AVI files from mini video recorder not playing, please help

[timmytom]

Hi guys, thanks for assisting with this post. I am a newbie and not really a tech person.
So I am trying my best to describe what is going on here.

Would be much appreciative if you could help me with this one!


Short story: I recently bought one of those mini video recorders which one is able to use for spying purposes, private investigator work, espionage, attach it to a RC airplane, whatever you want since it is so compact.

I tried to take some videos with it continuously on the Same day. There are no settings. Just record and stop. Simply push and play mini video recorder.

Say I took some videos and out of these..... 40-50% worked and 50-60% didn't work on my new laptop.



Here are the error messages:

On Windows Media Player:
Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file.

Thus I knew there were issues.

Same recorder. All footage shot on the same day. Just random videos shot work. And random videos shot didn't work.

I downloaded VLC Player. This was pretty good for a variety of videos from my previous experience, plus you can adjust the brightness of the video.

On VLC Player.... there are two outcomes. This is where it gets interesting.

For some videos that cannot be played on Windows Media Player,

The first most common outcome is:

VLC Player
Unidentified codec:
VLC could not identify the audio or video codec


BUT VLC KNOWS THE LENGTH OF THE VIDEO.





The second outcome is:

VLC Player
Broken or Missing AVI Index
Because this AVI file index is broken or missing, seeking will not work correctly. VLC won't repair your file but can temporary fix this problem by building an index in memory. This step might take a long time on a large file. What do you want to do?


Almost without fail, the building of an index would stall or take such a long time you wonder if it hung. Say it got to 63% and then just hung there forever, I clicked on 'cancel' and was then able to play the video until midway (perhaps 63%).


Nonetheless, the rest of the videos that cannot be played still remains unplayable. Notice all videos (the working ones and the ones not working) came from the same source in the same timeframe. So I really doubt it is a problem with codecs.

I ran a search on the error message of VLC Player and found this forum. Hope this problem can be solved. Many thanks in advance.

I found and read other threads and downloaded a whole slew other programs to try to fix the issue. No luck. Hence this post.


Here are the other error messages from other programs:

DivFix++ V0.34 for Windows
Processing file : MOVI1234.avi
Error: Input file is not an AVI file!





VirtualDub 1.10.4
The file "D:\New folder\MOVI1234.avi" is of an unknown or unsupported file type.

[I then tried on VirtualDub...... those two videos that VLC was trying to build index but which took forever, and VirtualDub was able to play those videos very quickly.

While it was fixing the video, it showed this message on a little progress window labeled as: AVI Import Filter

Reconstructing missing index block (aggressive mode)

After it was done, there was a error message in a window labeled as: VirtualDub Warning

AVI: Index not found or damaged -- reconstructing via file scan.
AVI: Invalid chunk detected at 42566558. Enabling aggressive recovery mode.
AVI: Keyframe flag reconstruction was not specified in open options and the video stream is not a known keyframe-only type. Seeking in the video stream may be extremely slow.


After clicking ok, the videos played on VirtualDub without issues.]



Continuing:

DivXRepair - v.1.0.1
Bad Frame Report from DivxRepair



Any Video Converter AVC
Appeared to have been able to convert video. But videos CANNOT be played. It only seem to know its length, but even after conversion, there was neither video nor audio on the whole file. Just a blank screen 'playing' on VLC to the end of its runtime.




Avidemux
Cannot find a demuxer for D:\New folder\MOVI1234.avi
Could not open the file



I guess I have tried quite a whole slew of these programs. Really puzzling why this bunch of videos shot on the same day, some work and some don't.



Is there anything else to be done to fix this unknown issue?

Any inputs and suggestions will be well appreciated!

Many thanks in advance!

[filmboss80]

You gave tons of information in your post, EXCEPT the most important information that was needed; such as, the make and model of the video recording device, the type of recording media (I'm guessing an SD card), and the video codec inside the avi file. All this info should be in your owner's manual.

Based on your situation, in which some files play fine but others do not, I would speculate that you have sector errors in your SD card, or whatever media you are recording to.

[timmytom]

Hi filmboss80, thanks for the response.

There is no SD card on this thing. It is built in with 32GB. On the box it says 640 480CIF AVI. That's about it. The manual is as good as tissue paper because the English is basically illegible.

This is the product on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Niceshop%C2%AE-Portable-Button-pinhole-Recorder/dp/B00V4H45GI
The product on Amazon says 4GB of memory built in, but the one I bought is a higher-spec 32GB built in.

Many thanks in advance.

[TreeTops]

That camera doesn't get too many good reviews on Amazon. Did you see this from one of the reviews? "I disassembled the unit and found there to be a normal micro SD (card) inside. I removed the micro SD and formatted it, ......"

You might try that and film again if the problem is the card.

[filmboss80]

Yeah, there may not have been a visible, removable SD card, but we see from the customer comments on the Amazon product page that the device has an internal micro-SD card. I am more convinced than ever that the culprit is that card. The fact that some clips play but others don't is indicative of bad sectors. You might get away with reformatting it, as suggested, but I think your best bet is to replace it with a very good micro HDSC card (and I saw a recommended class 10 SanDisk card on that same Amazon page). You'll have to open up your device to make the exchange, but apparently that's doable. Good luck.

[timmytom]

Right. Got it, @Treetops and filmboss80. Which means I have to open up the unit yeah?

I can probably do that. Or I can hook up the unit by USB and reformat it again, right?

Now, what about the videos that I already took? What can be done about them?

Any help that can make the files playable would be great.

Many thanks!

[timmytom]

Are those videos unplayable?

Does anyone have any idea is there anything else I can do to make those videos work?

Any inputs would be very much appreciated!!

[Cornucopia]

99.99% probability your "unplayable" ones are gone for good. Sure you could expend great effort and maybe possibly recover them, but then again...
And is it worth it? I doubt it. I thought those were expendable test shots anyway.
If it were me, I'd get my money back and buy a proper, well-received device, but that might be to much for you to afford. However, caveat emptor and "you get what you pay for" has never been more true than it is now.

Scott

[timmytom]

I don't think it is possible to get money back. But no issue. No problem to buy another device.

Do you know of any other devices which are "well-received' and actually takes good videos? I has to be slim and covert as well. For our purposes, we need a camera that is easily concealed.

[TreeTops]

Covert cameras come in all sizes and shapes and quality. Just have a look at Amazon. I use several game cameras which has a camo color and are almost invisible against a trunk of a tree here at the ranch but that is for a specialized purpose. (To spot game) But that may not work for you. Some covert cameras are no bigger than a dime but the picture quality suffers.

[timmytom]

Thanks for all replies, guys!

[Andrew Marsh]

Hey, one thing you can do take the aid of any repair tool which easily fix all the issues related to the video files. Media players will fix error in videos to some extent but if problem is severe then it can't. There are professional tools available for that. I hope information from this link would help you. http://bsdelite.com/repairing-avi-files

[timmytom]

Thanks Andrew! But based on the previous communication with the others..... I have already deleted the files. Maybe your suggestion will be useful for others who encounter similar issues in the future. Cheers!