Setup & Use

Video Duplicate Finder – Wiki (Setup & Use)

Overview

This wiki is intended for new users and explains how to set up Video Duplicate Finder, perform the first scan, and adjust typical settings appropriately.

Setup

1) Install FFmpeg & FFprobe

Video Duplicate Finder requires ffmpeg and ffprobe. If they are missing, the program will attempt to download them before the first scan run and, depending on the OS, issue instructions on what to do. If this fails, refer to the project's readme file for instructions on how to install them manually.

2) Start the program

• Windows: Start VDF GUI.

• Linux/macOS: Change to the VDF directory and execute ./VDF.GUI (or dotnet VDF.GUI.dll).

Important performance notes

The first run is the slowest

The first scan is often the slowest because it involves a lot of I/O (reading files). Subsequent scans are faster because a lot of information is already stored.

Native FFmpeg Bindings

The native ffmpeg binding brings enormous performance improvements, but has a hard dependency on a specific FFmpeg version. Do not use FFmpeg master, but the supported version. If the version is incorrect, the binding will not work.

Understanding settings & using them effectively

“Max Parallel”

This setting controls how many files are processed simultaneously.

• Local SSD/NVMe: Higher values may be useful (e.g., 4–8) because the disk can handle many parallel read accesses.

• Network paths (SMB/NAS): Too much parallelism can be slower because the network becomes overloaded.

• Value -1: Means “automatic maximum parallelism” – this is usually worse for network paths than for local SSDs. A lower, fixed value is often recommended for network drives.

Too many false positives (incorrect duplicates)

If you get too many false positives:

• Increase thumbnail count: More thumbnails improve accuracy because the analysis is based on more image material.

Duplicates are not found

If you have too few hits:

• Slightly lower the match threshold (percentage): A slightly lower percentage increases sensitivity and finds more similar files.
• Enable logging in the settings and check whether the file has been excluded and why.

Tip: Repeat scan & use pHash

The two algorithms complement each other:

• A normal scan finds certain duplicates.

• An additional scan with pHash can find further duplicates that the other algorithm overlooks.

Recommendation: After a normal scan, scan again with the pHash option activated to achieve a higher hit rate.