Web and XML Glossary

Microsoft's ASF is an extensible file format designed to store synchronized multimedia data. It supports data delivery over a wide variety of networks and protocols while still proving suitable for local playback. The explicit goal of ASF is to provide a basis for industry-wide multimedia interoperability. Each ASF file is composed of one or more media streams. The file header specifies the properties of the entire file, along with stream-specific properties. Multimedia data, stored after the file header, references a particular media stream number to indicate its type and purpose. The delivery and presentation of all media stream data is synchronized to a common time-line. ASF's functionality is similar to the one provided by Apple's QuickTime.