HELP!! Need to Recover Audio from Files with "8K" Suffix

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Level 3

673 points

HELP!! Need to Recover Audio from Files with "8K" Suffix

I have a serious problem with a piece of software called PhoneValet v6.0.3. I know the product is currently not supported by the vendor, and I am hoping someone here will have some incite.

The problem is that when it records a conversation, it increasing produces files that are unplayable by the app as well as QuickTime. The recoding is captured and saved to a file with an ".8k" suffix instead of the set format of ".3gp". The .8K file is the same size as what an uncompressed .WAV file would be - I have watched the conversion, and the recording is initially recorded as a .WAV and then converted to .3GP. But, for whatever reason, the conversion errors out, and the suffix of the original file is changed to .8K.

I duplicated the initial WAV while a recording was being converted, and after the conversion completed(?) and the original file was change to .8K, the WAV duplicate is playable, the .8K file was not playable, and they are exactly the same size.

I tried a demo of Treasured and that reported there was not enough valid data to recover audio from the .8K file.

But is seems to me, that if the WAV and 8K files are the exact same size, then it may be a file header problem and I should be able to fix that. But, I would think, that if that is the problem, Treasured should be able to fix it. Conundrum..

I can't see this being a space issue, as the HDD has about 40GB free space.

Anyway, does anyone have any incite as to:

what may be causing the problem with the file conversion corruption?
(most importantly) is there a way to recover the audio recording from the 8K file?

I have changed the setting for the recording to save as WAV instead of 3GP, and have not seen any corruption issues yet, but this does not solve the problem with the previously recorded corrupt files, some of which are lengthy legal and contract calls.

Any help of suggestions recovering the files would be greatly appreciated!

TIA

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), G5 Dual 2.0 GHz, 2.5 GB RAM, ATI Ra

Posted on Apr 11, 2014 10:10 AM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

Apr 11, 2014 10:59 AM in response to Gary Sumlak

Hi Gary,

If it's a header problem, might look at them with a HexEditor...

http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/0xed.html

Have you simply tried renaming the .8k extension to .wav?

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Answer 2

Gary Sumlak Author

Level 3

673 points

Apr 11, 2014 12:41 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the reply.

BDAqua wrote:

Have you simply tried renaming the .8k extension to .wav?

Sorry, I forgot to include that. Yes, I did try that and I get "The movie could not be opened. Operation could not be completed. (OSSStatus error -208)." Whatever that means...

I have not tried HexEditor, but will give it a shot.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

Apr 11, 2014 3:08 PM in response to Gary Sumlak

badFileFormat

= -208, /*was not type AIFF or was of bad format,corrupt*/

In a Hex Editor, looks like ATFF files start with these bytes...

FORM� ¨ AIFFCOMM

Though I found older ones that don't have that header.

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Answer 4

Gary Sumlak Author

Level 3

673 points

Apr 15, 2014 8:46 AM in response to BDAqua

Just made a call the .8K corruption happened again, after several days of no problems with the audio recoding set to WAV!

Unfortunately, I deleted the previously made duplicate I had, so I can not make a direct comparison between the original wav and .8k files. But, when I check the 8k files, they all have a string of hex 80. Overall, the file does not seem to look right.

80788080 80808080 80808080 80808080 80808080 80808080 80808080 807576

77787879 7A7A7B7B 7C7C7C7D 7D7D7D7E 7E7E7E7E 7E7E7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F

7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F808080 80808080 80808080 80808080 80808080 808080

80808080 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F808080 80807F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F

7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F808080 80808080 80808080 80808080 808080

7F80807F 7F7F7F80 80808080 80808080 80808080 8080807F 7F807F7F 7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F7F 7F7F7F80 80808080 80808080 80808080 808080

80808080 7F7F7F7F 80808080 80807F80 80808080 80808080 8080807F 7F7F7F

Last thing to try is reinstall..

Sigh....

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

Apr 15, 2014 9:35 AM in response to Gary Sumlak

I'm thinking Disk corruption, have you repaired the drive lately?

Looks like all my .wav files start like this...

RIFF∏< �WAVEfmt �� D¨��àX � � �dataî< ��

52 49 46 46 B8 3C 01 00 57 41 56 45 66 6D 74 20

10 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 44 AC 00 00 88 58 01 00

02 00 10 00 64 61 74 61 94 3C 01 00 00 00 18 00

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Answer 6

Gary Sumlak Author

Level 3

673 points

May 3, 2014 5:38 PM in response to BDAqua

i ran Disk Warrior on the drive and rebuild the directory structure. It took quite a while to scan, but now that DW rebuilt the directory structure, the files are being created without issue. Lots of error detected by DW BTW.

Did some test recodings and the ".8k" are definitely Phone Valet's native capture file format, as as soon as a recoding starts, a ".8k" file appears. As soon as the recording stops, the files is renamed to WAV, and Quicktime can play it back.

There may be more to it than just updating the header to get the existing ".8k" files playable. It is unfortunate that Parlient won't even give the option to scan their existing knowlege base, or our old trouble tickets. I am sure there is a answer for every problem in that database for us orphaned users.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

May 3, 2014 5:54 PM in response to Gary Sumlak

Great to hear, thanks... DW is worth it's weight in gold! 🙂

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Answer 8

Gary Sumlak Author

Level 3

673 points

May 13, 2014 5:34 PM in response to BDAqua

Well, more bad and good news.

