Videos are used extensively nowadays for a number of different purposes. They are utilized for marketing by businesses and in the entertainment industry in the form of movies. The Introduction of high-quality cameras has had a big impact on the utilization and popularity of videos. You can now shoot videos in great detail. This has created the need for digital video formats that can store large amounts of data in a single file. Various digital video formats have thus been developed for storing multimedia content of varying sizes and quality. The following is a list of some of the digital video formats that are commonly used for video playback.
- MOV: MOV is the digital video format that has been introduced by Apple. It is supported by a number of Media Players and MOV video files can run easily on Windows Media Player and QuickTime. MOV video files are capable of storing movies.
- MTS: MTS is the digital video format that was introduced by both Sony and Panasonic. It is supported by a few Media Players only and MTS video files can run easily on Windows Media Player and VLC Media Player. MTS video files are capable of storing HD videos and movies.
- MKV: MKV is the digital video format that was introduced by the Russians. It is supported by a handful of Media Players only but MKV video files can still run without issue on VLC Media Player. MKV videos are capable of storing a lot of multimedia content.
- MP4: MP4 is the digital video format that is an extension for the MPEG-4 file format. It is supported by a number of Media Player and MP4 videos can run easily on Windows Media Player and QuickTime. MP4 videos are capable of storing compressed videos and movies.
- AVI: AVI is the digital video format that has been introduced by Microsoft. It is supported by a number of Media Players and AVI videos can run easily on Windows Media Player and VLC Media Player. AVI videos are capable of storing videos and audio content.
All of these digital video formats are vulnerable to corruption and damage. The following are some of the reasons that can cause these video files to get corrupted.
- Improper conversion of any video from one format to another can cause it to corrupt. If you are using a substandard converter then again the chances of corruption increase manifolds.
- Sudden loss of power when any video is being transferred from one storage media to another can also result in corruption of that video.
- Operating system issues can also cause videos to corrupt as well. If the operating system encounters a problem while the video was being played then there is every chance that the video will get damaged.
You will need free video repair software to recover the data of the corrupted videos. There are many free video repair software programs available on the internet. You will have to look out for best free download video repair software, though.
You can repair & recover corrupted JPEG/JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG or RAW image files using this free online service or this free damaged photo repair software. Software starts saving the video file and opens the output location with new healthy video file. So friends, you saw how you can easily fix your corrupted/damaged video files from Hard Drives. Number #2 - Hetman File Repair. The second one on the list is Hetman File Repair. You can repair corrupted image file with this one. It’s compatible with different image types such as with JPEG, JPG, JPE and JFIF files in lossless mode. It can also repair file types such as TIFF, TIF, FAX, G3 and G4 files. JPEG-Repair is a utility to repair corrupt and damaged JPEG files that suffer from a corrupt header. It takes a known good sample, determines the header, processes the header and merges this header with the image data of the corrupt files. Steps to repair corrupt and damaged JPEG files Prepare a folder to copy the corrupt JPEGs and Sample file to. Video repair software, free download - TubeMate, Wise Video Converter, Adobe Presenter Video Express, and many more programs. Repair corrupt or damaged video files. Free to try User rating. Stellar Video Repair adds corrupt video files from the source media and then can efficiently repair the video files by rebuilding header, frame, movement, duration and any sound damages. Overall, Stellar Video Repair is very easy to use and the interface can be navigated by users of all levels of expertise, although the more advanced user may find it not as in-depth as they would like.
Part 1: The Best Free Video Repair Software
The countless free video repair software available online can’t recover data from corrupted videos in a comprehensive manner. Stellar Phoenix Video Repair is a free download video repair software program that is capable of repairing corrupted videos of all formats and sizes. It can restore the complete multimedia content of damaged videos and make them as good as new.
- Fixes video corruption issues by rebuilding header, frame, movement, duration and sound damages.
- Repairs video files on Windows like WMV, ASF, MOV, MP4, M4V, 3G2, 3GP and F4V files
- Repairs video files on Mac like MP4, MOV, M4V, M4A and F4V
- Repairs videos stored on hard drives, memory cards, and other storage media
- Provides preview of the repaired video files of supported file formats.
- Fixes various corruptions of the file on OS X and Windows OS systems.
Part 2: How to Repair Corrupt Video File
Here is an instruction manual that is going to walk you through the process of how to repair corrupt video file using the free video repair software, Stellar Phoenix Video Repair.
Step 1 With the video repair tool. Click 'All File' button to add corrupt video files.
Step 2 Select corrupt videos from thelist and click 'Repair' button to start.
Step 3 Hit the ‘Repair’ button to start repairng the corrupted videos.
Step 4 You can preview all repaied video file and save to desired location.
