D
Deleted member 27089
I always record a local MP4 copy when streaming and never had a problem until a couple of days ago. After 4.5h of streaming I stopped the stream and waited a bit to close OBS because I know that it needs to finalize the MP4 file. Still OBS asked for more time when I tried to close it. I said OK, take your time, and then OBS closed (log appended). Nothing new here. But then the file didn't play.
I tried to search online for solutions to fix the file and the bottom line was that it is not possible.
But if you do search for solutions you might come across a site that lets you upload the file and it actually showed a frame of the video. The site charges $300 for that file size and, of course, I wouldn't pay this. The footage isn't really important. If I'd lost it completely, it wouldn't matter at all. The important thing is that I knew that something can be done and I was just interested in figuring it out.
All the windows software I tried was not helpful. Also there is a big risk to get malware with this kind of software.
But then I found untrunc.
Since it requires Linux, I tried it last. I did install Linux in a virtual machine and followed the instructions. You need a reference file to run it, but since you always can make new recordings, this isn't an issue.(Twitch VODs work too) After you start the program it throws tons of lines at you when it is working. For the 5GB file it took several hours running it in the VM. I let it run overnight.
In the end I had a "fixed" file that had about 3.5h of audio/video in it, but it showed a length of over 5h. The end was just filled with nothing. The original footage is 4.5h, so something was lost. But overall it recovered over half of the footage. Audio and video were desynced, but this would have been fixable. YMMV.
So, if you have a broken MP4 file, give it a try.
In the end I used the past broadcasts from Twitch and replaced the muted audio part with the one from the rescued footage. This way I ended up with what I wanted, even if it took some time. Still, things were learned...
TLDR? Try untrunc to fix unfinished MP4 files. Switch OBS to FLV. Use past broadcasts on Twitch.
PS: I hope the log file helps fixing this bug, since OBS seemed to have exited normally, still the MP4 is broken. It would also be useful to have a visual indicator in OBS to show that it is still doing I/O. I couldn't see any.
I tried to search online for solutions to fix the file and the bottom line was that it is not possible.
But if you do search for solutions you might come across a site that lets you upload the file and it actually showed a frame of the video. The site charges $300 for that file size and, of course, I wouldn't pay this. The footage isn't really important. If I'd lost it completely, it wouldn't matter at all. The important thing is that I knew that something can be done and I was just interested in figuring it out.
All the windows software I tried was not helpful. Also there is a big risk to get malware with this kind of software.
But then I found untrunc.
Since it requires Linux, I tried it last. I did install Linux in a virtual machine and followed the instructions. You need a reference file to run it, but since you always can make new recordings, this isn't an issue.(Twitch VODs work too) After you start the program it throws tons of lines at you when it is working. For the 5GB file it took several hours running it in the VM. I let it run overnight.
In the end I had a "fixed" file that had about 3.5h of audio/video in it, but it showed a length of over 5h. The end was just filled with nothing. The original footage is 4.5h, so something was lost. But overall it recovered over half of the footage. Audio and video were desynced, but this would have been fixable. YMMV.
So, if you have a broken MP4 file, give it a try.
In the end I used the past broadcasts from Twitch and replaced the muted audio part with the one from the rescued footage. This way I ended up with what I wanted, even if it took some time. Still, things were learned...
TLDR? Try untrunc to fix unfinished MP4 files. Switch OBS to FLV. Use past broadcasts on Twitch.
PS: I hope the log file helps fixing this bug, since OBS seemed to have exited normally, still the MP4 is broken. It would also be useful to have a visual indicator in OBS to show that it is still doing I/O. I couldn't see any.