How to add a MOOV atom in a mp4 video file [closed]

Question

I am working on live device to server streaming in android. I am able to send data in bytes on server but when I play that file during recording on server VLC say that MOOV atom not found. After a lot of workaround I found that MOOV atom of a mp4 file generates in the end. But I have to play that file on server while recording means live. I go through the source code of SPYDROID and SIPDROID but non of them is working. I tried to add moov atom on serverside using FFMPEG but didn't get any success. Anyone has an idea on how can I achieve this?

Prestissimo

Possible duplicate of Post processing in ffmpeg to move 'moov atom' in MP4 files (qt-faststart) – Sophey

Can I use ffmpeg to resolve a problem I am having playing TV series on Plex. The logs indicate: – Photochemistry

For more clarification i am running my plex and nas servers on raspberry pi 4. I am using 'MacX DVD Ripper Pro' to rip the videos. I moved to the newest version of plex (1.21.1.3830) which should allow a new scanner – Photochemistry

Answer 1

There is a tool untrunc which claims to repair unfinished (truncated) mp4, m4v, mov, 3gp video. I haven't tested it myself but it may be worth a try.

Sordino

For Windows use: videohelp.com/software/recover-mp4-to-h264 – Cornflakes

This often did not work for my videos, but I had success with Anthon Lockwood's fork: It contains a "-s" switch to "step through unknown sequences" – Devilfish

Tested other softwares, none have repaired my broken file, but only this. Congratulations for its developer! And @k3a: thanks for the tip. – Hal

There is a fork that you can install from Snap if you don't want to go through the hussle of building it from source – Picoline

Anthon Lockwood helped me to recover my Dashcam video, which was saved incompletey. github.com/anthwlock/untrunc?tab=readme-ov-file I too the windows version without "-s but "-dyn" and "-k" option – Prothalamium

Answer 2

You got a problem. The 'moov' box is a kind of table of contents. If not all content is there you can't have a complete table of contents. Ouch!

If you want to stick with MP4 and if you are writing the file by yourself you could write the file as so called fragmented MP4 file. A fragmented MP4 file contains multiple self-contained small pieces of the video - each with its own table of contents. It would enable you to play the file before the complete recording has finished.

If you don't need to stick with MP4 an option would be to write the raw h264 stream to the server. Then you don't have that kind of table of content. VLC can play raw h264 streams.

Verrocchio

hi sebsatian, i am not able to get row data in android while video recording, can you please tell me how can i achieve that. – Prestissimo

I know MP4 but not Android in particular. Perhaps you should create a new question. – Verrocchio

Another way of doing it could be to only record one or two seconds and concatenate again on the server?! – Verrocchio

Answer 3

It is possible to move the moov atom to the begining of the video file using FFMpeg.

ffmpeg -i input_video_file.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -movflags faststart output_video_file.mp4

Bhakti

here is a quick reference guide: gist.github.com/jaydenseric/220c785d6289bcfd7366 – Bhakti

there is a typo here, "+faststart" should be "faststart", correct command is "ffmpeg -i input_video_file.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -movflags faststart output_video_file.mp4" – Joey May 3 '18 at 7:44 – Granville

@RoubenTchakhmakhtchian Despite the OP's title, this is not a technique to add a missing moov atom, just one to move an existing moov from the end to the beginning of a file (which is effectively what was actually asked for in the question). If you don't have a moov at all, you have a bigger problem. – Cherriecherrita

Thanks, @BobSammers! – Prurient

Worked perfectly for me! – Oblivion

I renamed the video file to input_video_file.mp4 and copy&paste the exact command. However, ffmpeg still yields the following errors: [mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x55601375c0c0] moov atom not found and input_video_file.mp4: Invalid data found when processing input – Middendorf

Answer 4

Run qt_faststart to move the moov atom to the beginning of the stream.

qt-faststart in.mp4 out.mp4

Margalit

hi d33pika..thnx for ur rply, i want to send video data on server while recording, but a moov atom generates after recording finished so thats why i think qt-faststart will not be helpful here. – Prestissimo

Have you solved your problem @Prestissimo ? I am trying to do exactly the same right now and don't see a viable solution. If you know one, please post a comment here. – Unequal

How do you use qt-faststart in android? Can some one post an example code? – Aeolus

I tried this but it says "last atom in file was not a moov atom" – Vassily

encountered non-QT top-level atom (is this a QuickTime file?) [...] – Tristich

Answer 5

the mp4 format needs the moov atom information to play the video, and to generate the moov atom the video must be finished, you can't play a mp4 file while it is recording because you still don't have all the information to create the moov atom part.

What you want to do is some kind of real-time-streaming (play while is recroding) so you need to use another format. HLS streaming and mpeg-dash stores the video in tiny chunks (2 seconds to 10 seconds) and send to the users, this way the users plays many finished files one after the other.

As @Sebastian Annies suggested, to create many tiny mp4 files and concatenate is the same approach: to have tiny finished files and play as a list, here you could get more information What exactly is Fragmented mp4(fMP4)? How is it different from normal mp4?

Urethritis

Answer 6

Use MP4Box to move MOOV atom at begening of file and interleaving to stream in chunk.

MP4Box test.mp4 test.mp4

Aggappe

It doesn't work for me. It returns: Error - 2 input names specified, please check usage MP4Box version 0.5.0-rev4065 – Selfgratification

Shouldn't it be something like MP4Box -add fixed.mp4 -isma sample.mp4? See muzso.hu/2012/11/14/… – Miun

Answer 7

Add to your gradle this lib: compile 'net.ypresto.qtfaststartjava:qtfaststart:0.1.0' and then

File input = new File(path + "/input.mp4"); // Your input file
File output = new File(path + "/output.mp4"); // Your output file
try{
    if(!output.exists()) // if there is no output file we'll create one
        output.createNewFile();
    }
}catch (IOException e){
    Log.e("TAG", e.toString());
}

try{
    QtFastStart.fastStart(input, output); // Adds moov to your input
                                          // Now your output file is ready to stream!
}catch (QtFastStart.MalformedFileException m){
    Log.e("QT", m.toString());
}catch (QtFastStart.UnsupportedFileException q){
    Log.e("QT", q.toString());
}catch (IOException i){
    Log.e("QT", i.toString());
}

Here that's all

Ubangi