Tip:
The following are some simple but effective tips that can go a long way in preventing video files from getting corrupted.
- Always use a standardized converter for converting different video file formats into one another.
- Invest in backup power. It is best to buy a UPS for this purpose.
- Make sure to update your operating system when a new update is introduced by the developers.
Although MKV video format are gaining popularity these days as you can find many movie rips and HD camcorder records in MKV, AVI video format that was very popular many years back are still commonly being used today. One of a good reason to use AVI format is the built-in Windows Media Player 12 that is built in to Windows 7 can most of the time play AVI files without installing any third party codecs. There are also many screen recording software such as CamStudio, HyperCam 2 and Bandicam that saves the video recording to AVI only.
It is possible to encounter a corrupted AVI file where it doesn’t play on any media player software at all including VLC Media Player. One example is the popular CamStudio that outputs a corrupted AVI file when the result file is at several gigabytes. Opening on Windows Media Player would prompt an error window saying “Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file“.
Here are 5 free methods that you can use to repair or fix the corrupted AVI video file.
1. BandiFixBandiFix is an AVI repair module that comes with the popular screen recording software Bandicam. Although Bandicam is a shareware with limited functionality, but thankfully the AVI recovery program is offered for free without limitations.
After installing Bandicam, you can run BandiFix from the start menu shortcut and a program with a simple user interface will launch. All you need to do is select the corrupt AVI file that you want to fix, and BandiFix will automatically start to process and repair the damaged file. The repaired AVI file will be saved to a new file at the same location of where the corrupted AVI.
Download Bandicam
2. Remo Repair AVI
Remo Repair AVI is actually a shareware that comes with powerful and latest algorithm to repair corrupted AVI files that you cannot even play. The good thing about Remo Repair AVI is the demo version attempts to fix the broken AVI file, then let you preview to see and decide if the repair is successful. The ability to save the repaired AVI will only be unlocked by purchasing a license that cost $69.
The good news is, we found that the repaired file that you preview can actually be retrieved manually. First you need to go to Control Panel > Folder Options > View tab and select “Show hidden files, folders and drives” option and click OK. Then go to C:Program FilesRemo Repair AVI and open the hidden $tp folder where you will find a file avi.avi. That file is the repaired AVI file by Remo Repair AVI.
Download Remo Repair AVI
3. Digital Video Repair
Digital Video Repair is another free tool that comes with quite a few number of algorithms to repair unplayable AVI files. It is able to fix the common AVI index corruption like what VLC media player does, and also fixing large AVI files created by CamStudio. To use it, click on the Input File button, browse for the corrupted file and click the Repair! button. You can check the file status message after loading the file to see if it is damaged that requires fixing or if it is OK.
Digital Video Repair tool is actually a very small and portable program at only 121KB in size but we hated the installer as it comes with an adware. If you do not accept the installation of the adware, the Digital Video Repair tool will not be installed. A way to go around this restriction is to download the latest version of Inno Setup Unpacker, extract the binary file to Universal Extractor’sbin folder and use Universal Extractor to unpack the installer where you will get program’s application dvr.exe at the {app} folder. Alternatively, you can download the program that we’ve extracted from the link below.
Download Digital Video Repair
4. DivFix++
DivFix++ is a well known tool to fix bad AVI files that has been published at many websites. It is a complete rewrite from the old DivFix but the program itself is badly outdated as well. The program generated tons of “can’t find current position” errors and eventually crashing when we tried fixing a corrupt AVI that is nearly 3GB in size. DivFix++ is free and open source.
Download DivFix++
5. KMPlayer
Although KMPlayer is a media player and not an AVI fixing utility, but in our experience it has managed to force play many bad and corrupted video files even when it has failed to play in VLC media player and many others. The other good thing about using KMPlayer is it comes with internal codecs that enables to play many different video formats without installing codec packs. Do pay extra attention during installation because it prompts to install unnecessary toolbars and adware.
Download KMPlayer
Editors Note: We would rate Bandicam as our favorite AVI repair program because it is free and also the program is actively being maintained. We also highly recommend Remo Repair AVI because it is new and most importantly managed to repair one of our unplayable AVI file. Digital Video Repair works as well except we didn’t really like the “adware” that comes with it but using the “stripped” version solved the problem. As for DivFix++, it is an old program and not updated for years which may not have the latest technologies in fixing today’s corrupted AVI file.
You might also like:
5 Tools to Repair Corrupted JPEG Photos and Images6 Ways to Repair and Extract Invalid ZIP Files for FreeHow to Manually Preview Video or Audio from Rapidgator Links3 Free Ways To Create Password Protected Video Files2 Tools to Convert Audio or Video Files Into Self Contained Auto Playing ExecutablesI gave BandiFix and Remo a try. Neither one of them worked. Trying to repair a couple of corrupted AVI files, both pieces of software failed in recovery.
