Why Recorded Videos Corrupted? How to Repair Damaged Video?

No matter your video footage is recorded by iPhone, Android, Bandicam, camera, CCTV, GoPro or DJI, there's high likelihood that you might confront the same issue - recorded video corruption. If this happens on you, you can't help wondering why recorded video footages get corrupted and how to recover corrupted MP4, MOV or MKV videos.

Don't get frustrated! Stay here for roughly 2 minutes and this post will explain you why and provide you with correspondingly most effective solutions to fix corrupted recorded video clips.

What Causes Recorded Videos Corrupted?

Damaged video footages usually appear during video data write & read process. When you record video, playback video or transfer video, certain video data might get lost, damaged or corrupted by varied types of factors. Main reasons are listed below:

1. Incompatible Playback Device

In some cases, it's not your video resource to blame. And your recorded video footage might not be corrupted. Instead, you might neglect the unmatched playback device. The most common 4K error scenes while recording are:

• Record video can't be loaded or recognized, with error message "codec missing or unavailable". Or it appears video upside down issue, no audio/picture or cutting off early during playback. Most likely, it's caused by video format/codec incompatibility issue.
• Recorded 4K HDR 10-bit video grey, washed-out colors on Plex, laptop or TV. Mostly, it results from unqualified hardware configurations of your playback device including display, display ports (HDMI, DP, USB), RAM, CPU, GPU, etc.
• Recorded 4K video grainy image/jagged edge during playback. The NVIDIA GPU graphics card of your computer can explain this. Currently, Nvidia GPU can hardware decode H264/HEVC video at chroma subsampling YUV 4:2:0 and YUV 4:4:4. As for YUV 4:2:2, offcially it doesn't support hardware decoding now.

To tackle the above-mentioned issues, the most effective solution is to convert recorded video format/codec, and lower down video settings (bit rate, resolution, frame rate...). Thus, you can try Winxvideo AI to convert recorded video to MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, FLV, WMV, H264, HEVC, etc. with best compatibility. With 420+ preset profiles, you can convert video footages of any format directly to playback device including iPhone 12/11, iPad, Android phones/tablets, Xbox One, PS5/4, Surface Pro, iMovie, Apple TV, etc.

To ensure a compute-intensive 4K HDR 10-bit 60FPS video smooth playback, enable WinX settings feature to properly lower down its high settings, like adjust 4K to 1080p, 60FPS to 30FPS, Main 10 profile to Main 8 profile, etc. Thus, your playback platform can playback your recorded 4K video footages without much hardware burden, nor any corruption/picture issue. By the way, it can auto repair corrupted video MP4 MKV.

2. Frame Drop

Frame drop or loss issue usually occurs during recording, playback or transferring process. Each encoded frame of video consists of tons of bits — the 1s and 0s of machine code that drive all modern tech. It's inevitable for some bits to get replicated abnormally each time the millions of bits of one frame get recorded, decoded or transferred. Thus, the unexpected frame drop would make a recorded video damaged, slightly or severely.

The solutions recommoned here are:

• Don't playback recorded videos on the outdated player or platforms, for some of those platforms are less stable.
• Don't frequently switch between recording and not recording.
• Make sure a stable network connection (at least 30Mbps for 4K streaming) during recorded video transferring.

3. VFR

When you load recorded video clips to Premier or other editing software and find video clips corrupted with symptom " video audio out of sync", it might be caused by VFR (variable frame rate). The workaround is to convert VFR to CFR.

4. Formatting

Constantly yet incorrectly formatted recording media can lead to data loss or video file damaged, as well. That's because most cameras, CCTV, security camera, GoPro/DJI or screen recorders count on specific file and media architecture to properly locate and save video clips and corresponding metadata. In case the inner SD card is improperly formatted, the latter recorded video clips will have to change the default paths and the possibility of data loss and corrupted clips would become higher.

The way to avoid this case is not to format your camera or recorder if not necessary. Plus, check if your recorded video clip format and parameter settings are well-compatible with your playback devices and storage device. If not, adjust them before you go.

5. Power Outage Midway

Power outage midway may incur data loss or video corruption during video recording, saving, playback or editing. During video recording, playback or editing, each process is embroiled with intra-frame coding and inter-frame coding. Intra-frame prediction exploits spatial redundancy while inter-frame prediction exploits temporal redundancy.

Both of them are used to better compress your recorded video size and reduce unnecessary metadata. Yet, the chance of video getting corrupted is high if the power is suddenly off before the intra-frame or inter-frame coding is completely finished.

The solutions recommoned here are:

• Charge your camera, GoPro, DJI, iPhone, Android to roughly 80% or 90% battery before you shoot video.
• Check your camera is not recording before removing the power source.
• Connect your battery to a port with stable power if you playback recorded video or edit video clips on laptop or TV.
• Don't shoot a 4K or 5K Ultra HD video long time, for hi-def video shooting consumes battery much faster than standard video shooting.

6. Physical Elements

Physical elements also matter a lot in video recording, including camera itself, recording environment, camera storage environment, SD card, etc. The specific matters you ought to pay attention to are:

• Camera itself: check if its significant components are seated well, like sensor, lens mount, flash, shutter, mirror, etc.
• Recording environment: don't shoot a video long time in a heat environment. Video recording will be stopped automatically to protect your camera if the external temperature is too high or running time is too long.
• Camera storage: use a camera cage to protect it outdoors. And keep it placed in a dry area under proper temperature.
• Don't forget to check SD card integrity. If something is wrong with SD card, your recorded video file can't be saved properly. Check the best SD card for 4K video recording >>

Hope this article is helpful for you. And any of your suggestion or solution is warmly welcomed to share with us via Email or Facebook/twitter official account. And we'll keep this post updated with latest useful troubleshooting tips.