Problems converting certain .asf's to .wav's

[stever...@sbcglobal.net]

I use a program called SDP Downloader ( http://sdp.ppona.com ) to
capture Media Player audio and video streams to a local file with an
.asf file extention. After this I then use dBpowerAMP (
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm ) to convert the .asf file to a .wav.

Most of the time the process goes as planned but one audio streaming
source offers up content in an uncompressed .wav format that SDP
Downloader captures but dBpowerAMP cannot convert saying "CODEC
decompression error."

The only player that will play these files is Windows Media Player
Classic if I start playback a few seconds into the file, otherwise MP
Classic will play the first couple of seconds then jump to the end and
stop.

Perhaps an audio editor that can parse out the portion beyond the first
few seconds and then save the file as a .wav format, although that is
what I think it is anyway just that SDP Downloader gives it the .asf
extention and probably some header information that I am not sure how
to work with.

Well, strange problem, but hopefully someone has an answer.

Thanks for the help, Steve.

[Mike B]

Hi Steve

WAV files are quite simple in structure, so I am sure that your problem will
be quite simple to solve. The fact that WMP can play your file, albeit not
from the beginning, seems to indicate that the PCM data has been correctly
captured. The problem might be that the converted WAV file has non-standard
chunk records that the Media Player is getting confused with. Why don't you
parse the file yourself and see what's there? If there is a lot of garbage
at the beginnig of the file, then just rewrite it including only the RIFF
header, the format chunk and the actual data chunk. It should then play
correctly.

regards
Mike
<stever...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:1162662894....@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

[stever...@sbcglobal.net]

> If there is a lot of garbage at the beginnig of the file, then just rewrite it including only the RIFF
> header, the format chunk and the actual data chunk. It should then play
> correctly.

Can you reccomend a program that allows editing of these portions of
the file. Thanks, Steve.