Some videos won't playback

Stumann

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Dash Cam
viofo A119
I have an old A119 that has served me well for many years. I don't often look at videos that I have recorded, I would say months go by that I never have a reason to look at the videos. This evening, we went to one of those drive through Christmas light displays and when I got home, I plugged into my PC to look at the footage. All the full videos in my movie folder play fine. They range in size from 452.9K to 453.2K for each "loop". The last video is always shorter because I shut the car down before the full "loop" is completed. These short videos will not play. Does anyone know a reason for this?
I have Firmware version A119-180913_v4.01. I have a good Samsung Pro Endurance 64gb card in it. The card is several years old.
 

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That is classic behaviour of a failed dashcam either battery or capacitor. Whichever the dashcam uses.

Each file needs to be 'closed' and when you turn off the vehicle power the battery/capacitor takes over to close the file.
 
It's a capacitor. Is that repairable?
 
It's a capacitor. Is that repairable?
Yes you can.
It is necessary to check the soldering of the legs of the supercapacitors on the board.
Check the supercapacitors, visually, they may be swollen, they must be replaced.
 

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As an alternative to replacing the capacitors, you can go into the settings and choose .TS file format instead of MP4. TS files do not need to be closed so will play fine until the last 2 seconds. You may need to update the firmware to get that option, and I guess it is not available on some of the oldest A119.

You may also be able to play most of the unplayable files if you play them on the camera first, it will attempt to fix them.

If you are replacing the capacitors, they will need to be soldered. If you are not an expert at soldering then I suggest leaving the legs of the old ones and soldering the new ones to the old legs. Cut off most of the spare new legs so that they can't cause a short circuit.
 
Those look to be the last files in drive sessions, if they corrupt it is often as a result of a failing battery or in this case capacitor.
The camera might also be able to repair the failed files if you try and playback one of them in the camera itself, that should trigger the repair, at least that is a option on newer cameras.

You could also just take this as a excuse to update to something more current, the A119 in the V3 flavor is now a 1440p camera and one of the best bang 4 buck cameras.

Looking over your recordings now and then is a good thing to do, and it dont have to be on a week / weeks schedule, every couple of months are fine too.
When i do i look at the first and last files in drive sessions, if the first one is in a place i would set off from, and not 1/4 mile down the road from a known start point, same go for the last files in sessions, do it end in a relevant place and not just mid drive on some random road, and of course as you experience here file corruption, which most often happen on the last file in a session.
you just need to play seconds of each file you inspect, just to see if it is in a relevant location, most often home - work place - shopping place - family - hobbies, if you are like me you will find you drive the same routes over and over, and go to the same places too.
After that i take a quick glance at random files, just to see if they can play.
It take me 10 - 15 minutes on the computer with the card in the card reader to look over a 128 / 256 GB memory card this way,,,, and thats time well spent on the computer i think.

If you use parking guard it might also be a good idea to take a quick glance at those files, the order of them might differ depending on what kind of parking mode you use, motion and impact triggered are often random, where as time lapse and low bitrate recordings are constant and consecutive as regular driving files are.

Depending on your drive schedule and amount, if the memory card is 3-4 years old, it might well be a good idea to replace it, but if it is working you can keep it in the car as a backup.
These little memory cards have a finite number of read / write cycles so they do not last forever.
 
I took the cover off and looked at the capacitors. They look pretty good, no swelling. I don't see any corrosion on any of the circuit board that I can see. Lifting the circuit board out looks a bit complicated in that the USB port is "hooked" in the side of the case preventing the board from lifting straight up. I did notice a small battery, about the size of a hearing aid battery. I thought I'dl try to replace that first, but it seems to be soldered in.
 
I took the cover off and looked at the capacitors. They look pretty good, no swelling. I don't see any corrosion on any of the circuit board that I can see. Lifting the circuit board out looks a bit complicated in that the USB port is "hooked" in the side of the case preventing the board from lifting straight up. I did notice a small battery, about the size of a hearing aid battery. I thought I'dl try to replace that first, but it seems to be soldered in.

Check to see if the solder is shiny - it might be that they have dry joints. With a bit of flux and a soldering iron reheat them while applying some flux. Look up dry joints on youtube I'm sure there are plenty of videos.

If your dashcam has been keeping time I wouldn't touch the battery. This is a rechargeable battery, not a normal button battery. The correct battery is mentioned in one of the threads. Look for RTC and Real Time Clock battery

To remove the board you have to remove the camera ribbon cable and a few other things and then it should wriggle out. It has been a while since I played with one so just check there aren't any screws.
 
I took the cover off and looked at the capacitors. They look pretty good, no swelling. I don't see any corrosion on any of the circuit board that I can see.
With the recorder turned on, measure the voltage on the supercapacitors with a multimeter, just do not close it carefully, it should be as written on the supercapacitors themselves, for example 1 = 2.7V + 1 = 2.7V = 5.4V, if it is less, then it is not healthy
 
I took the cover off and looked at the capacitors. They look pretty good, no swelling
When they swell, it is only the end that bulges, it should be completely flat at the end. Even if the end has not bulged, if you are getting a corrupt file nearly every power down then the super capacitors are almost certainly failed.
 
That make perfect sense. I'm considering just replacing it with a newer model. I'm considering the A129 plus Dual, or maybe the Pro. Do these use the same GPS windshield mount?
 
That make perfect sense. I'm considering just replacing it with a newer model. I'm considering the A129 plus Dual, or maybe the Pro. Do these use the same GPS windshield mount?
The A129 Plus and A129 Pro use the same GPS mount, but it's different from the A119 series.
 
Switching it to TS format seems to work. I think I'll try that for a while. Thanks for everyone's help, this is a great group of people!
 
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