15 Gb m2ts wedding ceremony file corrupted

[Tiago Cardoso]

Hello guys and thank you for your help. I'm struggling with a file that is not recognized as it should, so I'm asking help as to which software can help me.

I've taken a screenshot that maybe explains without that many words what is going on. I don't own the source SDHC card anymore and it was recorded on a Sony NX5 brand new camera that didn't show any other problems than this one (assuming it's a cameras fault - that maybe is not). The file read perfectly on the SDHC card and Content Managemente Utility (Software bundled with NX5 camera) joined all the 8 files that was recorded to the card without any glitch.

ANY help is appreciated... Maybe this is a Table of Contents issue - something got messed up and I need a software to fix inside the m2ts, don't know. I know I didin't sleep this night, this is my living and losing this... well, let me try to get positive...

[Ron Evans]

When you say it read fine on the SDHC card and the Content Management Utility do you mean it will play in the CMU now? What are the characteristics of the problem? What does your NLE see when you drag to the timeline or what does the Content management Utility see?

Ron Evans

[Tiago Cardoso]

Ron, it does not play on CMU now. Its browser shows a blank square and an 'x', meaning the file is not readable. Sony Vegas reads 48 minutes of this 15 Gb file - and it takes quite sometime to read the file and its characteristics. There was another camera that is simillar to NX5, the AX2000 recording the wedding ceremony. It came up with a 14.5 Gb file (it's listed in the screenshot I sent) with 1 hour, 28 minutes of footage.

I'm attaching another two screenshots, CMU's and Vegas'. Thank you for the attention, Ron.

[Ron Evans]

You might try TMPGenc or Cineform to see if they can convert to some other format and in doing so recover more of the file. Not sure what you edit with other than Vegas but if you have Edius you may try converting to Canopus HQ. The other option is to see if you can split the clip in Vegas and render the second part. Just leave a little gap at the point it stopped. Could be audio so the other option is to render from Vegas a video only file first and see if it does that. It seems to have identified picons for beginning middle and end so it is reading the video file.


Ron Evans

[Tiago Cardoso]

Tried TMPGEnc... couldn't even load the file... Tried Cineform Neoscene, same result. Tried Mainconcept Reference, it took 10 minutes to open the file and it assumes it has only those 48 minutes. Same thing happens to Vegas, it opens as the file had 48 minutes, nothing more. Don't know if its header is missing or broken maybe... is there any software to repair these kind of problems? Will try Carbon Coder a friend of mine suggested.

[Ron Evans]

There is a data base repair function in the camera but you would need the card which you don't have I assume. Some of the FAT32 file recovery programs may work but I have no more input. Will Vegas render any file for you in HDV for example?

Ron Evans

[Tiago Cardoso]

Yeah, unfortunately the SDHC card has already been formatted and reused several times since December, 17th, when the wedding ocurred.

The first 48 minutes work in perfection. Looks like the 15 Gb is corrupted and now I need to see if there is a way to recover maybe some frames that are missing 'in the middle of the file' or maybe it is just its header that is missing or something like that... Thank you for the exchange of ideas.

[Chris Soucy]

I don't suppose you still have the original 8 files from before you ran them through the CMU, do you?

If this video was fine on the camera but not after going through the CMU, it sounds like the CMU itself is the culprit, or a machine hiccup during the link operation.

Can't offer any more help than that.


CS

[Tiago Cardoso]

Yep... I see this one is kinda tricky. Makes me think this is not an ordinary problem that anyone has faced before. Could even be a HDD write failure. From now on my new Workflow will be:

-> Recording -> Transfering files to PC in a RAID 5 array (using CMU yet, gonna test it carefully now) -> Backing up to an external HDD -> importing all files to NLE and check them, specially the biggest ones (ceremonys, that usually take one hour of footage).

I just realized (remembered) that the main HDD that first received the files has just 'died' last week... makes me really conclude that the proble is there, in the HDD, that time in December. Maybe a bad block or something like that.

[Ron Evans]

If it is a PC hard drive failure then some of the disc recovery software may recover the data for you.

My work flow is to transfer using the CMU or in the case of the consumer cameras the Sony Motion Browser software to a drive reserved for source files. I copy these files to a working RAID0 used for editing, confirm that these run on the timeline. Backup the data to LTO3 data tape. So before I loose the originals I have three copies. RAID data is deleted after edit. Final program is also backed up to LTO3 data tape.

Ron Evans

[Steve Nelson]

I ran into this problem once when a producer took the SDHC from an EX-1 (using an adaptor card) and plugged it in a card reader on his Mac then copied the files without using the XDCAM Browser. It ended up corrupting the file and I believe now that had the card been set to read only this could have been prevented. I never found a fix for the problem after the fact. The guidance with the EX cameras is to always use XDCAM Browser. I wouldn't be surprised if the same holds true for the CMU.

[Tiago Cardoso]

Hi Steve. Great to hear from you. I'm really ending my journey without a solution. We have the footage from the other camera, so that should do it, not that good of a conclusion, but is what I could do after all.

Even though I used CMU, it ended up screwing - didn't happen before, as quite a lot of times I didn't use the software. It's not his fault, though, not this time and in this case.

[Bud Bolf]

Hi,
It sounds like you have thrown a lot at this file already and I would definitely not get rid of the file, you never know what the future holds in Software.

I have had some success with Movavi in regard to joining and converting M2TS files.
Movavi Video Software | Video Conversion, Processing and Editing

I also use PowerDirector9 with my Panny TM 700 MTS files @ 1080 x 60P
Not sure if that would help if Vegas won't. These programs really want a good working file, I do not consider them as a file repair utility.

You may want to try some different Software trials and see if anything can crack this file.

Hindsight is always 20/20! You always have to make sure that the file is a good working file, before you give up the SDHC Card and equipment used for the original shoot.
For you to get a 15GB size file from an SDHC Card (Fat 32 4GB SDHC File Limit Size) I am assuming that it took about 4 separate 4GB files to join together.
Joining Files can have a hiccup so I always make sure that the complete file is in perfect working status after the joining process.
Also after I have a successfully joined the files, I would never get rid of the individual 4GB files, I could always play and edit them further in PD9.
Because my Panasonic HDC TM700 also accepts the newer SDXC cards, I am looking into buying a 64GB SDXC card.
Then I will not have to deal with the 4GB file limit and I can record one single file.

After such a joining I will play back the entire file to make sure that there are no stops or hiccups.
Usually while I am watching TV, I just let it run on my Puter in the background.

You have been taught a hard lesson, you know the old saying, "Fool Me Once, Shame on You / Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me!"
I'm sure it will not happen to you again!
If your equipment accepts SDXC...Get an SDXC card!

Good Luck,
Bud

[Lars Siden]

I'd guess on some formatting error, like you're running FAT32 as filesystem, and somehow passed the maximum filesize. In my Sony cam, I can tell it to split the file every 4gb - probably to avoid these kind of problems.

cheers, Lazze

[Ron Evans]

Lars, the files were FAT32. To my knowledge all the Sony AVCHD cameras shoot FAT32 and consequently have a 4G limit. Its the CMU software that joins them together on transfer to the PC to make clips as defined by the start and stop on the camera. If the FAT 32 files are just copied from the card they use a file number that is incremented. The CMU creates a file name based on the camera date and time the shot ( start time of the clip) was taken. I always use the CMU as this renaming/joining is really useful.


Ron Evans