Trying to play ASF files in xine
 

Using Debian Lenny

I downloaded a video and am trying to play it in xine. It is an
ASF file and I get the following error:
codec error: use windows media player
Aborting video, redirecting to Microsoft codec download page,
I also got the same error using Mplayer, and ffplay

It starts playing the video and I get sound, but then it stops.
Is there any way to fix this?

From the behavior it sounds like a phishing lure to me. It first pretends to be a legitimate video, but then pretends to error out and redirects you to a bogus "codec" site. And of course the codec you download and install is loaded up with a trojan.

Legitimate videos never give errors like that, since that's a function of the player, not the media.