VLC not displaying correct video length during playback

[zicitron]

I am using VLC Player 3.0.10 Vetinari on Windows 10. My issue is the following: I have downloaded a video stream from a website and the file has been saved in MP4 format. It is a 28 minutes video file.

When I open the said file with VLC, it plays fine but the "time bar" shows that the video is 6:49 minutes. When the playback reaches that time, the video does not stop and it continues to play for its full 28 minutes. I have tried opening the file in Windows Media Player but I get a blank screen with only its audio playing. There too, it shows the file length as 6:49 minutes.

I guess there might be an issue with the video file. Any ideas on how I can fix this on VLC?

[JohnyC]

It looks like your MP4 file has damaged indices, hence the time bar issues. So far as I know, VLC can repair such problems, but only within AVI files.

You could try to transcode the file with FFmpeg, or convert it with a video converter.

If that doesn't help, you could try to use a video repair tool, such as Recover_MP4. It repairs damaged headers/indices within MP4 files. It's free, but doesn't have a GUI. You need to run it via the Command Prompt.

Also, to repair the file with the tool, you will probably need a valid video recorded with the same device/settings, which you obviously don't have. In this case, you could try to use your MP4 both as the corrupted and valid file when repairing it.