SharpCap AVI File Won't Open

[JayTee]

I captured a 2.5 Gb file of a recent sunset that displayed the green flash and potentially the purple flash. After the capture, SharpCap displayed an error message concerning the writing to disk of the file. Unfortunately, I was too excited to see what I had captured and did not take notice of the wording of the error message.

All my video display programs (VLC, Windows Media, Irfanview, PIPP, VirtualDub) won't open this file and don't even recognize it as an AVI file. The repair and recovery programs I used (VLC, Virtual Digital Repair, Remo Repair) also didn't recognize the file and could do nothing to repair the file. I'm hoping that someone here has a "magic" way for me to recover this data as it is very important to me.

Attached are the log file and a link to the AVI file on my Google Drive.

SharpCap Log_2020-01-23T18_08_43-7196.log

(133.47 KiB) Downloaded 89 times

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Sm3J_ ... wz-UWzDNzt

Image Particulars:
Camera: ASI120MC
OS: Windows 10 Pro
SharpCap Ver: 3.2.6038.0 (64-bit)
Color Space: RGB 24
Capture Area: 800X604
Binning: 1

Thank you for any help you can provide,
JT

[admin]

Hi,

I think the message may have been something about running out of disk space (that seems the most likely message to occur during capture of a large file).

We did have someone with a similar problem before and managed to rescue the video – see this thread viewtopic.php?t=625

If the resolution that you are capturing at (1280 x 960, RAW8 or MONO8) happens to match the ones used in that thread then you may be able to download the tool in that thread and fix the file yourself. If you are capturing at a different resolution then please let me know and I will try to make an updated version of the tool to see if that can help out here.

Cheers, Robin

[JayTee]

Hi Robin,

I'm having a "flashback" memory that does recall seeing the words disk space in the error message I got while SharpCap was finishing up the saving the queue.

I had previously tried your AviRescue file to no avail because both the color space AND the capture area (resolution) are different than you prescribed to use your fix.

This AVI file that I shot used RGB 24 and 800X604.

If you could make an updated version of the tool, I would be eternally grateful and will promptly purchase the Pro version.

Cheers,
JT

[admin]

Hi

Have a look at this fixed version : https://drive.google.com/file/d/18dG23d ... sp=sharing

It seems to cut off straight after the green flash - oddly it was 608 high not 604.

I have been able to refine the rescue tool a bit with this video - if I get a couple more to fix then that would help me be confident to release an update with options for things like width, height, etc.

cheers, Robin

PS. Let me know when you have downloaded the fixed version as I will then remove the download.

[JayTee]

Wow, Robin, I can't thank you enough,

Your fix worked! I got everything I was looking for. This vid contained the Green, Blue, and Purple flash. These events are so rare and I feel blessed that you were able to recover this data. Thanks again so very much. Here is what you saved. These images are single frames that have been mildly tweaked in PSCC (single level and single curve only)
Green flash

Green flash 1.jpg (14.16 KiB) Viewed 2077 times

Blue flash

Blue flash.jpg (14.7 KiB) Viewed 2077 times

Purple flash

Purple flash.jpg (14.41 KiB) Viewed 2077 times

Cheers,
JT

PS, I'm now the proud user of SharpCap Pro (yay, I can do polar alignments!)

[admin]

Hi JT,

Glad that you found the data that you needed inside the video before it got cut off by the full disc problem.

Would you mind if I shared those images on the SharpCap Facebook page? Capturing the green flash and the other flashes is pretty rare, so it would be very cool to share them.

Another question… Do you think it would be a good idea for SharpCap to stop capturing automatically when the disk space falls below a certain minimum (for instance 100 MB)? This would probably avoid the problem with corrupted videos in almost all cases, although for your particular recording it might have cut the video off earlier before the green flash actually occurred. Just trying to work out whether this is a sensible change to make.



Cheers, Robin

[turfpit]

Robin

Do you think it would be a good idea for SharpCap to stop capturing automatically when the disk space falls below a certain minimum (for instance 100 MB)

Yes for the 'stop capture' - to avoid the problem of file corruption. Perhaps a red warning message in the Notification bar before capture commences, which then puts the onus on the user?

100Mb is too conservative, consider these 2 scenarios:

• 60x60s @ RAW16 with a 20MP camera will produce 2.2Gb of data, with a high probability that the imager walks away from the rig for the duration of the capture.

• A 30,000 frame 640x480 @ RAW8 lunar SER file will produce an ~10Gb file

Maybe the warning threshold could be a figure like 1Gb, 5Gb or 10Gb? As an ex sysadmin, less then 10% free disk space is not good, particularly on a system disk.

Dave

[admin]

Hi Dave,

Perhaps I didn't explain my idea quite clearly – I wasn't thinking of not starting the capture if the disk space was low, I was thinking of terminating the capture early if you are capturing a video and the disk space is low (as if the user has pressed the stop capture button just before the disc space ran out).

However your idea also has merit – giving a warning when you start capturing that there may not be enough disk space to complete the capture. I like that one too

Cheers, Robin

[turfpit]

Robin

I did say

Yes for the 'stop capture' - to avoid the problem of file corruption

plus the warning message idea.

I should have split the 2 items better.

I think a warning lasting about the same duration as a completed capture message would be enough.

Dave