CODEWITHSUNDEEP
videoffmpegcodecdata-recovery
Ashley
Ashley

Reputation: 497

Recover corrupt MTS file via ffmpeg

I have many large video files from an overseas trip. 90% of them are great, but there are a few I recorded on a dodgy SD card which are unable to play for some reason. They are all .MTS files.

In VLC, an error appears when trying to play them:

Unidentified codec:
VLC could not identify the audio or video codec

I don't know much about video files or codecs, but I am savvy enough to use ffmpeg, which I thought might be my best bet.

I attempted this on one of the files (call it 'input.MTS'):

ffmpeg -i input.MTS output.mp4

The result was this:

ffmpeg version N-82597-gd316b21 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
  libavutil      55. 40.100 / 55. 40.100
  libavcodec     57. 66.106 / 57. 66.106
  libavformat    57. 58.100 / 57. 58.100
  libavdevice    57.  2.100 / 57.  2.100
  libavfilter     6. 67.100 /  6. 67.100
  libswscale      4.  3.101 /  4.  3.101
  libswresample   2.  4.100 /  2.  4.100
  libpostproc    54.  2.100 / 54.  2.100
[adp @ 0000000000026380] Format adp detected only with low score of 25, misdetection possible!
Input #0, adp, from 'input.MTS':
  Duration: 00:05:38.69, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 438 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Audio: adpcm_dtk, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16p
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.58.100
    Stream #0:0: Audio: aac (LC) ([64][0][0][0] / 0x0040), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.66.106 aac
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (adpcm_dtk (native) -> aac (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
size=     312kB time=00:05:38.68 bitrate=   7.6kbits/s speed=33.7x
video:0kB audio:250kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 25.134468%
[aac @ 00000000025c5ba0] Qavg: 65531.879

The output.mp4 file now plays in VLC without error, and is 5 minutes and 38 seconds long. However, there is no audio or video.

Also, input.MTS is ~18 MB, and output.mp4 is ~0.313 MB.

What is the correct way to recover this video?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3767

Answers (2)

VC.One
VC.One

Reputation: 15926

What is the correct way to recover this video?

You cannot recover anything, from this file, because it does not contain any audio/video data.

Each and every single byte in the file has the maximum amount FF as its hex value (or decimal 255). See image below (showing some of) your file's bytes.

From this input I think FFmpeg has just guessed that your file must be some kind of PCM (uncompressed audio). The lack of a recognized format's header forces it to go a step further and assume your data as some ADPCM since that format does not always involve header data).

FFmpeg says : Stream #0:0: Audio: adpcm_dtk, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16p

VLC says : VLC could not identify the audio or video codec

As shown below there's nothing in file bytes to confirm actual format (is image? video? or audio?). Data could be PCM audio or could be just an all-white image (one white pixel = FF FF FF).

Upvotes: 3

mdasari
mdasari

Reputation: 433

There are two reasons I suspect here. One is the ffmpeg command you are using not enough I think. Try below command once or look here.

ffmpeg -i input.mts -y -vcodec mpeg4 -acodec libfaac output.mp4

Second, I suspect VLC, because it not that stable. You can try playing it in mplayer or ffplay or any other player.

Upvotes: 1

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