How to repair corrupted AVIs?
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 1:14 am
Posted by Massimo
(19 messages posted)
Hello.
I have a problem in watching some AVI files that I have downloaded sometimes ago.
It happened to me to watch them recently but I saw that here and there appear "color
blurs" in the image.
I cannot explain better: instead of seeing a clear, neat image sometimes it looks
as if you threw a color (blue or green) on the screen and then it fades out.
I tried to see them on another PC with a different operating system.
Some of them are clear, some are still corrupted.
I want to point out that before, at the time I downloaded them, they were perfect.
And the strange thing is that the "blur corruption" happens only with "old" AVI (say
more than one year old). The rest of the video files that I have (WMV, QT, MPG) are
OK.
I don't think it's a codec conflict problem since it happens the same also with another
PC (with lesser codecs).
I tried to re-convert the files but the reconversion is not always affective.
Also I tried to run "AVI repair" (by Boilsoft) but it didn't work at all.
I tried other players (BS player, Divx player, Mplayer classic) but the blurs are
still there.
Can someone help me to figure out what happened and above all how can I restore those
files?
Thanks
[Reply or follow-up to this message]
|
re: How to repair corrupted AVIs?
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 8:21 am
Posted by C K
(6100 messages posted)
If you have studied and understand the structure of digital video recording, you
will understand how "color corruption" as you call it, is very difficult to mostly
impossible to repair. The corruption can be missing data which would have to be
manually repaired frame by frame. A painstaking process that would take hours to
days with very expensive software usually, and still won't be exactly what was there
in the original file. Some repairs (such as sync problems) can be automated but
that is totally a different problem than missing color pallete or picture/graphics
data. Especially if it happens in more than one consecutive frame at a time.
As for a machine with "lesser" codecs, there is no such thing. A codec either plays
and can handle a certian type of file, or it doesn't. If you meant earlier versions
of codecs? The rule still applies. It either works or it doesn't, not just at various
points in decoding a file. The header of a video or audio file contains info on
it's type and what it's codec requirements are. If you don't have one that meets
it's specs, then it won't be played in my experience..
Basically, if the files are corrupt, you have no choice but to find fresh copies
of them that are not corrupted.
Converting files won't repair corruption and can only introduce other issues. Using
different media players won't work either as the same universal codec is used by
each player. Each player doesn't use it's own codec, rather there are codecs on
your system and each player uses the same one if it has permission or is compatible
with it.
If the corruption is happening after you have transferred or downloaded them, then
I would be concerned with failing hardware such as a HDD going bad, defective memory
or other hardware issues. This would be evident as other errors and data corruption
would be happening to other data and programs to. Bad software could also do it
but most likely, the corruption has happened during the transfer or downloading process.
What you have described can also be the result of copy protection on protected content.
No way of knowing from a forum though..
On Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 1:14 am, Massimo wrote:
>Hello.
>I have a problem in watching some AVI files that I have downloaded sometimes ago.
>It happened to me to watch them recently but I saw that here and there appear "color
>blurs" in the image.
>I cannot explain better: instead of seeing a clear, neat image sometimes it looks
>as if you threw a color (blue or green) on the screen and then it fades out.
>
>I tried to see them on another PC with a different operating system.
>Some of them are clear, some are still corrupted.
>
>I want to point out that before, at the time I downloaded them, they were perfect.
>And the strange thing is that the "blur corruption" happens only with "old" AVI
(say
>more than one year old). The rest of the video files that I have (WMV, QT, MPG)
are
>OK.
>I don't think it's a codec conflict problem since it happens the same also with
another
>PC (with lesser codecs).
>
>I tried to re-convert the files but the reconversion is not always affective.
>Also I tried to run "AVI repair" (by Boilsoft) but it didn't work at all.
>I tried other players (BS player, Divx player, Mplayer classic) but the blurs are
>still there.
>
>Can someone help me to figure out what happened and above all how can I restore
those
>files?
>
>Thanks
[Reply or follow-up to this message]
|
