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macstatic

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Oct 21, 2005
2,000
162
Norway
I just noticed that some of my Canon S-90 camera video clips had missing preview icons like they usually have (instead it came with generic Quicktime icons) in Finder and furthermore found out that they were unplayable in Quicktime ("File is not a video file").

Following some other threads on the same subject I followed a suggestion to try opening the files with VLC. To my surprise they all opened and played perfectly!
So I assume the header or something minor is damaged, while the video/audio itself is intact. How do I fix those files so they will also play in Quicktime Player?

I'm on a dual core iMac running MacOSX 10.6.6 and have both Quicktime X and Quicktime 7 player installed (I find the Quicktime update that come with Snow Leopard to be rather limited).
 

Hanuman.c

macrumors newbie
Feb 1, 2011
12
0
you could use the stearming/exporting feature in VLC to export another copy of the movie. you can find it at File>streaming/exporting wizard in VLC.
 

macstatic

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Oct 21, 2005
2,000
162
Norway
Wow! A new reply 2 years later!! :)
Thanks for your suggestion. I tried the software you mentioned but it didn't work for my damaged MOV files. All I got was an error message saying:

"Selected file is not a mov file or the application does not support the camcorder model that generated this file. Browse the help manual to know the list of models the application supports".

I checked, but my camera isn't listed in the manual so I'm going to contact the developer and ask if they can add it to their list. The app's a little pricey in my opinion, but if it works I may just consider it.
In the meantime I can play those damaged files just fine in VLC though, oddly enough (the streaming/export function as suggested above didn't work though).
 

macstatic

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Oct 21, 2005
2,000
162
Norway
Did you have any specific software in mind? I've tried lots without any luck in actually fixing the files.
 
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