Corrupted Video Files

[ledbette]

I'm using the Android version of TrackAddict. Here's the tag from the top of my csv file.
# RaceRender Data: TrackAddict 3.6.3 on Android 6.0.1 [samsung SM-G900T / Qualcomm MSM8974PRO-AC] (Mode: 0)

I ran several track sessions over the weekend, and ended up with corrupted video files that don't play inside track addict and don't play when transferred to Windows either. The files appear to be about the correct size ~2GB for 25 min session. The initial symptom I saw is that after my run the session was listed on the session screen, but would not open to display my run list.

I tried rebooting my phone, and that didn't fix the problem. All 3 sessions of the day had the same corrupted video problem. The previous day it worked fine. I recorded a small test session today, and it seemed to work fine as well.

I'm not sure if this is an issue with the phone or with the TrackAddict app.

Anyone seen this before?

[Weston@HPTuners]

We've had a tiny number of reports of this kind of thing over the years, but it's not something I've replicated here and the exact cause isn't always known.

My primary phone for development and recording my track sessions is a spare Galaxy S5 (SM-G900A), and I have not experienced this problem when recording onto the phone's own storage or onto a Class 10 SD card (SanDisk Ultra 128 GB), so I don't think this would be a problem related to the phone model itself.

Assuming that it's not running out of storage space (or very close to it), the most likely suspect would be if you are using an SD Card to record your sessions. If so, it may be damaged/corrupt, some compatibility or performance issue between the card model and your phone model, or just doesn't have fast enough write performance for your video. I have also read reports of some off-brand SD cards having problems after a certain amount of their space has been used. We usually recommend a Class 10 or UHS-I rated card from a reputable brand due to these concerns.

Other culprits could be if there's another app or service running that is bogging down phone's processors, reserving a large amount of storage space, or somehow interfering with the camera or video. Rebooting the phone will usually clear that up, unless it's a service or something that is designed to start when the phone boots up, or possibly if it's a pending system update that has reserved a lot of storage space. Storage space issues *should* normally cause an error message to be shown when recording, but camera / video behavior can vary wildly between different devices on Android.

There are a few things you could try to see if it clears the problem up:

1) Use the "More Options..." screen to change the default storage location for new recordings

2) If using an SD card, try swapping it out for another one that's rated Class 10 or UHS-I

3) Try recording at a lower resolution (ie 720p instead of 1080p, etc.)

4) See if shorter / smaller recordings have any more success than long ones. In particular, try to see if you are only having problems with your video recordings if they exceed 2 GB (or some other point). Android's limit for video files is 4 GB, at which point we start recording into a new file, but phone OEM's do sometimes introduce other limits or bugs. 2 GB would be a logical point to see bugs, but I'm not presently aware of any devices that have a problem there.

[ledbette]

Thanks for the quick reply. I didn't notice this issue until switching to a higher capacity SD card. It's a Samsung EVO 64GB Class 10 U-1 card, which is theoretically faster than the card I replaced, but maybe there is something the phone is not happy with. I'll pick up a different card and see how that works out.

[ledbette]

Looks like my issues were with a bad SD card. Everything appears to have worked great during my last track session.