Repairing Type-1 and Type-2 DV AVI files

[John Miller]

Once in a while, headerless DV AVI files pop up usually when a capture process has been interrupted (due power loss, system crashes etc). All of the AV data are in the files but the AVI headers weren't finalized properly.

We have updated a freebie tool for WinXP/Vista that we released last year that fixes two issues:

1) Files >4GB yielded jibberish after the first 4GB
2) The last frame from the corrupt file was omitted

Note, if you have a corrupt DV AVI file (missing header) and need to quickly view it, WMP will open it (once the repair tool is installed) and allow you to play (but not scrub/seek) the file. This means you don't have to repair it just to see what it contains.

This updated version (1.1) will be bundled with the next release of the DV processor. If you have the latter software but need the updated repair tool, you can install the standalone version.

For convenience, the Read Me file is shown below (so you don't have to download and install the software to see what it is all about).

The download link is:

http://www.enosoft.net/dl.php?filena...lInstaller.msi

03 May 2008


INTRODUCTION

The Enosoft AVI Repair Tool is designed to repair DV format AVI files that have been corrupted due to missing AVI header information. The tool can repair both Type-1 and Type-2 DV AVI files. The tool works by creating a new AVI file from the DV data inside the corrupt file.

HOW TO USE

The tool can be used in two ways - interactively or via the command line.

1. INTERACTIVE USE

Launch the tool from the Start menu.

Select a corrupt file for repair by clicking on the [..] button (the text box is read-only.

Select a new file for the repaired by clicking on the [..] button.

Choose Type-1 or Type-2 DV AVI for the repaired file.

Click Start. The file repair will begin and its progress will be shown in the progress bar.

To abort the process, click Abort.

A message will appear when repair is finished.

To repair another file, click New and repeat the above process.

When finished, click Close.

2. COMMAND LINE USE

Open a Command window and navigate to the directory when the tool is installed (e.g., C:\Program Files\Enosoft\Enosoft AVI Repair Tool)

Use the following syntax to run the tool:

EnoAVIRepairTool.exe <input> <output> <1:2> [s]

<input> = file to repair. You must enclose the path with quotation marks.
<output> = file to create. You must enclose the path with quotation marks.
<1:2> = 1 or 2 for Type-1 or Type-2 DV AVI format output, respectively.
[s] = run tool in silent mode (optional)

The tool will run with the graphic user interface as above except that repair will commence automatically. If the first three parameters are not correctly specified, the tool will run interactively. By default, any messages will be displayed, including the concluding "Repair complete." message. This can be disabled by specifying the optional 's' parameter. This will cause the tool to close automatically upon repair completion.

3. EXAMPLES

Repair one file as a new Type-2 DV AVI file without showing messages and with automatic closure:

EnoAVIRepairTool.exe "F:\Capture\BadFile.avi" "G:\Repaired\GoodFile.avi" 2 s

To batch repair multiple files:

EnoAVIRepairTool.exe "F:\Capture\BadFile1.avi" "G:\Repaired\GoodFile1.avi" 2 s
EnoAVIRepairTool.exe "F:\Capture\BadFile2.avi" "G:\Repaired\GoodFile2.avi" 2 s

4. PERFORMANCE

The bottleneck for this tool is the hard drive read/write speed. Repair will be much faster if the original and repaired files are on separate physical drives (not just logical). Restricting them to the same physical drive will significantly increase the drive's read and write times.

5. PLAYING WITHOUT REPAIR

The repair tool uses a custom DirectShow file source filter. Third-party applications may be able to use the filter directly and permit opening of corrupt DV AVI files without having to convert them. Windows Media Player (WMP) is such an example. Such programs cannot "seek" files opened with the repair tool filter but may be used to quickly see the contents of possibly corrupt files. Other applications such as Windows Movie Maker are not able to use the repair tool filter.

[Luke Arndt]

I just downloaded and used this tool on a corrupted AVI file, and it worked beautifully!

The video file was originally corrupted when an external hard drive was unplugged while there was a capture going and writing to it. It resulted in a 4 GB AVI file that wouldn't play or load in anything.

I loaded it in this tool, it went through the repair process, and -- bang -- the file appears to be good as new!

Thank you, John!!