OK… Fair enough. Perhaps the AVI files were just too “far gone” to be repaired.
Curious, I then tried running both BandiFix and Remo on a few AVI files that were running smoothly to begin with and showed no signs of corruption. Once again, however, both BandiFix and Remo produced messages saying the AVI files could not be repaired.
I’m not convinced any of these pieces of AVI repair software actually work.
ReplyThey do work up to a point, I used to use Divfix on occasion many years ago and it usually got the AVI to a point where it would at least play the video. But they are by no means magic fixes.
ReplyDigital Video Repair did the job just fine! I had broken sound in an older .avi file and now my problem is resolved.
ReplyI have never known KMPlayer can repair corrupted files even though I have used it for years. Besides the tools mentioned in the review, WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory is also a good tool to repair files. I once used it to recovery some MP4 files and the results are fine.
ReplyDigital video repair worked like gold! Thank you so much for the list!
ReplyI use VLC a lot and when I download or save an AVI file, VLC always wants to FIX it and that takes time.
The time is OK but VLC does not seem to FIX it permanently as every time I play them, it “re-fixes” them again.
It does not say why it fixes them so does anyone know why? And what programs fixes them the best?
with remo the file output into the $tp folder is just labled $tp. but ig you rename it with .avi it works just fine
ReplyI use bandicam and did bandifix on many of my files, but they turn into just music files when i play them. Help plz
ReplyI tried Bandifix on a large AVI file that plays alright in VLC but chokes in other players at a few minutes in. Bandifix only saved the early portion that is playable in other players. Next I tried the trial version of Remo, an have yet to find an AVI file that does not return “The fie is too large to be processed.” —- worthless in trial form anyway Although these files play most times in VLC I like to convert the files to FLV to save space. I wish VLC would offer option to correct and save the repaired header file.
I tried Digitial Video Recorder and the although it did recover the previously unplayable portions of the AVI, the corrupt portions of the video was marred by video spectres and the audio had a monotonous clock tick tick sound?
What did work for me: Bandicam recommends if all else fails to use VLC to play the video and re-record with Bandicam Well, all is good until you each the 10-minute limitation on the trial version of Bandicam. But using VLC to replay and using the original recording SW (Hypercam 2) to re-record using the ‘Region’ function of Hypercam (so I could do this unhindered on a second monitor) I achieved the end goal – a complete AVI fiie I could convert to FLV.
Free Mp4 Video Repair Software
Curious Apprentice, I tried the trick of re-encoding the thing as mp4 in the hope htat I could re-encode it back to AVI after it got fixed. That, too stopped at 21 out of 130 minutes.
It’s binned.
Thanks, everyone. Even though it didn’t work, I’ve learned stuff and had fun.
Thanks so much for the article and for making it us easy to find adware free programs.
For my test, I found that Remo fixed my file with a lot of forced slow motion parts, so just ok. Digital Video Repair seemed to do a great job. Another program repair Video Master did an alright job but the end video was a little more unstable.
ReplyThanks a million for the list. Very helpful indeed.
ReplyFix Corrupted Video Files Free
Thanks for this article, you fixed my problem. I had an .Avi file that showed absolutely no codec information, video or audio. Despite this, VLC was still able to play it, with the provision that it rebuild the index first, and which I did. Unfortunately it doesn’t encode this new info in the file, it just does it temporarily for its own purpose. I was looking more to fix the file permanently, not just be able to play it.
To make a long story a bit shorter… I ran through the first 4 of the 5 tools you presented, and the only one that managed to do what I wanted, which is fix to file permanently as if it never had any problems at all to begin with, was DivFix++, which I got from SourceForge. Rebuilt the index permanently and all codec info is now readable by any tool that can do so.
So thx again, very useful article. Too bad DivFix++ wasn’t closer to the top of the list though, heh-heh. :)
ReplyThanks for the article. Was helpful!
ReplyI normally use “AviDemux” or “Kirara Encoder” to re-encode the corrupted file (Most probably any other Video Converter will do).
Most of the time I get satisfactory result irrespective of the codec and the container previously used to encode the file.
How can I get PDF's to open in IE 11 as it did before? Adobe acrobat reader error. I ran a repair of the installation, I have Adobe Acrobat set as the standard software to use for PDF's, I tried with Adobe running and closed. No matter what, I keep getting the same error message. I currently have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Version 2018.011.20055. It works in Edge but not IE 11.
ReplyWOW….great trick of finding the preview file in the hidden folder in Remo Repair AVI,in free of cost without registering….you are rocking raymond blog….Thanks a lot
Reply