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  1. Member
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    So I'm sitting there trying to upload my movies from my Sony Handycam (on a Memory Stick Pro Duo) into my computer and the software that imports the files froze and I had to shut it down in the middle of the transfer, and now my movies won't play back on the camcorder or in WMP whereas they used to play just fine. The first file transferred still works (does not play in the camcorder, but WMP plays it fine), but the rest are broken.

    I can still see the thumbnails on the camcorder display but get a "Data Error" message when I try to play it. The files still transfer from one drive to another and seem to be the normal size (so it seems the data is still there). I transferred them all to the computer (about 6GB worth of video), and the file names and extensions are intact, but WMP says there's a codec problem (sorry I can't be more specific right now, I'm at work).

    So it seems that the freezing of the software during the transfer and the disconnection during the transfer may have corrupted my files. I know I could just reformat the memory stick, but then I lose the videos and there are a lot of videos of my kids there that I don't want to lose. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    I saw on other forums that people were recommending VirtualDub for this sort of thing, so I'm going to try that when I get home, but I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing as I'm a noob when it comes to video processing stuff.
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  2. Mod Neophyte redwudz's Avatar
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    You can try VD, it might work. For the newer version of VD, you may need to add a MPEG plugin, if that is the format of the video. Or you can try VirtualDub Mod, which accepts MPEG without any plugins. It has a few tools that might help with the file. But VD(M) only outputs AVI type formats. If you need guides for VirtualDub, they are listed at the bottom the VD toolpage.

    If you need to get more information about the files, try Gspot or Media Info. They will tell you the codecs needed. Gspot has a render function that will show you what filters are used for playback. Or will usually tell you you are missing a codec and which one you need.

    Try opening the files in VLC Media Player first. It can usually play back corrupted video. If it can't play them back, then you do likely have a problem. It uses it's own codecs, so if it does work, you may not have the proper codecs installed for WMP. I don't use WMP for much of anything. It not a good player, IMO.

    And welcome to our forums.
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  3. Member
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    Thanks for the response. VLC player won't open it, but doesn't give me an error. It just plays a file of 00:00 time when I try to open one of the files that Windows is telling me is almost 10MB in size.

    I got VD mod, but it gives me an error that says "cannot detect file type of (my video file name).mpg" when I try to open any of these files. It's got .mpg in the name, so how do I change the file type so VD will recognize it? Or is there a better way to go about fixing these files? I don't care if I have to convert it to something else and lose a little quality as long as I can still play them on something (or preferably convert them to DVD format and burn them).

    I can upload one of the files here if someone can maybe take a look at it and see if they can figure out what's wrong and what I need to do to fix some 70-odd files that are having this problem. Thanks for the help.
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    Here is the error message I get from MPC when I try to play one of these videos (maybe it will make sense to someone what the problem is):


    The following pin(s) failed to find a connectable filter:
    D:\Home Videos\4-21-2009\M2U00003.MPG::Output

    Media Type 0:
    --------------------------
    Unknown

    AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
    majortype: MEDIATYPE_Stream {E436EB83-524F-11CE-9F53-0020AF0BA770}
    subtype: TIME_FORMAT_NONE {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
    formattype: TIME_FORMAT_NONE {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
    bFixedSizeSamples: 1
    bTemporalCompression: 0
    lSampleSize: 1
    cbFormat: 0


    Media Type 1:
    --------------------------
    Unknown

    AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
    majortype: MEDIATYPE_Stream {E436EB83-524F-11CE-9F53-0020AF0BA770}
    subtype: TIME_FORMAT_NONE {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
    formattype: TIME_FORMAT_NONE {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
    bFixedSizeSamples: 1
    bTemporalCompression: 0
    lSampleSize: 1
    cbFormat: 0
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  5. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    Try uploading the files from the memory stick again,they wont be damaged on the stick unless they were corrupt to begin with,maybe thats why you cant view them on the camera.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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  6. Member Soopafresh's Avatar
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    "Quality is cool, but don't forget... Content is King!"
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  7. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    There are some versions of VDub on the 'Net that accept .mpg and others that don't. (It should have "MPEG2" in the title.) I'm not sure if the features within will work with corrupt .mpg since it's really an .avi tool.

    If it is indeed .mpg here's a few more things you can try.

    VideoReDo:
    Tools -> QuickStream Fix

    TMPGEnc MPEG Editor:
    Just load the files into the Source interface and "Output" them. It will not re-encode them, only re-multiplex (remux) them.

    Project X:
    Demux them and then remux them with any .mpg muxer.

