Can't play recovered video files

[mfp8055]

1st question from a newbie: I recorded several videos using a Kodak Zi8 recorder. The files were inadvertently deleted. Before anything else was recorded, I attempted recovery of the files using Advanced Disk Recovery software. The files were "recovered" but will not play using any of the players I have available (VLC, quicktime, etc...). The number of files and their size seem appropriate. There's an indication from several of the players that length of time for each clip is correct also. The recovered files appear in a folder with a file name such as: file_398786560.mov. Any ideas as to how I can get these to play? There's nothing irreplaceable on them but I'd like to have them available if possible.

[hech54]

Why does this smell like a setup for a brand new tool added today?

[mfp8055]

No set-up. Just looking for some help.

[Baldrick]

1. Open in a editor like mpeg streamclip or avidemux. If they can read it save as a new mov,mp4. But they will probably crash.

2. Try Video Repair Tool and see if it can repair the headers.

3. Give up.

[mfp8055]

Thank you. I'll give it a try.

[mfp8055]

The freeware options didn't work. MPEG streamclip acted like it was playing the file, but no picture. The other crashed. I'm not sure I want to throw the bucks at the repair tool unless I know it will work. Looks like the files are history.

[budwzr]

Why does this smell like a setup for a brand new tool added today?

Hahahaha, you're funny.

[budwzr]

1) Copy back to the camera and see if it will play them.
2) Try one of the remuxer softwares. (Oops, already mentioned)
3) See Baldrick's #3 above.

EDIT: Upload it to YT and see what happens.

[davexnet]

The "video repair tool" mentioned above will repair 50% of the file for free.
At least this way you can see if it is helping at all...

[mfp8055]

Thanks for the info. I gave it a try, but the app crashed. Several retries had no success. The file size and elapsed time of the "phantom" videos are correct, but no picture with any player I've tried.

[davexnet]

You need to feed the program a good video from the same camera as well as the bad.
Open the tool, load the bad video, then on the right "choose reference movie" - load the good video.
Then hit the scan button. It uses the good video to figure out how to properly parse the
corrupted one.

[mfp8055]

Thanks for the tip. I chose a reference file and ran the app again. Some random color patterns were recovered, but nothing that could be called usable. Guess I'm out of luck.

[davexnet]

Thanks for the tip. I chose a reference file and ran the app again. Some random color patterns were recovered, but nothing that could be called usable. Guess I'm out of luck.

How big is the bad file? Have you looked at it in a hex editor? If you see pages of pages of zeroes,
it's could be empty, but if it's mostly random looking, valid data could be still there. The author of the program
has said on the website you can contact him and he'll see what can be done (if anything).

[budwzr]

Thanks for the tip. I chose a reference file and ran the app again. Some random color patterns were recovered, but nothing that could be called usable. Guess I'm out of luck.

That's par for the course. I've had bad experiences with file recovery utilities too. They put on a great light show, but in the end not so much.

I had a NAS disc that got a few seconds of formatting before I killed the power. I ran a few different utilities and they all reported a lot of files recoverable, but didn't deliver.