How to repair H.264 MOV files

Why your H.264 MOV files turn corrupt?

H.264 is a popular video compression format used by DSLRs, digital cameras, drones and many surveillance cameras. These high-quality video files stored in computer, SD card, pen drive, external hard drive etc., may get corrupt due to various reasons like virus infection, corruption in the storage drive, interruption while downloading/ transfer etc.

The corrupt video often shows errors, stops after playing for some time, throws black screen, loses sound, flickers, gets choppy, broken, or may not play at all.

How to repair corrupt H.264 MOV videos

A video repair tool is the only solution to repair corruption in H.264 video files. An efficient repair software can fix choppy, jerky, grainy, broken, and truncated videos.

However, it is not essential that all jerky, slow, or not playing videos are corrupt.

The H.264 video issues may also arise due to incompatible codecs, unsupported media player or outdated PC drivers. To rule out these factors, begin with few workarounds that may play your H.264 MOV files smoothly again.

Workarounds to play your H.264 MOV files

1. Play the video in another media player

If H.264 MOV video is not playing properly in one player, try another supporting one like VLC Media Player, 5KPlayer, PotPlayer, QuickTime etc.

2. Download the MOV supporting codec

The MOV video won’t play if the required codecs are not installed on your computer. You can install a codec pack online or configure Windows Media Player to download codecs automatically.

To get MOV supporting codec in Windows Media Player, go to Tools > Options> Player. Check in Download codecs automatically and click OK. Now, try to play the file. If you are prompted to install the codec, click Install.

3. Convert the video file to another format

Apart from online video converter tools, VLC Player can also convert H.264 videos to MP4 or AVI etc.

Steps to convert H.264 MOV videos to MP4 in VLC Media Player:

• Open VLC and click Media >Convert/Save

• In the Open Media window, click on Addto select the MOV videos you want to convert

• Click on Convert/Saveat the bottom
• In the Convertbox, select the destination folder and the name for the new video file.
• Under Profile, select the file format you want to convert to
• Click Startto convert

4. Update your PC video drivers

Updates fix issues related to video drivers. Windows driver updates are automatically downloaded with Windows Update. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for updates.

 5. Try Reducing the Screen Resolution

By reducing the screen resolution, you can understand whether it’s a faulty graphics driver or there is a problem with the video itself.

6. Turn Off hardware acceleration

 Sometimes the problems could be due to hardware acceleration. When enabled, hardware acceleration passes graphical intensive tasks within the browser to make it perform better.

To disable hardware acceleration in Google Chrome, follow these steps:

1. On the Chrome toolbar, click Settings > Advanced
2. Under System, toggle-off the Use hardware acceleration when available option

 If your H.264 videos don’t play properly, after the above workarounds, they are corrupt. Use a H.264 video repair application to fix the problem.

Methods to repair corrupt H.264 MOV video files

1. Repair video with VLC Media Player
2. Use Stellar Repair for Video

Repair H.264 MOV video with VLC Media Player

VLC is a free open source media player with a repair feature too. Since it supports, H.264 compression standard, you can repair your corrupt MOV files with VLC.

Steps to repair H.264 MOV video files:

• Download VLC Media Player on your computer
• Open the H.264 video in the player
• Click on Tools
• Go to Preference

• Click on Input & Codecs
• Go to Damaged or incomplete AVI file

• Select Always fix in the dropdown
• Click Save

VLC Player is not an advanced ‘video repair’ tool. Video repair is an additional capability in the media player. Thus, you may not always be able to repair corrupt videos with it.

Serious corruption issues like broken, black screen, flickering, sound issues, file header corruption or corruption in the video slider are best tackled by using a professional video repair software.

Use Stellar Repair for Video to fix MOV H.264 videos

Stellar Repair for Video is designed to repair both complex and simple corruption in the videos. The software supports H.264 MOV high-quality 4K videos, and is available for both Windows and macOS. You can repair multiple videos of same or different formats at a time. 

Key benefits

• Easy to use
• Quick to repair all kinds of video problems
• Preview before saving the repaired video
• Fixes multiple videos in one go
• ‘Advance repair’ feature for severely damaged videos
• Supports UHD 4K videos from all cameras
• Added support for multiple video file types

Step-by-Step how to repair Corrupt H.264 MOV videos

Step 1: Download and launch Stellar Repair for Video on your PC/ Mac

Step 2: On home page of the software click on Add File

Step 3: List of video files that you added and need repair appears on the next screen. Click Repair.

The repair process begins.

Step 4: A ‘Repair process completed’ message appears. Click Preview. Click Save Repaired File

Wrapping Up

Although, VLC Player repairs corrupt H.264 MOV files but it is not sufficiently equipped to fix all types of video corruption.

For that, you require a specialized software that supports H.264 video files and fixes various audio and visual issues. Stellar Repair for Video is helpful in repairing corrupt videos of any type. It supports H.264 videos from all DSLRs, digicams and other cameras. Moreover, the video repair tool is secure, fast, and easy to use. You can repair multiple H.264 or even other format videos simultaneously.

To repair your corrupt H.264 video, download Stellar Repair for Video here.

The free demo version of the software also lets you preview up to 10MB of the repaired video file.

For queries, reach us by giving comments in the box below.

Was this article helpful?

YES0

NO

About The Author

Harsha Alamchandani

Harsha is a technical expert who loves Mondays, technology and is a big time Apple fan. She knows her way around the data loss problems and is always looking for ways to help out people.