This article deals with failures in the recording process. They can originate either in the recording device, the recording application, or in other critical elements like power supply, communication cables.
As opposed to storage failures, here we don't encounter the worst pathologies:
- No data mixed between files, mixed data blocks within the file, or alien data interleaved with legit data
- No catastrophic loss of media data
We only have a missing index to rebuild
The footage can always be repaired with excellent results. Maybe the last seconds are missing, because they were still in volatile memory, waiting to be written to the persistent storage.
The possible causes are well known
- the recording application crashes or become unresponsive.
- hard disk or storage medium runs out of space
- Accidental disconnection of hard drive, camera, or any other critical device involved in the recording
- and for battery-powered devices (camcorders, pro cameras, cell phones, iPhone, laptops), the dreaded battery failure.
Most common recording applications
- Photo Booth
- iMovie
- QuickTime (Video Recording feature)
- iPhone recording applications
Video capture from mobile phones
There is a variety of phones, applications and formats. File corruption usually happens when the battery dies.
One of the most common format is 3GP, a container format. Inside we can find MPEG4 or H263 video and AMR narrowband audio. H263 is not detected by Treasured, but can be repaired.
QuickTime Broadcaster
This live capture and streaming application, available as free download from Apple, can sometimes crash. Running out of disk space is another a cause of failure, that leaves an incomplete and unplayable file.
QT Broadcaster supports a large variety of video and audio formats. If the format you've picked is also detected by Treasured, then probably a preview of the file is possible.
The repair is almost always successful. The RTP packets (or RTSP transport packets) that QT Broadcaster writes to the file also contribute to make the repair easier and with high quality.
EvoCam
This webcam recording application can periodically capture an image and upload it to a web server, and also record a movie with consecutive frames or stream them to the Internet. With a motion based trigger, it can be used for security purposes.
The repair is almost always successful. Same for most Time-lapse recording applications.
iShowU
This screencast or, video screen capture application, is used a lot by technical writers, training consultants, software developers, and support technicians, to explain how to perform a task with the computer. The repair is almost always successful.
Wirecast
This professional webcasting application allows to stream video from several cameras, mix and add effects, and broadcast live events. Repairs routinely done with excellent results.