We just got our shoot footage back from Saskatchewan, and most of the hundreds and hundreds of clips will play back and export perfectly from Canon XF Utility (v1.3.0 on OSX 10.6.8). We are also using the Avid Canon XF AMA plug-in to AMA link and consolidate our clips in Avid. However, there is one clip which is giving us a tremendous amount of trouble.

Here are the vitals:

1) We have copied the entire folder structure from each CF card into its own folder on a hard drive, and are AMA-linking to the files on the hard drive, as well as "Setting virtual Media" within Canon XF Utility to these Hard Disk copies. We have treated the corrupt one no differently than any of the others which have worked.

2) The corrupt clip is the very first clip on one of the CF card images.

3) In Avid, if AMA linking to the CF card volume, all clips play back fine, except for the corrupt one, which gives us the following error: "Exception: Failed to get the sample temporal offset from the AMA Plug-in."

4) In Canon XF Utility, the corrupt clip plays back fine if you play the clip from the very beginning. If you try to click ahead or behind in the timeline, the clip will no longer play, until you play another clip, then click back on the corrupt clip. We can watch the entire 2m40s clip from start to finish within the Utility.

5) Choosing 'Export MXF' from Canon XF Utility has inconsistent results. Sometimes, it will produce a clip that is 4 frames long (the first 4 frames). Sometimes, it will produce an MXF clip that is the full length. However, the resulting exported clip cannot be played in anything except for VLC, and VLC will not properly export it as anything else.

6) Within Avid, AMA linking directly to the original MXF file within the CF card structure gives a clip that will not play and produces the same "Exception:" error listed in #3. AMA linking to the MXF file exported from Canon XF Utility will also not play, and produces the same error.

Does anyone have any experience with fixing these clips? Does Canon have any 'repair utility' for these kinds of clips, like Panasonic makes for P2 media?

Thanks in advance!
-Tim

I have successfully used this company to restore corrupt files:
Fix corrupt video files. Recover footage from damaged disks and cards (http://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/repair)

While clearly not ideal, if all else fails and you simply need to salvage the shot, try playing it at 1080 in VLC, meanwhile using screen capture software (I use "iShowU" but there are many alternatives).

With a fast machine, you should be able to capture the material at the full frame rate. I've had to resort to this method in the past with corrupt files on 5DII footage.

Sounds like you have been very thorough in handling your data and trying to resolve your problem.

The fact that you are able to view the clip in XF Utility is encouraging.

This might be a long shot but I had a problem with the clips from a failing card and managed to stabilise them by doing an internal copy from the card with the problem in slot A to a newly initialised card on slot B.