NX1 .h265 HEVC Corrupt .MP4 Video File Recovery Possible?

For the first time I have a corrupted .MP4 video file from my Samsung NX1 that I can't view or convert. All the rest of the files from the shoot work and there is nothing special or different about this file: It is a 1920x1080 23.98 (FHD) Pro Quality setting file. I've tried converting it with both the Samsung movie converter, and Adobe Media Encoder. I've tried copying the file off the card and converting from the card directly. No luck. Only the first frame of the file is available in preview and only the audio is kept when converted with the Samsung converter (nothing gets converted with media encoder).

I always initialize my SD card before a shoot, it is plenty fast and as I said - all the other files converted just fine (one was even larger at 6GB).

I am on a mac and I was hoping to at least recover part of the file. Being 3GB I know the video is there somewhere, I just can't get to it.

I would recommend trying iffmpeg (http://www.iffmpeg.com) which is a video converter GUI front end for ffmpeg. They have a free trial period. You can use ffmpeg (available for free) on the command line also, but it’s much simpler to use iffmpeg and see if you can convert the video.

As a quick test, you can also use MPV (https://mpv.io), which is a free video player that uses ffmpeg to play h.265 (and other) videos. This would give you a quick check to see if the video is playable. If it’s playable, then iffmpeg can be used to convert it. If it’s not playable, I would still give iffmpeg a try since it has a lot of options that can be selected.

Just drag the ffmpeg binary directly on top of iffmpeg. It will then prompt you to copy it to it's magic location (or use it in place). Or use Preferences->FFmpeg Manager and specify the binary.

There is also a link on the iffmpeg site (http://www.iffmpeg.com/ffmpeg-info.html) which directs you to several websites to download the ffmpeg binary directly. That's what I use, since they update that binary very frequently. The website I use is http://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/

I'm glad it worked for you.

As a side note, you can view the ffmpeg command that was generated by going into Preferences->Convert and checking "Enable FFmpeg command line editing". Before the process begins, you get a pop up box that will show you the ffmpeg command (which you can edit if you want). I use this often to copy the command line so I can make my own batch scripts.

another way to fix your hevc file: http://slydiman.me/eng/mmedia/recover_mp4.htm

i was really happy to see, he finally added hevc support!

edit: sorry, i didn't see you are using a mac. this solution only works on windows 

Isaacarte wrote:

I had the same problem with some of my H265 files, which suddenly would show in Premiere Pro Windows 10 as "missing media". When I tried to link them, only the audio would link. When I tried importing them again into a different project, they would not import. So I brought them over into a Mac. I was able to open them in Quicktime and export them as H264, and now I'm a happy camper. Except I'm giving up on H265. Back to H264 for me. I'm considering converting my current project from H265 to H265 to avoid further problems.

There was an issue with windows 10 where after an update the h265 codec was removed and you had to pay to get it back! Something to do with licensing I think. Anyway, what a cheek! Was only £1 or so though..

Isaacarte wrote:

Isaacarte wrote:

I had the same problem with some of my H265 files, which suddenly would show in Premiere Pro Windows 10 as "missing media". When I tried to link them, only the audio would link. When I tried importing them again into a different project, they would not import. So I brought them over into a Mac. I was able to open them in Quicktime and export them as H264, and now I'm a happy camper. Except I'm giving up on H265. Back to H264 for me. I'm considering converting my current project from H265 to H265 to avoid further problems.

I meant convert it to H264, but I don't think that's a possibility without losing resolution, so I'm going to have to convert everything to ProRes, which takes so much more space than H264.

Converting to h264 doesn't change the resolution, it's just a less efficient codec that requires a higher bitrate.