Video Duplicate Finder

Video Duplicate Finder is a cross-platform software to find duplicated video (and image) files on hard disk based on similarity. Unlike other duplicate finders this one also finds duplicates which have a different resolution, frame rate and even watermarked.

Features

Cross-platform
Fast scanning speed
Ultra fast rescan
Optional calling ffmpeg functions natively for even more speed
Finds duplicate videos / images based on similarity (optional scan against pHash at zero cost)
Partial clip detection — finds when a shorter video is a partial clip of a longer one (audio fingerprinting)
Desktop GUI (Windows, Linux, macOS)
Headless CLI for scripting and automation
Web UI for remote/headless/NAS use
Docker image for easy self-hosting

Partial Clip Detection

VDF can detect when a shorter video is a partial clip of a longer one — for example, a scene ripped from a movie, or a clip saved from a longer recording. This works even when there is no visual overlap between the two files.

It runs as an optional second phase after the normal visual duplicate scan, using an audio fingerprinting pipeline (Chromaprint-style chroma extraction + sliding-window Hamming similarity matching). Matched pairs appear in the duplicate list with a Clip Offset column showing where in the source the clip starts.

Enabling it

In Settings → Partial Clip Detection, check Enable Partial Clip Detection and adjust:

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | Min clip / source ratio (%) | 10 | Minimum clip duration as a percentage of the source duration. Clips shorter than this are ignored. | | Min audio similarity (%) | 80 | Minimum average Hamming similarity for the sliding-window fingerprint match to be accepted. |

Note: Partial clip detection requires audio tracks in both files. Videos without audio are skipped.

Downloads

Daily build — attachments are automatically rebuilt and replaced on every commit.

Available packages per platform:

GUI-<platform> — desktop application
CLI-<platform> — command-line tool
Web-<platform> — self-contained web server

Desktop GUI

Requirements

FFmpeg and FFprobe are required. On first launch VDF attempts to download them automatically. Native FFmpeg binding requires FFmpeg 8.x shared libraries (not the master branch).

Windows

Download the latest FFmpeg GPL shared package from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html Extract ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe into the same folder as VDF.GUI.exe, a subfolder named bin, or ensure they are on your PATH.

Linux

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

Then run:

chmod +x VDF.GUI
./VDF.GUI

Optional: add to your application menu

The Linux archive includes videoduplicatefinder.desktop and icon.png. To register the app with your desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc.):

# Edit the Exec= and Icon= paths to match where you extracted the archive, e.g.:
sed -i "s|/opt/videoduplicatefinder|$(pwd)|g" videoduplicatefinder.desktop

# Install for the current user
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
cp videoduplicatefinder.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

The app will then appear in your application launcher with its icon.

macOS

brew install ffmpeg

Extract the archive — it contains Video Duplicate Finder.app. Double-click it to launch.

If macOS blocks the app with "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified", right-click the .app and choose Open, then confirm. You only need to do this once.

If the process is immediately killed (zsh: killed), the binary needs to be signed. Run:

codesign --force --sign - "Video Duplicate Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/VDF.GUI"

CLI (Command-line Interface)

The CLI is useful for scripting, scheduled tasks, and headless servers where no display is available.

Requirements

Same as the GUI: FFmpeg and FFprobe must be on your PATH or in the same directory as the vdf-cli binary.

Installation

Download CLI-<platform> from the releases page and extract it.

On Linux/macOS, make the binary executable:

chmod +x vdf-cli

Usage

Scan and compare in one step

vdf-cli scan-and-compare --include /path/to/media

Scan multiple directories, save results as JSON

vdf-cli scan-and-compare \
  --include /mnt/movies \
  --include /mnt/series \
  --exclude /mnt/movies/extras \
  --format json \
  --output results.json

Common options

| Flag | Description | Default | |------|-------------|---------| | --include <path> | Directory to scan (repeatable) | required | | --exclude <path> | Directory to exclude (repeatable) | — | | --threshold <n> | Hash difference threshold | 5 | | --percent <n> | Minimum similarity % to report | 96 | | --parallelism <n> | Parallel hashing threads | 1 | | --include-images | Also scan image files | off | | --use-phash | Use perceptual hashing | off | | --partial-clip-detection | Enable partial clip detection (audio fingerprinting) | off | | --partial-clip-min-ratio <n> | Min clip/source duration ratio (0.0–1.0) | 0.10 | | --partial-clip-similarity <n> | Min audio fingerprint similarity (0.0–1.0) | 0.80 | | --format json\|text\|csv | Output format | text | | --output <file> | Write results to file instead of stdout | stdout | | --settings <file> | Load full settings from a JSON file | — |