    Only the latter is free unfortunately. You can find a free version of TMPGEnc, which I do believe is legal (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), which can fix files, but not sure if it's as effective.

    Also, you can Google for mpeg repair, which may help.

    Hopefully this helps. Good luck.

    *EDITED only to add an extra solution.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  8. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by GoleeMD
    Here is the error message I get from MPC when I try to play one of these videos (maybe it will make sense to someone what the problem is):
    The files may be empty.
    Often a dummy file of the right size is created, then the actual data is transferred.

    Look at the files in a hex editor and see if it's just zeros.
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  9. Member Safesurfer's Avatar
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    Maybe try an app like Recuva. http://www.recuva.com/
    "Just another sheep boy, duck call, swan
    song, idiot son of donkey kong - Julian Cope"
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  10. Member
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    Originally Posted by AlanHK
    Originally Posted by GoleeMD
    Here is the error message I get from MPC when I try to play one of these videos (maybe it will make sense to someone what the problem is):
    The files may be empty.
    Often a dummy file of the right size is created, then the actual data is transferred.

    Look at the files in a hex editor and see if it's just zeros.
    So I tried Project X and opened one of these files with the hex editor, and yep, all zeros. Would it still take 10 min to transfer 2 GB of data if they're just dummy files? When I transfer files from one of my laptop HD's to another, it takes just as long to copy these files as it would if they were complete. Wouldn't it just take a second or two if they were just dummy files?

    The other thing that's puzzling me is that thumbnails of actual content of these videos shows up on the playback screen on my camcorder as well as on the import software for my laptop. Why are there thumbnails of the actual videos if the files are empty? I'm about ready to just format the card again and lose everything, but I can't help but hold on to hope that there is something there that is still recoverable. One of the videos from this card transferred just fine, so I know it was working at one point. These were some precious videos of my kids and a vacation trip, so I'd hate to lose them.

    If anyone has any further suggestions or advice, I'd love to hear it. Is it worth trying a app like Recuva or any of the others you guys suggested if I'm seeing all zeros in the hex editor?
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  11. Originally Posted by GoleeMD
    Originally Posted by AlanHK
    Originally Posted by GoleeMD
    Here is the error message I get from MPC when I try to play one of these videos (maybe it will make sense to someone what the problem is):
    The files may be empty.
    Often a dummy file of the right size is created, then the actual data is transferred.

    Look at the files in a hex editor and see if it's just zeros.
    So I tried Project X and opened one of these files with the hex editor, and yep, all zeros. Would it still take 10 min to transfer 2 GB of data if they're just dummy files? When I transfer files from one of my laptop HD's to another, it takes just as long to copy these files as it would if they were complete. Wouldn't it just take a second or two if they were just dummy files?

    The other thing that's puzzling me is that thumbnails of actual content of these videos shows up on the playback screen on my camcorder as well as on the import software for my laptop. Why are there thumbnails of the actual videos if the files are empty? I'm about ready to just format the card again and lose everything, but I can't help but hold on to hope that there is something there that is still recoverable. One of the videos from this card transferred just fine, so I know it was working at one point. These were some precious videos of my kids and a vacation trip, so I'd hate to lose them.

    If anyone has any further suggestions or advice, I'd love to hear it. Is it worth trying a app like Recuva or any of the others you guys suggested if I'm seeing all zeros in the hex editor?
    Nope,

    Around here, we have a saying: Garbage in-Garbage out.

    If the files are corrupted, there is nothing you could do.
    Believing yourself to be secure only takes one cracker to dispel your belief.
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  12. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by GoleeMD
    So I tried Project X and opened one of these files with the hex editor, and yep, all zeros. Would it still take 10 min to transfer 2 GB of data if they're just dummy files? When I transfer files from one of my laptop HD's to another, it takes just as long to copy these files as it would if they were complete. Wouldn't it just take a second or two if they were just dummy files?
    The dummy files presumably were created as space allocated for the real data, but then the process was interrupted before the actual data was written into them.

    But they're real files, and 2GB of zeros takes as long to transfer as useful data, the OS doesn't analyse the data, it just transfers it.

    Another way to see how much information is there is to compress the files with Zip or Rar (which do analyse the data). A file of zeros will give an archive of trivial size, but most video files will be reduced by only a few percent, as they're already highly optimised.

    Originally Posted by GoleeMD
    Is it worth trying a app like Recuva or any of the others you guys suggested if I'm seeing all zeros in the hex editor?
    No, zeros are zeros. The data you want was never there.
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