Corrupt AVCHD files?

[Outback Paul]

I recorded a long event on my Sony hdr-cx150. The first several files play just fine but when I started recording the longest non-stop part of it my files became corrupt/un-playable. I have used media info to analyze my files and I have attached them. I don't know what I'm looking for but the first thing that pops out at me is the duration is a negative number. Can someone help me with what's wrong with my video? I appreciate any help that I can get with this. Thanks

The "works" file is from a file that works and the "corrupt" is from one that doesn't. It is not the first one that is corrupt.

[poisondeathray]

yes it looks corrupt

does the corresponding file play/preview on the camcorder? (maybe something went wrong with the transfer and something is salvageable)

have you checked your recording media? maybe you have a bad card that causes write errors ?

[Outback Paul]

No, it doesn't play on the camcorder either. The first few files play and then it freezes. This was my first time using the camcorder and it was a brand new card as well.

[poisondeathray]

That's a bad sign

A "new" card doesn't ensure that it's corrupt. Is it SD card? Try some benchmarking software like HDTune, CrystalDiskMark or other related software

You could try some recovery programs to attempt to recover the contents of the card. I don't think you will be very successful

[Outback Paul]

I've copied the files over to my hard drive. Is that what you are talking about concerning recovering files? Attached is files from my testing and a partial list of what the files look like in Windows Explorer.

[poisondeathray]

They look corrupt, even on windows explorer, there is not reported duration

What's interesting is 12-27 look corrupt, but 28 (and on I presume) report a duration - are those ok? I wonder why it would fail only in the middle recording section ?

You can check error scan or some of the other tabs in hdtune , it may give some other information (might not work on sd cards)

Is that what you are talking about concerning recovering files?

No, I was referring to file recovery software . Just google "sd card file recovery software". There are hundreds of hits. Not sure if any of them are good. I suspect the files are corrupt on the card. So even if you transfer to your HDD, they still will be corrupted.

It's a shot in the dark, but you could try re-wrapping with tsmuxer (it just repackages the file) , or maybe ts doctor to "fix" the file. Low probability of any of them working for thise

[Outback Paul]

I did the error scan but there were no errors.

File 28 will play but the video and sound stutter and isn't really something you'd want to watch. All of the files after that are corrupt too.

I do have them all transferred to my HDD.

I just tried tsMuxeR and got the following error.. "Not enought buffer for parse video stream. Current frame num 0"

To me it looks like the SDHC card I have wasn't recording fast enough. I bought a class 6 but it doesn't look like that's what it's performing at.

[poisondeathray]

You attached read tests, but those are rarely a problem. You should look at some write tests. Can I ask what brand of card?

EDIT: sorry I didn't see that attached text file, there are some write tests there

The sequential writes should be enough to satistisfy your requirements. You are only recording <24Mbit/s (which is ~3MB/s). You actually record less than 24Mbit/s (that's the max spec for AVCHD) , I think your model only does 17-21? not sure. Eitherway it shouldn't be a problem. Note 8Mbit =~ 1MB

Not sure why you have corrupt files

Don't do any more writing to that card, anything else you do can impair you chances of data recovery

Do you have any other cards to test? to see if it's the camcorder at fault?

[Outback Paul]

I'm recording at the 17mb rate. I'm running some recording tests right now. I've recorded some more stuff on that card this afternoon and some are fine, some are corrupt. I'm now recording to the internal memory to see if I get any errors there.

I would think it may be the card but was hoping it wasn't. I bought the card on Ebay from someone in China that had an almost perfect record with several thousand feedbacks. I guess it's a lesson learned to not skimp on a card.