cannot open avi file

[ione]

i've successfully captured shows in the past using my DV camcorder, winDV and firewire. however, while capturing last night, i accidentally unplugged my computer. i was hoping that i could still recover the first half of capture, but when i turned the computer back on and played the file, it says "Windows Media Player cannot play file. The Player may not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file." but the file size says 9GB. i am certain the content is still there. is there a way i can fix this? please help. i tried avifix but it won't open.

[redwudz]

WMP isn't much of a player anyway. You might try VLC and see if it sees and plays the video. You may also need to reinstall your DV codec as it may have been corrupted. You could use the Panasonic DV Codec or similar. With that codec installed you should be able to open the video in VirtualDub Mod and you may be able to repair it.

If you check your file with Gspot, it should tell you if you still have a working codec and it may show the length of the file.

Sometimes when a file is broken like that, it's hard to get it to play past that part or for the programs to see the rest of the video file.

[ione]

Thank you for your response, Sir. After reinstalling the codecs, I've tried GSpot and it says it's not a valid AVI file. VLC and VirtualDub Mod won't open the file either. I really feel bad about this. All my current captures are working AVIs (playing on VLC, opening on VirtualDub), etc. but not this one. I'm confused. If it has a filesize of 9GB it means there must be something in there that needs fixin.

[redwudz]

It sounds like it's corrupted. In my experience, sometimes there's not much you can do then. If VDM would open it, there might be a chance.

Others may be able to give you some ideas for repair.

[ione]

Seems like it's corrupted. Anyway, thanks for your help redwudz

[edDV]

I see similar problems recording DV format with the Canopus ADVC-100 using WinDV. When the hard disk fills, WinDV fails to indicate recording has stopped. Sometimes the resulting file will play. Other times the file shows the "~" in the file name. When that happens the file won't play in anything.

[ione]

yes you're right edDV. that's exactly what i saw before i changed the filename "~". so if that happens, there's no way to recover the file

[edDV]

yes you're right edDV. that's exactly what i saw before i changed the filename "~". so if that happens, there's no way to recover the file

I hope somebody has a solution.

[ione]

Well after a long search, I've finally found a solution to my problem. I just came across a powerful tool called Enosoft AVI Repair Tool and it fixed any unfinished captured AVI file. I hope this information is helpful to anyone who is in a similar situation. Just thought I should post and close this topic. Thanks for helpful forumers out here.