Does anyone have a foolproof way of finding duplicate media so that I can delete the excess files and not accidentally delete stuff that I want to keep? A bit like the find duplicates in iTunes!

I have been transcoding a load of media down to 10:1 to save space on some drives but am finding it difficult to keep track of the transcoded and original media. I want to delete the original 2:1 media (video only since transcoding leaves the original audio intact) then relink the original clips to the 10:1 footage.

It would be nice if the transcode dialogue had a delete original button like the consolidate dialogue.

Slight clarification.

What I want to find is clips that are duplicated in different resolutions.

Hi,

This is off the top of my head, and it's early, so there might be a better way, but you could display a project's media in the media tool, display the video column to see the resolution of all the clips, and then you'd be able to quickly tell what clips are available in what resolutions.

good luck,
Carl

Thanks for that. The main problem is that there are a lot of clips. Over a thousand! Some are transcoded and some are not. Some are relinked and some are not. And manually matching them by eye in the Media Tool - which I have tried - is very time consuming and prone to human error and once a clip is deleted accidentally it's gone for good! (Wouldn't it be nice to have a delete to trashcan option on Avid) I know its a long shot but I am just looking for a more foolproof method before I embark on a weekend of very careful manual deleting.

 You can highlight a sequence, then choose "show relatives". All clips in all bins that are used in that sequence will be highlighted. You can then launch the media tool for the current project only and choose "reverse selection". Then, all the clips that are NOT in the sequence will be highlighted and you can delete those.