Auto-mark and delete duplicates

# Dry run — shows what would be deleted, no changes made (default)
vdf-cli scan-and-compare --include /mnt/media --action lowest-quality --dry-run

# Move duplicates to trash (safer)
vdf-cli scan-and-compare --include /mnt/media --action lowest-quality --delete

# Permanently delete (use with care)
vdf-cli scan-and-compare --include /mnt/media --action lowest-quality --delete-permanent

Available --action strategies:

| Strategy | Keeps | |----------|-------| | lowest-quality | Highest bitrate/resolution per group | | smallest-file | Largest file per group | | shortest-duration | Longest duration per group | | worst-resolution | Highest resolution per group | | 100-percent-only | Only acts on 100% identical groups |

Note: Automatic deletion is not recommended. Always review results with --dry-run first.

Web UI

The Web UI runs as a local web server and is accessed from your browser. It is designed for headless machines, NAS devices, and remote management.

Security note: The Web UI has no authentication. Only run it on a trusted local network. Do not expose it to the internet.

Requirements

FFmpeg and FFprobe must be on your PATH or in the same directory as the VDF.Web binary.

Installation (self-contained archive)

Download Web-<platform> from the releases page and extract it.

On Linux/macOS:

chmod +x VDF.Web
./VDF.Web

On Windows:

VDF.Web.exe

Then open http://localhost:5000 in your browser.

To change the port:

ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://+:8080 ./VDF.Web

Settings and the scan database are saved to:

Windows: %APPDATA%\VDF\
Linux: ~/.config/VDF/
macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/VDF/

Docker (Web UI)

Docker is the easiest way to run the Web UI on a NAS, home server, or any Linux machine. FFmpeg is included in the image — no separate installation needed.

Requirements

Docker installed

Quick start

docker run -d \
  --name vdf-web \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v vdf-db:/root/.config/VDF \
  -v /path/to/your/media:/media:ro \
  ghcr.io/0x90d/vdf-web:latest

Then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser. Inside the Web UI, add /media (or whatever path you mounted) as a scan directory.

docker compose (recommended for permanent installs)

Download docker-compose.yml from this repository.
Edit the file and add your media volume mounts:

volumes:
  - /mnt/nas/movies:/mnt/nas/movies:ro
  - /mnt/nas/series:/mnt/nas/series:ro

Start the service:

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser.
To update to the latest image:

docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

Volume reference

| Volume | Purpose | |--------|---------| | /root/.config/VDF | Settings and scan database — mount a named volume here so data persists across container updates | | Your media paths | Mount each media directory you want to scan. Read-only (:ro) is recommended. |

Notes

The container image is built for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 (Raspberry Pi / NAS ARM boards).
The image is published to GitHub Container Registry and updated automatically on every commit.

Screenshots (outdated)

License

Video Duplicate Finder is licensed under AGPLv3

Credits / Third Party

Avalonia
ActiPro Avalonia Controls (Free Edition)
FFmpeg.AutoGen
protobuf-net
SixLabors.ImageSharp
AcoustID.NET by wo80 — the audio fingerprinting pipeline (Chromaprint-style chroma extraction, FIR smoothing, and fingerprint encoding) used for partial clip detection is derived from this library, licensed under LGPL 2.1

Building

.NET 9.x
Visual Studio 2022 or later i

Videoduplicatefinder

Install / Use

README

Video Duplicate Finder

Features

Partial Clip Detection

Enabling it

Downloads

Desktop GUI

Requirements

Windows

Linux

macOS

CLI (Command-line Interface)

Requirements

Installation

Usage

Scan and compare in one step

Scan multiple directories, save results as JSON

Common options

Auto-mark and delete duplicates

Web UI

Requirements

Installation (self-contained archive)

Docker (Web UI)

Requirements

Quick start

docker compose (recommended for permanent installs)

Volume reference

Notes

Screenshots (outdated)

License

Credits / Third Party

Building