What Does Advanced Systems Format (ASF) Mean?
Advanced systems format (ASF) is a universal format developed by Microsoft for storing and streaming media. ASF is a digital audio/video container format developed from 1995-1998.
ASF can act as a container for many media formats; popular types include WMA, WMV and MPEG4 video.
ASF supports data transfer over a wide range of networks and protocols while still extending its support for audio and video playback from a number of sources such as local playback and Internet delivery. ASF enables playback to start even if a complete file is not available, which makes it ideal for Internet use. The ASF container is most widely used for Windows Media video and audio codecs, although it can be used to hold a variety of other video and audio codecs.
Advanced Systems Format was previously known as Advanced Streaming Format or Active Streaming Format.