Corrupt Video File

[Raptorman0909]

Its been a few weeks but today I did three flights using D-log and H.265 and when I created a new PP project and began to add the 4 video files that made up the first flight PP bitched about the second file with an error message saying "Unsupported file format or damaged file."

Funny thing is I can play the file using Windows Media Player or Movies & TV within Windows 10 Home. So, I'm not sure if something happened when the video file was created in the P4P or if something got corrupted during the file transfer from uSD card to my PC, or if PP just doesn't like this file for some reason, but of the 4 files that made up this one flight the one that is messed up is the most important one.

So, I tried using Sandisk RescuePRO on the uSD card hoping I could recover the files I'd deleted, but RescuePRO, after about 25 minutes, reported there were no files on it.

I then opened Adobe Media Encoder and when I navigated to the folder with today's files one by one the "processing" status for all the files went away though the file that is a problem took 4 times as long as the other ones. When I tried to drag that file to the queue an error message indicated "... The source file appears to be corrupted. Please check that it is a valid file." Interestingly, I get the same error message with all the other files even though they imported into PP without a problem.

So, I'm not sure what's going on here and suspect that either something is messed up in the file or that Adobe isn't quite as H.265 compliant as I thought. Any ideas on what I could try?


Brian

 

[richardhurst]

I had this the other day and it was because I had the file format set to MP4 instead of MOV in the Go App or the other way around. H.265 seems to only play nice in one of the formats and maybe it got changed somehow.

 

[Raptorman0909]

I had this the other day and it was because I had the file format set to MP4 instead of MOV in the Go App or the other way around. H.265 seems to only play nice in one of the formats and maybe it got changed somehow.

Interesting! I always have the format set to MP4 and although I've had a few files that had some weirdness for a second or two but continues on without a problem. Pretty sure the glitches I've had have been in both H.264 and H.265 -- I should go back and check to confirm. The thing is ... if you set the Go app to record in MOV format and the video player chokes you can simply rename it as an MP4 and all is good.


Brian

 

[smiller]

I have seen the exact same problem and I don't think it's related to the file extension (else why would I have a problem with only one of three files shot sequentially?) As you note the 'bad' file plays normally with both Windows Movie Player and VLC, only PP seems to have a problem with it. I haven't been able to determine whether the problem is with the file or PP but I think the former, and whatever in the header is corrupted is something that PP cares about but the players do not. Also like you I had already deleted the file from the SD card so I can't be sure whether the file was somehow damaged while copying (in the future I will verify files in PP before deleting from the card, or use the MD5 secure copy feature in PP ingest, or one of the file copy utilities that has a verify function.)

I tried one of the video file repair apps but it was ineffective. Another idea I had was to transcode to an intermediate file format and use that but I haven't tried it yet.

 

[FilmPilot]

I had a similar problem.
Try plugging your phantom directly into your computer with the micro USB cable instead of using a SD card reader, this solved the problem for me


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Richard R]

Similar problems, same type of solution that FilmPilot came up with. I was using a cheap SD stick that came with one of my other drones and it just couldnt handle the files properly. And I deleted a couple of files thatvI would really like to have back! my solution was to buy another card with the adapter that you inserted the SD into so it would fit into my laptop slot. No more problems.

 

[Tomas Wangen]

I had a similar problem.
Try plugging your phantom directly into your computer with the micro USB cable instead of using a SD card reader, this solved the problem for me


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

I use a cheap MagicView iMono USB3/2 multi-card reader with no issues, so that is a viable alternative.

 

[smiller]

There are several file copy utilities that will automatically create and compare checksums between copied files. This adds a small amount to the copy time but ensures that the copied file is exactly identical to the original. This is a good idea for copying any critical footage regardless of where you copy to/from.

Two examples:

FastCopy - Don't be bothered by all the settings, the defaults are fine, just add 'verify' and 'estimate'. But some of the other options can also be handy if you need them.

TeraCopy - Not quite as configurable but simpler and a better user interface. Check 'verify' when copying for a CRC32 check on copied files.

 

[Wrice4]

What version of PP do you have? I had to switch over from Sony Vegas pro 13 because it wouldn't read h.265. I currently pay monthly for the new PP 17 and have no problems.