How To Manually Select The "Repair" Option?

[xlegendx]

How do I manually select the repair option?

Thanks

[solazy]

Hello xlegendx,

I'm not sure there is an explicit "Repair File" option in any menu, which would allow you to fix any kind of movie, in case it's what you're asking.

The only "Repair" option is found in Preferences and it concerns only broken AVI files. This option is found here :
Tools Menu => Preferences => Input & Codecs => Files : Damaged or incomplete AVI file => Ask for action

As you will notice, there are 3 options : "Ask for action" , "Always Fix" , "Never Fix"
The default is "Ask for action" and when a broken AVI file is opened, we're asked about what to do : Repair [in memory only, original avi file is never modified] or Not Repair or Cancel.

I'm pretty sure that many VLC users don't know they can change this default option to "Always Fix" so they'll never be asked anymore this same question.

**********
Now something more general : though I like VLC a lot, I always feel the interface and options are too hard to find in Preferences :
* This option shouldn't be placed in "Input & Codecs", how do you want to remember it's here ?

* And another worse option is the one placed just under it : "Record directory of filename"
Many users of Vlc ask how to change the default directory of recorded movies (created by the red recording button) : but who will EVER think to enter the "Input & Codecs" tab to modify this directory ?

Strange how this issue drives me nuts each time : Vlc is a great program, probably the best to play movies, but its interface is not user friendly when it comes to search a particular option in Preferences.

I often wonder who decided to place this "Record directory" in the "Input & Codecs" tab ?
Has it anything to do with "Inputs" or "Codecs", when it's an "Output" directory ?
Output directories should be grouped at a single place in the Preferences : do you think it's normal that the "Snapshot directory" isn't found at same place that the "Recorded movie directory" ?

In case you're curious and want to read another discussion about some other strange options in Preferences ("how to open 2 Vlc instances"), here is a link :
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=89837

[Roddude]

I personally haven't had much luck with the VLC file repair utility. I've found that DivFix++ works the best. For .avi files, that is. It will sometimes link you to programs that do other types of files if yours is not an .avi, such as Meteorite for Matroska files.

[solazy]

Hello Roddude,
Well I guess it's not the same purpose :
* DivFix++ (what a great program !) fixes the avi file by re-writing it completely (index etc...) on the hard drive : it's not the same avi file at all when it ends its task and the avi is definitely repaired for always.

* Vlc never rewrites the avi : not a single byte of it is changed after it "repaired" the avi file : probably an index is quickly created (in memory ?) , that's why it's so fast for repairing avi files with Vlc (thanks to the programmers), but each time you'll try to see the same incomplete movie with Vlc, each time it will try to repair it.

Maybe that's why you wrote that you "personally haven't had much luck with the VLC file repair utility" : it never fixes permanently the issue, it's just a temporary fix.