How to convert ASF to MP4 on Mac/ Windows

ASF, abbreviate for Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format, Active Streaming Format), is a Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media. It is a part of the Windows Media framework and therefore playing ASF videos under a Windows operating system with built-in WMP is quite easy.

However, if you want to watch ASF files on Mac, then you are going to have to download VLC media player to view it - You could not open the video in QuickTime by default. What if this for iOS device? As we know, Apple iOS devices only accept video ended with .mp4, .mov and .m4v extension. Obviously, there isn't straightforward way to go, you will need to convert your ASF videos into the broad compatibility of MP4 (or mov/m4v) that will play on your Apple TV, iPhone, iPad etc.

To make things easy you can exploit the power of a utility called Video Converter for Mac to convert ASF file to MP4 on Mac. It is very lightweight piece of software for converting a broad range of formats into H.264 MP4 format. It can also optimize video files so they're at the correct resolution for a variety of different popular devices, although it's probably best to leave them at native resolution.

Also, the program gives you ability to experience with basic video editing, like trimming video to get a certain part, cropping to remove the black bar, adjusting video of brightness, contrast, and saturation. Note, you can use Video Converter for Windows to convert your ASF videos.

Transferring videos with this program is easy with a few clicks of the mouse. And converting ASF to MP4 for Mac is what this article is all about, let's begin.

Step 1: Add ASF files

Assuming you have downloaded the program, the first step is to fire up it.

The program will accept a wide variety of video files as an input. Here we just load ASF videos by drag-and-drop or using the top of the menu and hit "Add File" , then select the ASF file you want to convert from the "Open" window, and then click Open.

Step 2: Choose output container and the codecs

Click on the "Profile" dropdown list to open the format panel, move the eyes to the "General Video" (or "HD Video" if your ASF are HD) column on the left side, and choose the MP4 option. Right here you can choose mp4 with video codec in "MPEG-4" or "H.264/MPEG-4 AVC".

This ASF to MP4 converter works fine to tweak output parameters through "Settings" option to the right of "Profile", once you understand how to set it up. However, you can ignore them if you don't know what all those settings are about.

It also gives you a host of presets for portable devices with tailored output settings. You can access these by clicking the list such as "Apple iPad", "Apple TV", "PS3", etc.

Step 3: Start ASF to MP4 encoding in Mac

Hit "Convert" button, and this smart ASF to MP4 video converter for Mac will do the rest for you! While rendering you are shown a process bar to track the percentage of the process.

After that, you're ready to transfer it and watch it!