Video File Recovery Tools for Samsung Cameras (WARNING, DON'T BUY STELLAR DATA RECOVERY)

[Drew Veeneman]

Part of life using hacked cameras is dealing with bad or corrupted video files every-once and a while. I remember fixing some on my GH2 years ago. Anyway, I just got back from a trip and have a couple files that won't open or transcode.

Can anyone recommend a good video file recovery tool that works for the Samsung NX1 and NX500? It doesn't have to be free...

Yesterday I bought the Video Repair Tool from Stellar Data Recovery after the Demo seemed to work on my troubled file. After purchasing a software license, I quickly learned it didn't fix anything at all... and after a few emails to customer support, that company seems like a bunch of Con-Artists pushing fake repair software. Doubtful I'll ever get a refund from them and am pretty angry about it.

[Kisaha]

Talk with this guy, and then report back http://slydiman.me/eng/mmedia/recover_mp4.htm

During the summer he updated his H264 tool to finalize a 74minute file (I forgot the 73minutes time limit!) I sent him and he was super friendly and super capable.

Ask him, and report back for details, as back then he didn't support H265 at all, he was just experimenting with some files I sent him!

[Kisaha]

update: I just did an experiment with a -similar to your problem- file I have (the only one I ever had any problem in both NX1 and NX500, except that huge one that I forgot to stop recording), it analyzed the file alright, I believe it transcoded right, but then I had to make it a whole file with ffmpeg but I had issues doing so. The sound wasn't synched, the image was playing properly, last few minutes didn't work at all...

If anyone finds a better work-around please share.

[Drew Veeneman]

Thanks Kisaha, I am trying the tool you linked above and it seems to be working. I've got a 30GB file from my NX500 I'm running recover on now... I'm not sure if it's normal, but my stream recover operation is slowing way down at the 41.331% mark. I'll let it run over-night if I need to.

I'll let you know how things go when I get to step #3 with ffmpeg. I was hoping I might be able to load the stream files directly into Sony Vegas or After Effects to trans-code. I've played AAC audio files on my own before...

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Whoops... My recover just crashed. I'll pass this along to the developer.

Hopefully, I can use the half of the stream it successfully pulled out.

[Drew Veeneman]

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Hmm... I maybe stuck with this one. FFMPeg is giving me "Unkown file format" for my result.hevc file.

[Kisaha]

My impression is that ffmpeg doesn't support hevc files very good, or there is a option somewhere we don't know..

Better contact the developer, as said, pretty cool guy, and humble!

I did a donation back then, even before I fixed my file, these people should be rewarded!

[Drew Veeneman]

I found his email on the recover_mp4 tool and just sent him an email with a screen shot of the crash and a dropbox link to my bad video file.

I agree, who ever this guy is, he's my hero. As soon as I successfully rescue a video file, I'll start sending donations his way. 

[Drew Veeneman]

I just tested one of my good video files. Pulling the streams through the Recover_MP4 program went smooth... however I still wasn't able to put the good streams back together with FFMPeg.

Got "result.hevc: Unknown file format" again, so FFMPeg looks like the main problem for me too.

On the bright side, that means I may still recover half of my damaged video file if I can put the streams back together somehow...

[Drew Veeneman]

Holy Cow, I got it! I just need to use a better build of FFmpeg that supports HEVC/H265. Since I use windows, I got the download here(https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/). This works fine for putting streams back together with recover_mp4.

I encoded two videos. First a good clip as a test. That came together with no issues. Then I encoded what I was able to pull out from the bad video file (roughly 50%, before recover_mp4 crashed). The 10 minutes of streaming video came together fine... unfortunately the image was thoroughly corrupted from start to finish there.

At least now I know how to check bad video files and know for sure... and I didn't loose any critical footage there. I'll think of this as a good training exercise!

[Drew Veeneman]

Hold on, it looks like I have been using the wrong settings. For the good file, I accidentally analyzed a 1080p 60fps file. These settings don't work when your trying to recover a 4K 24fps video file... duh!

The Developer, Dmitry Vasilyev pointed it out to me and sent a good frame from my bad video file.

[webrunner5]

So are you saying he is going to be able to save the whole file for you you think?? Hmm a hell of a lot of you's in there.

Yikes looks like you are going to shoot your Cell Phone! 

[Kisaha]

@webrunner5 It is not him, is a professional gunner!

@Drew Veeneman Dmitry is a great guy, I told you, where are all the possible settings though?! I am a bit lost to this thing.

[Drew Veeneman]

Ok, here's the final result. Using Dmitry Vasilyev's recover tool I was able to recover 42% of the bad video file... roughly 10 mins of a giant 30GB 4K file. At that point NX500 stopped recording good video frames. I'm happy with that... and now knowing how to salvage corrupt video files is awesome.

As I encounter other bad video files, I'll write about that here in the future.

If I have time in the future, I'll make a video tutorial walking people through the process. Remembering how to use a command prompt from my MS DOS days was the most challenging part.

PS: That's Sang Lee from the Carry Trainer YouTube Channel. He's our regular Co-Host and Tactical Ninja.

[Kisaha]

@Drew Veeneman can you just post the commands? I think I am missing something in the final FFmpeg, but maybe even before, when the Hevc and AAC files are created. 

[Drew Veeneman]

Sure @Kisaha, here are the exact commands I used below in red.

Step 1: Analyze a similar good video file - Find a good video file for reference with the same resolution, frames per second, etc. When you analyze a file, the recover application will give you exact instructions on how to enter the next two commands (see image example below).

My example command: recover_mp4_x64.exe SAM_0803.MP4 --analyze

Step 2: Recover the streams from the bad video file - Enter the next command exactly as you see it in the results from the Analyze command... substituting the bad file in the recover command. This will extract the video and audio into two different stream files. result.xxx

My example command: recover_mp4_x64.exe SAM_0804.MP4 result.hevc result.aac --drim5 --end 0

Step 3: Make a new video file using the two streams you extracted - Here you need to use 3rd party software to put the video and audio streams back into a regular video file. I think the most popular tool for this is FFmpeg, but there are many others. For Samsung cameras with H.265, I found out the hard way you need a version of FFmpeg that can handle that. The one I used successfully can be downloaded here: https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

Again, enter the FFmpeg command exactly as you saw it when you did your first Analyze command.

My example command: ffmpeg.exe -r 24.000 -i result.hevc -i result.aac -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -c:a copy result.mp4

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Restated from above, here is a link to the great RECOVER TOOL from Dmitry Vasilyev: http://slydiman.me/eng/mmedia/recover_mp4.htm

 

NOTE: For those that suck at that command prompt like I do, be sure to copy the recover application files and ffmpeg.exe file into the directory where you will be working.