The bad news is that I am still getting the .8k files. There does not seem to be a reason for them not to be convirted into .wav files. Some days, a .wav is created with every call. Other days, more than have the calls stay as .8k.

The good news is that I was able to figure out how to manually construct the .wav file!!

Highlighting the .8k file, and the just after completing a call, I used CMD-D to duplicate the .8k file to create a ".8k copy" file, before the .wav version appeared.
After PV successfully created the .wav file, I duplicated the ".8k copy" and .wav files to work on (NEVER work on the original kids!!)
I opened both files in OxED and compared the two, side-by-side, resized so that full words (xx xx xx xx) were displayed, and checking for ONLY the bites that were different.
Once I resized to full words, it became clear that only the first 11 words were different.
Making sure that that 0xED was in Overwiter mode and not the default Insert mode (D'oh for about 5 minutes), I highlighted the first 11 words in the .wav file, and pasted them over the first 11 words in the .8k file
Save the .8k file and added the .wav suffix. I kept the full original .8k name so that I could keep the original .wav and the new recovered .8k.wav file.
Double clicked the .8k.wav file, and Quicktime launched and SUCCESSFULLY, played the new .8k.wav file.

YEAAAAAAAAH!!!

FYI, for what it is worth, the 11 word string and copy and pasted is:

52 49 46 46 | FD BC 0C 00 | 57 41 56 45 | 66 6D 74 20 | 10 00 00 00 | 01 00 01 00 |

40 1F 00 00 | 40 1F 00 00 | 01 00 08 00 | 64 61 74 61 | D9 BC 0C 00

NOTE: "|" is used as a word seperatore to improve visibility, and not part of the copied code.

I replaced the first 11 words in a couple other .8k files, and they all play back as well.

Anyway, thank you for stearing me in the right direction to get the .8k files playable. It is a very heavy sigh of relief!

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Answer 9

Gary Sumlak Author

Level 3

673 points

May 14, 2014 7:31 PM in response to BDAqua

Just a quick followup.

Although the majority of the 11 word string is correct, the 2nd and 11th word refer to file size values and need to be customized for each file:

The value of Word 2 is the "Size of the file (in bytes) - 8" 8 is the number of bytes use by the "RIFF" header.
The value of Word 11 is the "Size of the file - 44". 44 is the number of bytes use for the complete header. The Data in the file follows byte 44.

In the previously given header string:

The original file size is: 834,821 bytes (as seen in the finder Info window), with run time 1:44.34

Word 2: FD BC 0C 00 = 0x000CBCFD = 834,821-8 = 834813

Word 11: D9 BC 0C 00 = 0x000CBCD9 = 834,821-44 = 834777

Notice that the hex values are in groups of 2 and entered left to right in reverse order, if you enter the hex values directly. In 0xED, it is actually easier to highlight the hex characters, double click on the value to the left of "32 bit signed", and then enter the decimal value.

So, in this case, if the header string is used for a file larger than 834,821 bytes, the larger file will only play the first 1:44.34 of the file and stop. Also, Quicktime will think the file is only 1:44.34 as well.

The hex value can easly be calculated by entering the calculated decimal value in the system Calculator, set to programmer mode. Enter the value in DEC and then click the HEX button.

A bit of a tedius process for a large number of files, but it does the job. 🙂

Hope this helps anyone with a similar or the same problem with PhoneValet.

PS, if you don't feel like figuring out the file size for EVERY file you need to fix, a file size value larger than the actual file size can be used.

i.e. use the vaules for a 2GB file (TRT 21:26:39)

Word 2 = 1,999,999,992

Word 11 = 1,999,999,956

Quicktime will know the file is not actually that large, and just report what it can find, and play the file without issue.

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Answer 10

BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

May 15, 2014 10:59 AM in response to Gary Sumlak

Great work, thanks for filling us in! 🙂

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Answer 11

Aug 7, 2014 1:13 PM in response to Gary Sumlak

Gary, you're a life-saver! I just ran into this very problem for the first time. I don't know when PhoneValet started doing this wrong. Did you ever figure out how to get it to write to the proper file type in the first place? Seems odd since it's only doing it to recordings for me and not the actual phone messages. Isn't the file type preference the same for both?

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Answer 12

Gary Sumlak Author

Level 3

673 points

Oct 19, 2015 5:39 PM in response to Mersalmararc

Sorry for the delay.

As you probably already know. the file conversion format is set in General Preferences/Recording. I can't remember off hand if the recording of the outgoing message is set in a separate setting, but a quick check could not find a specific preference just for outgoing message - although I found several formats in the Outgoing Messages folder.

The recorded messages conversion problem seems to be an intermittent thing related to how busy the system is, but I have not been able to find any causal root. I have found restarting the system every couple of days seems to help reduce the number of glitches, as well as keeping the PV app itself closed.

If I figure out anything further, I will create an updated post to this thread.

Good Luck.

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