Operator's Guide and How to Manual
Click to skip intro and scroll to actual how-to
Whether for work or play, we use computers for just about everything these days. Over time, our hard drives become full of files; files that eat up space and ultimately cause our machines to run slower. Video files are some of the most significant contributors to lost space, and a lot of that has to do with how easy it is to generate duplicate videos accidentally.
No one sets out to intentionally make two copies of the same video; it just happens. Duplicates can appear due to an assortment of reasons. For instance, when you make a copy of a video and save it to a new folder; or when you download two copies of the same video file but in different formats. All it takes is forgetting to go back and delete the extra or unwanted copies, and there they sit.
The larger and older your video collection is, the higher the chance that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of duplicate or similar videos slowing your system down.
How does DVS work?
With Duplicate Video Search in your toolbox, you'll never have to worry about unwanted video files hogging your hard drive space again! Using DVS is both easy and fun through our automated process of locating duplicate video files. All you need to do is tell DVS where to look, sit back, and relax while it does all the work for you. No more having to compare individual files manually!
Unlike other duplicate search utilities, our unique visual recognition program actually "watches" your videos. Instead of surface scans limited to filename or size, the Duplicate Video Search tool compares files in an attempt to find subtle similarities. Our innovative sliding sensitivity scale lets you decide exactly what level of similarity that DVS should be looking for.
Regardless of format or resolution, DVS can find and analyze your videos based on finer factors like conversion, cropping, scaling, and high/low quality to measure similarity levels. Once the potential copies are found, you'll have the option to keep, delete, or move them to another folder. However, you choose to handle them, the fact is you'll be gaining a greater awareness of the video content of your drive(s).
Getting started
This quick how-to guide will give you a better idea of how to get started using the Duplicate Video Search tool for the first time.
Step 1: Download Duplicate Video Search
Duplicate Video Search has been confirmed by many independent parties such as Download.com, Softpedia and TopShareware and more to be 100% FREE of adware, malware, and spyware.
Step 2: Launch the program
Step 3: Add one or more target directories
- Select which folders to have DVS scan by adding them to the list in the Source Folders box.
- Click the Add button to add folders to the Source Folder list.
- Click the Remove button to remove previously selected folders from the list.
Step 4: Setting *optional features
The following features are optional. However, each of them will help you to refine further how the Duplicate Video Search tool goes about scanning for similarities.
Video Reading Options
- Disable "Multithreaded mode" for troubleshooting only or in case DVS slows your system too much during the scanning.
- "Use DirectShow" is the option for troubleshooting only, too. It requires appropriate video codecs installed in your system. This alternative scan mode is available when the "Multithreaded processing" option is turned off only.
- Checking the Fast video reading option will make your video scanning about 2 to 3 times faster by synching the audio and video. Some DirectShow codecs have been known to act buggy. If you experience this problem, simply turn fast reading off.
- The Skip first __ seconds option helps you to avoid the first several minutes of movies, where previews and trailers often tend to vary in length and content. We recommend that you set this to 180 seconds to skip the first 3 minutes when scanning movie collections.
Video Indexing Options
- Specify how many seconds of each video you'd like indexed. The longer this interval is, the more accurately duplicate videos will be detected (less false positives). Warning: the higher your indexing number, the longer the scan will take. We recommend finding a happy medium or leaving this at the default setting of 3.
Matching Options
- The Sensitivity slider lets you regulate the degree to which the target videos will be compared before being considered similar. If after running your first scan you find there to be a lot of false positives (or even a lack of) simply adjust the sliding sensitivity scale and scan again. The second scan is always much faster, and it gives you a second set of comparisons!
- The Max shift can help you negotiate time differences between videos. For example, two videos might be the same but have their time signatures off by a few seconds; a scene that occurs in one at 4:03 might not happen in the other until 4:07. We recommended you set this value to 5.
Step 5: Start retrieval
- The Search button lets you start the inspection process. DVS will scan your selected folders for video copies. Clips that are discovered to have high levels of video similarity will then be grouped for your inspection.
- Using our special video fingerprinting process, DVS can see past surface details like file formats and instead, analyzes the visual content of each video file.
- Each time you run the Duplicate Video Search scans become faster. This is due to the way that files are indexed. DVS processes only a limited number of seconds for each video, and then stores a signature for each in a cache (if Cache video signatures option is enabled). This makes it so that the next time you want to run a scan, the program can save time by re-using cached signatures and processing only new clips. Please note, the signatures have to be recalculated if you change one of "video indexing" options.
Step 6: Remove duplicate video files
- After the scan has completed, DVS will gather the results as a list of thumbnails. For each video, the program displays duration, date of last modification, path, and resolution. The checkbox indicates the file status; whether it's a duplicate or an original.
- Based on which boxes are checked (and which are left empty) you'll see which videos that DVS believes are duplicates. You can then act accordingly to move, delete or investigate their similarities further.
- If you want to decide mark dupes yourself, you can remove all existing marks with the popup menu (click with the right mouse button over the results to open)
Glossary
Click 
to cut duplicates to the clipboard.
Click 
to copy duplicates to the clipboard.
Click 
to move copies to the trash can
You can put or remove a tick by clicking the checkbox or pressing the Space key. Also, you can select one or more items by pressing "Shift" and "Up" / "Down" keys, and then perform the same operations on them.
Click 
to cut selected files to the clipboard.
Click 
to copy selected files to the clipboard.
Click 
to paste files from the clipboard to the directory of your choice.
Click 
to move selected files to the trash can.
Double-click to open the item in the default viewer (assigned for this file type in Windows Explorer settings)
What's next?
Congratulations, now that you've finished scanning and removing duplicate videos from your hard drive, you've taken the first of many important steps toward freeing up space and helping your machine run smoother. To organize your computer even further, explore more of our great comparison utilities by visiting us at Bolide® Software. You'll discover that we have solutions for audio, video, images and more!