The Repair Kit is the tool you receive from Aero Quartet after sending a Repair Request and confirming that you want to use the service.
RepairMovie: a customized tool that reads the corrupt movie and writes a valid movie file.
It is customized to repair exactly the type of corrupt movie that you have.
Actually you can see your name and repair case number in the program window: it's your kit.
1. Launch RepairMovie
The Repair Kit comes as a zip file (file with .zip extension). If you open it, it creates a folder on your Desktop called "Repair Kit".
Inside this folder there is usually a program called RepairMovie and sometimes a ReadMe document and other tools.
Before payment, the kit works in "Trial mode": The repaired movie has artefacts or a watermark. This disappears after introducing the registration key sent after checking out.
Requirements:
RepairMovie runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and higher, on both PowerPC and Intel Mac computers.
There is no minimum requirement of CPU, RAM memory or hard disk space, but obviously an old or low performance system can slow down the repair process.
If RepairMovie doesn't launch, it's either that it has expired, or that you are not using Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.
Windows users have to use alternative repair delivery methods.
2. Set the Repair Folder:
When you launch RepairMovie for the first time, the Preferences and Registration window appears.
It's not necessary to register now, you can try RepairMovie in Trial mode first.
But you should set the Repair Folder before doing the first repair.
By default, RepairMovie proposes to use the same folder as Treasured.
You should pick a different folder...
- if disk space needs for the repair are higher than what is available in this location.
- if performance is important. Damaged and repaired files should be on different devices for optimal performance.
IMPORTANT: If the repair comes after a storage failure, this folder must not be on the same storage device.
3. Pick a damaged file and Launch Repair.
Drag and drop on application icon also works.
RepairMovie opens one window for each damaged file.
You can follow repair progress with the Progress bar.
Position in file is also indicated: 50 stands for 50%, or middle of the file.
Once the repair is complete, you can pick a new damaged file and start a new repair.
4. Repaired files and possible defects:
After the repair, the repaired files are inside the Repair Folder.
We recommend to check the integrity, quality and playback of repaired files. You can either...
- rely on repair results (brief indication of consistency of results)
- use Inspect Repaired Files button to reveal the results table and report defects:
- or use the Finder and check manually the repaired files by opening them and checking everything is ok.
The Repair Folder can contain several files, it depends on the type of repair.
In the example above, we have:
- RepairedMovie.mov, the biggest in size, with video and audio together
- RepairedVideo.mov, video only
- RepairedAudio.mov, audio only (can also be several RepairedAudio.mov files, one per channel)
- log.txt, a text file with information useful in case of problems
- and several temporary files
5. Repair more files:
If you launch the repair again, RepairMovie will ask whether to overwrite results from previous repair session, or create a subfolder.
To avoid having to answer this question each time, you can go to Preferences and Registration window and change the "Overwrite policy" setting.
Imagine was have 2 files to repair: SDV_0028.MP4 and SDV_0031.MP4
We choose to create a subfolder for each repair:
RepairMovie creates the folder for you and names it after the damaged file.
If a name comes several times,
- damaged files with same name
- several repairs done on same file
- repair done in several segments
...then RepairMovie adds a numerical prefix to the subfolder name, like SDV_0031-1.
6. Don't forget to register!
All the repairs that you perform with the "TRIAL" badge on the window are not performed with maximum quality.
Usually, a watermark or audio and video artifacts are added to the repaired files.
Once you have entered the registration key, the "TRIAL" badge disappears, and artifacts are no longer added.
But you have to run the repairs again to generate clean files.
Tip: Use "Trial mode" on a few files to check it works fine, then do payment and register. You save time.
7. Repair efficiently dozens of files:
If you have a large collection of corrupt files, it would be tedious to run RepairMovie for each of them.
Fortunately, there is a way to repair several files in one shot:
- Launch RepairMovie.
- Instead of pushing the Repair button, drag the corrupt files on the application icon.
- One window will open for each file. Don't panic!
- Do File > Process all documents
- All the files are repaired. For each of them, one subfolder inside the Repair Folder is created. It contains the log file and the corresponding audio and video files.
Performance tips:
The same applies as for video editing:
As repairs can be quite intensive in terms of hard disk reading and writing, you should:
- Use different hard disks for corrupt file and the Repair Folder (so that reading and writing cannot interfere and bottleneck)
- Avoid slow storage, like network disks, wireless connections.
If you just want to know what a corrupt file contains, it's not necessary to repair it completely. Use the start and end percentage to repair only a segment. For example, by repairing only between 0% and 1%, the processing time is reduced by a factor 100.
