Verifying Video Clips (wmv files especially)

[Snowman]

Are there any utilities out there to verify the validity of a .wmv files? A lot of times you can download a big video file, even from a legitimate source such as Videobox and then discover later it is incomplete and doesn't play properly.

I am seeking something along the lines of how .zip or .rar files can be verified so that you can tell they are not corrupted. I am also interested in a tools like this for other popular video formats such as .avi files.

I found Gspot already, but it doesn't offer hardly information about Windows video files at all.

[Bereft]

Depends how you download them, and how they are compressed.

.sfv, PAR can be used to verify downloaded files from some sources (Google them - they will send you in the right direction.) Bittorrents are checked for completion upon Full Download by the program itself.

.WMV can usually be played even if incomplete if 'joined' by a program like mastersplitter, or the like.

Most any vid file - especially .wmv can be played by VLC media Player or Zoom Player, which works with Japanese Characters! VLC even 'repairs' corruspt vids to playback.

Other decent free players rely on special CODECS - the method that the vids were compressed into a video file - and come with their own video player, which is a modified version of Windows Media Player Classic. the programs are CCC (Combined Community Codec) and K-Lite Codec Pack.

Hope that helps.

[Snowman]

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

PAR is awesome. I use it all the time, even for my own backups! I don't usually download anything from torrents, so that doesn't help me.

I still never found a utility that can actual verify the integrity of a WMV file. So far the best way seems to be checking to see if the file seek headers work properly. A valid file will let you jump around to any point quickly and without hanging.

One thing that has helped with downloading big files with Firefox is the "DownThemAll" download manager add on. It works great and lets you resume sessions that get cut off early. Two thumbs way up!