Videos lost due to not terminating video recording before turning off drone power.

[chiangmaicharlies]

I've lost a few potentially good videos in my early drone days due to forgetting to turn off the video before powering off the drone.

When I've done that I get a load of data, but the message "Can't play the media file". I would have thought that with so much data there must be a way to make the data I have playable. Any suggestions?

In olden days when some computer data was 'unplayable', I was able to rescue it in those days with a marvellous program called "X-Copy". Anybody remember that?

 

[Meta4]

When I've done that I get a load of data, but the message "Can't play the media file".
I would have thought that with so much data there must be a way to make the data I have playable. Any suggestions?

The file needs to be completed to be able to be played.
Usually, all it takes to fix is to put the card back in the drone and power the drone up and power it down.

 

[k.achilleas]

That's right .

 

[DougMcC]

A restart and then shutdown while not using video camera seems to correctly close any open video file. Done!

 

[Peter Hughes]

A restart and then shutdown while not using video camera seems to correctly close any open video file. Done!

Doing that has worked for me a couple of times when I’ve forgotten to stop recording. Hope it works for you.
Take care. Peter

 

[Dave Maine]

To understand the problem, the key fact is that closing a video file can only be done when all the video frame information has been successfully written to the SD card. Once that is successful, a map of the completed file is written to the file metadata header. This information is used by any video application that wants to read the file. It takes a couple of seconds to finish writing the file and create the header after shooting is stopped by the user. If the power to the drone is interrupted, the header is not written, and the file is unreadable. Putting the SD card back in the drone, and powering the drone up usually will cause the drone software to finish off closing the file, making it readable.

No file repair utility that I have tried can repair a file that wasn't successfully closed.

 

[MavicFlyer]

So

To understand the problem, the key fact is that closing a video file can only be done when all the video frame information has been successfully written to the SD card. Once that is successful, a map of the completed file is written to the file metadata header. This information is used by any video application that wants to read the file. It takes a couple of seconds to finish writing the file and create the header after shooting is stopped by the user. If the power to the drone is interrupted, the header is not written, and the file is unreadable. Putting the SD card back in the drone, and powering the drone up usually will cause the drone software to finish off closing the file, making it readable.

No file repair utility that I have tried can repair a file that wasn't successfully closed.

Does the camera software record the failure to close anywhere? Some camera log file? I would think that the DJI software would note any failure, and notify the operator in some way. What if there is a write failure to the SD card for some unknown reason? It would be nice for the operator to be made aware of that, to try again, or put in a different card, and not call it a day mistakenly thinking that they had their videos?

 

[Dave Maine]

It cannot record anything additional when the power is turned off. That is the failure to finish writing in the first place. This event is purely operator error, and is well documented in the user manual.

What it does when the drone is next powered up, and the same card is still in the drone it recognizes that the file is still open and goes ahead and closes it then. This is the method that works for many people.

 

[MavicFlyer]

It cannot record anything additional when the power is turned off. That is the failure to finish writing in the first place. This event is purely operator error, and is well documented in the user manual.

What it does when the drone is next powered up, and the same card is still in the drone it recognizes that the file is still open and goes ahead and closes it then. This is the method that works for many people.

I understand.

In my case, power was turned on for the remainder of the flight - several minutes. While the video was being recorded inflight, I tried to do a panorama shot, but got the message that you can't do both (don't recall the actual text) and the video would be stopped, I accepted. Video recording ended, and the panorama sequence began, and ran to completion.

I find it hard to believe that the DJI software wouldn't record in some log file, that there was a problem in writing a video file

 

[chiangmaicharlies]

Thanks for the many helpful messages. I copied the 'unclosed' videos I had from the computer and put them back on the card, and put the card back in the drone. I powered the drone up, took a short video and powered it down. The new video worked perfected, but the unclosed videos were not closed.

Thanks anyway, and as some of you said, 'operator error'!

 

[Chrislaf]

Litchi doesn’t seem to have this problem. It closes the video file properly on motor shut down. Not sure why DJI can’t implement this.

Chris

 

[BigAl07]

Here's a thread over in our sister forum Phantom Pilots what I've used SEVERAL times helping people with corrupted video files. Thus far it's worked 100% of the time with files I've seen corrupted. Scroll to near the end for the most recent versions of the program.

App to fix corrupted Video Files (new one)

I have been using the wonderful djifix.exe, but sometimes it does not repair my videos, so I looked further and found some pieces of software (all console application) which requires a lot of effort and knowledge to build the proper command line, so I made my own GUI application (using those...

phantompilots.com

 

[chiangmaicharlies]

Here's a thread over in our sister forum Phantom Pilots what I've used SEVERAL times helping people with corrupted video files. Thus far it's worked 100% of the time with files I've seen corrupted. Scroll to near the end for the most recent versions of the program.

App to fix corrupted Video Files (new one)

I have been using the wonderful djifix.exe, but sometimes it does not repair my videos, so I looked further and found some pieces of software (all console application) which requires a lot of effort and knowledge to build the proper command line, so I made my own GUI application (using those...

phantompilots.com

Hi BigAl07 THANKS - your reply looked a good bet. Following your link to 'phantompilots.com' I then downloaded FIX-DJI from Repairing Corrupt DJI Video Files
This seemed my only option and at that stage I wasn't sure this was the one with your GUI.
However, I followed the straightforward instructions. I chose a good video from the same set of videos as the corrupted one, added my corrupted video, but sadly failed at phase 3:



Any comments gratefully received, if not THANKS anyway.

 

[BigAl07]

Hi BigAl07 THANKS - your reply looked a good bet. Following your link to 'phantompilots.com' I then downloaded FIX-DJI from Repairing Corrupt DJI Video Files
This seemed my only option and at that stage I wasn't sure this was the one with your GUI.
However, I followed the straightforward instructions. I chose a good video from the same set of videos as the corrupted one, added my corrupted video, but sadly failed at phase 3:

View attachment 108487

Any comments gratefully received, if not THANKS anyway.

Many people have gotten help directly from the ap creator. It may be worth while to join over there and leave him a Private Message???