How to recover raw Logitech webcam footage

[JJonah]

Hello, I am new to this forum and am looking for some help recovering some important footage that was recorded with a Logitech C615 webcam.

Here is the situation, during the actual recording period, the raw footage is stored as a .tmp file until the webcam recording is stopped. The Logitech webcam software then converts the raw footage into a compressed .wmv file. The conversion process that is performed by the webcam software takes almost the same length of time as the recording to complete, if the computer powers off for some reason during the conversion process, it cannot appear to be resumed and the footage cannot be recovered. All that appears to be left behind is a .tmp file, which is very large when the recording was a long duration.

I have tried every video repair tool and video editor I can find over 20 different programs in total, but have had no success trying to convert the .tmp file to something I can playback in a video player like VLC.

I have uploaded a shorter sample (filename is LWS486E.wmv, but it is really a .tmp file with the extension changed to wmv) of the same exact type of .tmp file that I am trying to recover (but I had to rename the file extension from .tmp to .wmv to be able to upload it), as well as an example of the final .wmv file that gets created after the conversion process is able to successfully complete (filename video 1.wmv).

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Jonah

[jagabo]

I was able to remux the "wmv" file to AVI with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i LWS486E.wmv -codec copy LWS486E.wmv.avi

That gave a 96 MB AVI file (MJPEG video, no audio) that played normally.

[Cornucopia]

All modern era logitech cams follow UVC protocols and give options for uncompressed yuv422 and mjpeg, with optional variants in mpeg2 and avc (depending on the model). It would be fairly simple based on runtime and filesize to figure out via birate which format it ought to have been and work back from there, as very likely the tmp was pre-encoded but not encapsulated in a standard container.
However, this is somewhat of a moot point since jagabo figured it out for you and reworked it. I just wanted you (and others) to know what to do should this ever happen again.

Btw, not sure what you are using for software capture, but sounds like you are re-encoding, which i don't recommend.

Scott

[JJonah]

Hello,

Thanks so much for your prompt responses, sorry for my delayed reply here.

I was able to successfully recover the sample video I had uploaded using the ffmpeg method described by jagabo with no problems.

However, I tried to recover the actual 60 GB .tmp file that I am trying to recover (LWSA0EF.tmp, renamed extnsion to .wmv) and was unsuccessful. Below is the text I see in the command prompt window and the error message at the end: " Invalid data found when processing input".

I used the following command string ffmpeg -i LWSA0EF.wmv -codec copy LWSA0EF.wmv.avi

Any idea what the problem could be?

Thanks in advance for your guys' help, I really appreciate it!

================================================
F:\Video recovery>ffmpeg -i LWSA0EF.wmv -codec copy LWSA0EF.wmv.avi
ffmpeg version git-2019-11-01-53c21c2 Copyright (c) 2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 9.2.1 (GCC) 20191010
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-sdl2 --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libdav1d --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-gmp --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libmysofa --enable-libspeex --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --enable-libmfx --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-nvenc --enable-nvdec --enable-dxva2 --enable-avisynth --enable-libopenmpt --enable-amf
libavutil 56. 35.101 / 56. 35.101
libavcodec 58. 60.100 / 58. 60.100
libavformat 58. 33.100 / 58. 33.100
libavdevice 58. 9.100 / 58. 9.100
libavfilter 7. 66.100 / 7. 66.100
libswscale 5. 6.100 / 5. 6.100
libswresample 3. 6.100 / 3. 6.100
libpostproc 55. 6.100 / 55. 6.100
LWSA0EF.wmv: F:\Video recovery>ffmpeg -i LWSA0EF.wmv -codec copy LWSA0EF.wmv.avi
ffmpeg version git-2019-11-01-53c21c2 Copyright (c) 2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 9.2.1 (GCC) 20191010
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-sdl2 --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libdav1d --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-gmp --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libmysofa --enable-libspeex --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --enable-libmfx --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-nvenc --enable-nvdec --enable-dxva2 --enable-avisynth --enable-libopenmpt --enable-amf
libavutil 56. 35.101 / 56. 35.101
libavcodec 58. 60.100 / 58. 60.100
libavformat 58. 33.100 / 58. 33.100
libavdevice 58. 9.100 / 58. 9.100
libavfilter 7. 66.100 / 7. 66.100
libswscale 5. 6.100 / 5. 6.100
libswresample 3. 6.100 / 3. 6.100
libpostproc 55. 6.100 / 55. 6.100
LWSA0EF.wmv: Invalid data found when processing input

[jagabo]

The WMV extension is causing ffmpeg to misidentify the video. Rename the source file with mjpeg as the extension.

[abolibibelot]

The WMV extension is causing ffmpeg to misidentify the video. Rename the source file with mjpeg as the extension.

This thread is a bit old (I made a search with the keyword “recover”), but...
Are you sure that ffmpeg actually cares about the extension of the input ? All software players and (GUI) editors I can think of do not. If I rename a .mp4 file to .xxx and load it into VirtualDub2 for instance, it opens it with no issue and correctly reports it as being “Quicktime / MOV” with “h264” video and “ac3” audio.

If it's not too late, since obviously 60GB is much too large to upload, the O.P. could cut a sample from the first 10MB or so with a hexadecimal editor (HxD is a reputed free one, WinHex is more powerful but not free). Or at least post a screenshot showing a hex view of the header.

Also, the .TMP file may contain both the video and the audio stream, as it happened in this other case.

[jagabo]

The WMV extension is causing ffmpeg to misidentify the video. Rename the source file with mjpeg as the extension.

This thread is a bit old (I made a search with the keyword “recover”), but...
Are you sure that ffmpeg actually cares about the extension of the input ? All software players and (GUI) editors I can think of do not.

Yes, with an intact source file ffmpeg and most players can identify the container by examining the contents of the file. But when the file is corrupt they may not. That's when it may help to have the correct extension. The software then has a hint as to what the file contains and may be able to find something it can work with. This is especially true of transport and elementary streams.

[vasquish]

Hi, I dont know if this will help anyone since this thread is so old BUT - I found a way to recover a tmp file from Logitech Webcam Software since i had the same problem with a crashing laptop during recording a video.
You need the tmp file in the tmp folder (usually users\appdata\temp) then start a new recording with LWS. you will see the new temp file being created and growing. copy its filename then use a tool like iobit unlocker to unlock and delete the new tmp file. rename the old tmp file with the copied name of the deleted one and then stop the recording in lws. it will look for the tmp file now and start to recompress the video file. volià hf with the video!