VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 17 of 17
Thread
  1. Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Search Comp PM
    Hi, I filmed a music recital and accidentally formatted the SD card after the fact. Long story. Anyhow, I used CGS Security's PhotoRec program to recover the overwritten files. Most of them I was able to get back. However, there are three files that when played in VLC Player play just fine (although the player shows 0:00 as the time duration for the clips), but when imported into Adobe Premiere CS5, the clips are very short and missing most of the content. One was even totally out of sync and the video all choppy. I converted the files into various other formats using All Video Converter (I normally use Media Converter 8, but it's on the fritz), and one of the videos came out better in its entirety (albeit it was laggy in Premiere), but the other two are still short and missing footage. Can someone help me figure out a workaround? Once again, the files play just fine when not in the NLE.

    I've tried other recovery programs to no avail. I've also tried to play the video in VLC and capture it with Camtasia and even that got corrupted while the video played just fine! I'm at a loss.
    Quote Quote  
  2. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    1. The write protect should be on while your doing this, even if you're just copying things from it. Make sure it's locked.

    2. Try a different program like Recuva and see what results you get and see if it says any of the files are overwritten.
    Quote Quote  
  3. Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Search Comp PM
    I did have the lock on. Recuva showed 3 pictures that were not recoverable. Thanks.
    Quote Quote  
  4. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    I'm assuming you did a quick format here, since you are able to retrieve files. I image the headers of the file have been damaged if they show 0:00 as the time. Depending on the file, you may be able to repair it according to my quick Google search. Here's an example.

    https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/234499-Steps-to-repair-a-partially-downloaded-avi-t...missing-header

    Another reason the video may be choppy is because it was written over partially. Did you write anything to the disk after formatting it?
    Quote Quote  
  5. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Sweden
    Search Comp PM
    Did you try convert the file using vlc media player? Under file -> convert and try convert it to some other format.
    Quote Quote  
  6. Member [_chef_]'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Germany
    Search Comp PM
    Maybe just the header got corrupted... time to check the files with a hexeditor.
    *** Now that you have read me, do some other things. ***
    Quote Quote  
  7. Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Search Comp PM
    Thanks everyone.

    Baldrick - I tried converting with VLC Media Player. This added a time code to the video, but it still shortened it significantly.

    MasterOfPuppets - I followed the steps in that link, but didn't understand the adding of jpg step. Do I just add any jpg? When I used AVI Repair Tool I have no idea where the instantly patched file got written to. The whole process was a bit confusing.

    [_chef_] - Do you have a good hexeditor/tutorial/software for repairing my files/headers? Thanks.
    Quote Quote  
  8. Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Search Comp PM
    One other thing I did was put the files back on the card and into my Sony NX5U camera, where I tried the database restore function. It did nothing. Anyone else? I need help as my deadline is approaching! Thanks!
    Quote Quote  
  9. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    How big are the three bad files? Perhaps you can post them here to the forum and somebody can take
    a look.
    Quote Quote  
  10. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Deep in the Heart of Texas
    Search PM
    Originally Posted by EloquentFilm View Post
    One other thing I did was put the files back on the card and into my Sony NX5U camera, where I tried the database restore function. It did nothing. Anyone else? I need help as my deadline is approaching! Thanks!
    This is where you went wrong.

    You should have first imaged the bad card as-is, so it could be read in a non-volatile and non-tampered with state.

    You have now overwritten the originals by "putting back" files which you know to be bad. And they wouldn't just automatically revert to landing in their original spots, they're getting stored whereever the card thinks is next & most convenient. Which just ruins more areas.

    Then the "database restore" function adds further revision (=corruption). It might have worked better if, after having "imaged" the card, you just stuck the original and un-tampered-with "formatted" card to see if it can find any of the original material. Or if after imaging, you had run a simple un-format recovery app and then stuck the card in the cam & run the database recovery. But with those "additional" files added, you've gone and complicated it likely beyond the possibility of repair (certainly for some of the files, if not all).

    Sorry to hear of your loss,

    Scott
    Quote Quote  
  11. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Since you said the bad files play fine in VLC and since you said you already tried to use VLC to convert the files and it did not work. If you still have the bad files that play fine in VLC, find some app that can capture video that is currently playing on your computer screen.
    Quote Quote  
  12. Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Search Comp PM
    thymej, I already tried using Camtasia and Camstudio, neither of which worked, which is incredibly odd.

    davexnet, here is one of the files. There really are only two that need fixing, as the third seems to have been recovered. If it works then I'll use the method for the 2nd one. Thanks!! https://copy.com/6NqyUo1zHAJsW7D9
    Quote Quote  
  13. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    The clip plays for 2 minutes 45 seconds in mpc-hc. If you figure just less than 3MB P/S bitrate combined video/audio
    and the file is 467MB, it doesn't seem that far out. It stops just after the little boy gets up from the piano,
    and a slightly older-looking girl sits down.

    Can you provide a short known-good file from the same device? I'd like to compare them.
    Last edited by davexnet; 31st May 2014 at 03:51.
    Quote Quote  
  14. Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Search Comp PM
    davexnet, the first video I sent is exactly how it should be, where the kid ends and another sits down. However, put it in your NLE. The video will be about 1/4 of its length. As a last resort I recorded the audio of the clip using Audacity to capture my sound card, so I have a clean WAV file. I then filmed my computer screen with my video camera while the video played. This is obviously less than ideal. Here is a clip from the same recital that I was able to recover without problems: https://copy.com/yWUaAid9trG2AYIR Thanks for your help!
    Quote Quote  
  15. Try separating the audio and video with ffmpeg. While this is not a perfect fix it gets makes most of your file available for loading into an nle for remuxing and tweaking. Because there is damaged data, the streams will lose sync -- they are different lengths. No video quality loss. Works in Vegas and Premiere. You will want to trim a few frames off the heads and tails immediately.

    (Recommend you make this a batch file.)
    ffmpeg -i sample.m2ts -vcodec copy -an samplevideo.mts
    ffmpeg -i sample.m2ts -vn -acodec pcm_s16le sampleaudio.wav
    pause

    (Remuxing with ffmpeg resulted in an unreadable file.)
    Quote Quote  
  16. Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Search Comp PM
    Just wanted to give an update. ffmpeg worked like a charm. Thanks, smrpix!!
    Quote Quote  
  17. Glad to hear it. Good luck to you.
    Quote Quote  
Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!