A damaged video is a complex problem and not always easy to solve. Users who are faced with the error message “Can not play, the file is corrupted” try to run for cover by searching for online programs that can solve the problem. But not everyone actually keeps their promises and therefore it is really difficult to choose the most suitable one.
Video Repair is one of the best (if not the best) alternatives on the market suitable for repairing an illegible video but before going into detail you have to make the necessary clarifications. If a video does not play with Windows Media Player (or via the apps on Windows 10), the first check to do is to open the file with VLC. Very often this kind of files are not reproduced due to the lack of necessary codecs (the libraries of the codecs present on VLC are wider).
In the event that VLC also fails to open the file in question, then the only solution will be to run for cover through the program mentioned below.
How Video Repair works
This software from Grau GmbH is one of the most powerful professional programs that allows to repair, through a completely automated procedure, the corrupted videos of different formats ( .mov , .mp4 , .3gp ) using one of the following codecs:
- avc1 (H264 / AVC, used by most digital cameras, in rooms capable of recording videos in HD, iPhone, etc.)
- mp4v (H264 / ISO, used by a small group of cameras)
- MPG2 / xdvc / xd5d / xd5e (MPEG-2 / XDCAM, used by Sony cameras)
- jpg (Motion JPEG, used by Panasonic cameras)
- icod (Apple Intermediate Codec, used by Final Cut)
- dvc / dvpp / dvhp (DVCPRO / DVCPRO HD , used by Panasonic cameras)
- apch / apcn / apcs / apco / ap4h (ProRes 4444/422 / LT / HQ / Proxy, used by Final Cut)
The operation of Video Repair is very simple, and it is indeed possible to enclose the installation and use procedure in these few steps:
- Download Video Repair;
- Extract the contents of the downloaded file into a folder on your hard disk;
- Start the program by double clicking on the gs.exe file;
- Click on the button labeled ” Choose movie ” to select the damaged video to be repaired.
- Select another video recorded with the same camera (but not damaged this time) so that the program can compare the two files during the repair procedure
- At this point there will be nothing left to do but click the Scan button to start the procedure to recover the damaged video. Depending on the file size, it may take several minutes to complete the operation
The restored video will be automatically saved in the “Repaired” subfolder present in the same path where the program in question is present. In the event that this should remain empty at the end of the procedure it will mean that it was in no way possible to repair the video under analysis.
The only flaw is the fact that this program is not free, or rather, in the demo version is limited to recover 50% of the damaged file and to proceed with the total recovery of the file will need to activate a license directly on the site owner.
Digital Video Repair
We also want to introduce you to a freeware alternative: Digital Video Repair. This video repair tool can help you repair movies damaged by viruses, or corrupted by errors, system crashes etc ..
Also in this case the procedure is completely automated and these few simple steps will be enough to try to recover your video file:
- Once the program is open click on Input File to select the file to be repaired;
- Then click on Output File to select the folder in which the output file will be saved;
- Click on Check Errors to start the search for errors;
- Click on Repair to repair the errors found in the previous step.