files with no problem, but it's dying and needs to be replaced. Hence the search for a new player that supports the format.

Unfortunately her current player isn't sold any more and others in its line don't seem to be available in our part of the world. So far she's bought two others from Amazon that claim to support the format, but returned them because they can't play .asf files that work perfectly on her old one.
posted by metaBugs at 6:20 AM on May 10