MXF file from Sony x70 won't open

Dexcon wrote on 12/3/2023, 5:36 AM

OMG ... I know the feeling - I recently lost the entire contents of a GoPro 11 Black memory card that may have got corrupted going through security airport scanning (even though scanning is supposed to not affect memory cards). While overseas, I had copied the days filming to a laptop and a portable SSD each day - except the last day (still kicking myself) which is what I ended up losing.

Anyway, try RECUVA (free) to see if that is able to recover the video. Also Recoverit which is a paid app may be able to help. Using Advanced Scanning (Corrupted Video Repair), if that scan provides a preview video in the trial mode for any video, then that video may be recoverable.

In my case, Recoverit's scan didn't provide success but, amazingly, using Recoverit on RECUVA's scan did provide results but the video was a mess of artifacting/glitching - but there were enough clean frames to take a still image. Curiously, the resultant video from Recoverit had the video at half length of the audio track. It wasn't clipping the length of the video, it was repeating segments of the audio every 1.5 seconds (i.e. the first 1.5 seconds of audio then repeated, the next 1.5 secods of audio then repeated, and so on).

I don't know if MXF video is supported by either of these apps.

Maybe check out if your city/country has a company dedicated to video/photo/audio recovery. My city has one such company that provides such a service but it is expensive - $385 AUD. But if they are unsuccessful in recovery they say that there is no charge.

I hope that you find success in recovering the video.

PeterWright wrote on 12/3/2023, 6:06 AM

Thanks very much Dexcon. I shall follow up your suggestions in the morning - I'm too spent to operate reliably right now ....

PeterWright wrote on 12/3/2023, 8:22 AM

Hi again Dexcon,

I couldn't sleep .....

I can’t believe the sequence of events that unfolded, but somehow I think I’ve saved my bacon.

As part of my desperate attempts at retrieval, I tried connecting the external Hard Drive to a different computer. It reported that there were problems with the drive and offered to scan/repair.

When I clicked to do this, the scan/repair would not complete, so after wondering for a while what to do, I disconnected the drive and reconnected the USB to the original PC.

This PC also reported a problem with the drive, and I clicked to scan/repair, which also did not complete!

I disconnected and reconnected, and when it again reported problems, I clicked to continue without repairing. After I did this, the MXF file, instead of appearing with the VLC Player conical icon, had a video thumbnail!

Trembling, I double clicked and the video opened and began to play in VLC player!

I stopped it and immediately tried to drag it to the Vegas Timeline, but it still wouldn’t accept it.

I then tried to open it again in Handbrake, and this time it appeared!

Amazed, I set output to 4k HEVC and specified a different drive to receive iot, and it started rendering! Said it would take 59 minutes – close to the actual video duration.

Anyway, I now have a file I can use in Vegas – what a relief.

Thanks so much for your response.

set wrote on 12/3/2023, 3:19 PM

Thank goodness there is still a solution even though it is weird, but at least it works.

I wonder if this kind of issue ever happened to other camcorders ? Bad recording data in camera?

Also, do you still keep the data in your X70 memory card ? is it still playable there?

I remembered during tape days, this was happening at one time due to bad tape quality resulting a lot of glitch recording.

PeterWright wrote on 12/3/2023, 4:28 PM

Thanks Set - no I don't still have the file on card - in between shows I've been copying the cards onto Hard Drive, checking the file sizes were identical then formatting and re-using the card for the next show!

One amazing thing - Handbrake has produced an MP4 file which is 1.86 Gb, around 20 times smaller than the MXF, and it works fine on the timeline, and a trial render also looks good.

Relief would be an understatement!

john_dennis wrote on 12/3/2023, 4:56 PM

@PeterWright

The last time I had a media defect from an SD card, I policy-replaced all four cards that I use for that camera.

set wrote on 12/3/2023, 5:27 PM

Lesson learned...

After copy to drive (whether it is a direct copy or using Sony Catalyst or Playmemories), better do quick check up doing playback first with them (Catalyst / Playmemories) or if you have a chance, load it to VEGAS Pro (or whatever NLE you have) on location ?

Dexcon wrote on 12/3/2023, 6:19 PM

The last time I had a media defect from an SD card, I policy-replaced all four cards that I use for that camera.

A very good move. I've also got 2 new 256GB Micro SDXC cards to replace the problematic card even though several scans including CHKDSK didn't identify any problems with that card.

PeterWright wrote on 12/3/2023, 7:08 PM

Lesson learned...

After copy to drive (whether it is a direct copy or using Sony Catalyst or Playmemories), better do quick check up doing playback first with them (Catalyst / Playmemories) or if you have a chance, load it to VEGAS Pro (or whatever NLE you have) on location ?

You're right of course Set, and for several years I've done just that - put the files into Vegas and even synched them up ready for Multicam, but since I've had no problems, I've become more "complacent" and simply checked that file sizes were the same, and this is the first problem out of possibly 150 card copies! After this narrow escape I shall of course revert to former habits!