I have a recording of a PhD defense I hosted in .MP4 format already available in one of my folders on my Windows system. But when I try to play it, it says - video can't be played. It's a very important file and I don't want to lose it. What do I do?
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Try to play it using [SMPlayer](https://www.smplayer.info/) or [VLC](https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html). This will probably tell you if it is a problem with the codec or what. Both of those players have most codecs built in. I don't like VLC much but it also seems to play imperfect files. If it won't play, let me know. – Señor CMasMas Jun 30 '20 at 17:59
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No, it doesn't play. – ouila Jun 30 '20 at 18:06
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Will VLC give you info for the file? See if it even has a header? Whatever file you are looking at is probably hosed.. or not a video file at all. You can use a [hex editor](https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/) to look at the file to see what is really inside of it. [Here](https://www.file-recovery.com/mp4-signature-format.htm) is a page that will tell you how to look at the header with a hex editor. Video files ARE rocket science, looking at a header of one isn't ;) – Señor CMasMas Jun 30 '20 at 18:24