It happens that your video .mp4 GoPro is unreadable,usually as a result of an unexpected shutdown of the camera, after a violent shock, excess heat or battery failure. It is very likely that the camera app is not had time to close the recorded file, making it unusable.
Here is the procedure to follow to save your videos, in the majority of cases:
The prerequisite
First of all, check that the file is not empty (> 0 kO), or is not filled with zeros (by opening it in the windows notepad for example). If it is not empty, there is hope!
Use the camera's SOS mode
Before any other manipulation, turn off the GoPro,reintroduce the card, and turn on the camera. It is likely that the "SOS" message will appear,which means that the camera has detected the corrupted. By pressing any button, the app will rewrite the missing code fragment and make your file readable again. At the end of the repair, the red LED flashes once.
Heavy artillery: the PEARL script
If the previous manipulation does not work, you can use this script developed by Tchiers,which allows you to retrieve the video stream only. We give you below the instructions for use:
To use the software, on windows:
- Download here the PERL script of fixfr.zip
- Download and install Perl version 5.8 or higher
- Create a folder
- Copy to this folder the contents of the fixfr.zip file, a file named "fix.pl", which is the script in Perl, and a file "lancez_moi.cmd" which is a batch.
Although tested perfectly functional in windows7, in some it appeared a problem at launch, which is solved by removing the word "perl" from the file "launch me.cmd". To do this, use software in the style of notepad to open the file. - Copy the damaged video file to the same directory (let's call it 'video.mp4', and assume it was filmed in R3 mode).
- Double-click the "lancez_moi.cmd" file
- A window opens. Perform the requested actions:
- put the name of the corrupted file and its extension (video.mp4 in our example)
- put the mode in which the video was captured (r3 in our example, i.e. 720p mode). If you shoot in PAL (50 fps in r3 PAL), choose palr3,if you shoot in NTSC (60 fps in R3 NTSC), choose ntscr3.
In PAL R2 it will be palr2,in NTSC R4 it will be ntscr4,etc. - for the first try, enter 0 for the compensation. You will change this setting only if the corrected video is not playing well
- The script will attempt to repair the file and create a restored copy with a '.restore.mp4 extension.
Check in VLC video player that the video has been recovered. If the reading hurts, restart the script by entering a different compensation parameter (first 1, then 2…) until the reading is finally correct.
It is likely that you will encounter difficulties with advanced functions (fast-forward style). This is because the file has experienced indexing issues. It is recommended that you re-encode it.
