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Finding Video Files on a Hard Drive filled with Photos
I’ve been given a 1.5TB Hard drive filled with photos and videos from dozens of people. What are some ways to create a list of all the video files on the drive? I’ve tried creating a smart collection in Adobe Bridge, but don’t see an option for “all” video files. (There’s all types of files…it’s a church project where people donated old footage from home.)
I’m using a Mac. I’m assuming there’s an easy way to do it in Finder, but for the life of me, I can’t figure it out. The “All my Files” icon mixes in files with my internal hard drive as well, and doesn’t separate them out as “videos”.
I’m somewhat familiar with Prelude, but I didn’t want to dive in there if it won’t be fruitful.
In short, I want to separate out all the video files on this drive. I don’t care where…their own folder; their own smart collection; or directly into Premiere Pro.
Ultimately, it will be used for a Premiere Pro project. Thanks.
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7 Replies
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You should be able to do this in Bridge in a Smart Collection, simply by selecting Document Type, and then adding the multiple formats which might be on the drive. The hardest part will be deciding which formats to choose – I would think that there will be .avi, .mov, maybe .mts or other digital camera formats, but there shouldn’t be too many choices there. To add the multiple types, just click the “+” at the far right, and add those. And make sure that the entire drive is selected as far as what the search encompasses.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
In Finder, sort by Type and scroll through the list to the video files. To filter out all other files, make note of the video extensions and use Bridge as described above by Joseph.
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Thanks. But I don’t see the options for file extensions under the dropdown menu. They offer mp4, mpeg4, and QuickTime Movie, but no .mov or .avi etc. I’ve started the smart collection to see what it will come up with. (It’s processing now.)
Ivan, as for your idea within the finder, my problem is that the drive has multiple folders. First for the year it was taken, then the family or photographer. I can’t seem to separate out the video files more than one folder at a time. Any thoughts?
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Double click on the hard drive you want to search to open its content window. With that window still selected, do a Command F (Find) or File/Find from the menu bar, either while in the Finder. A Search window will pop up. Select the drive you want to search from the menu in the window as opposed to “This Mac” , the other choice, which would search all volumes. At the top of the window you have two pop ups. One will already be set to kind, leave it there. The other will be set to “Any”. Press that popup and change it to “Movie”. A list of all the movie files on that drive will then appear.
Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1, Premiere Pro 5.5 and 6.0, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM GTX-285 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe -
Wow. Thanks, Jim. That worked like a charm. It’s one of those little features that I’ve never noticed.
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In fact, that allows me to bypass Bridge altogether. I’m just dragging the desired video files into bins in Premiere Pro. Thanks again.
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There are many other searches you can do from the finder window from those two popups if you explore them. You can also combine and remove search parameters with the plus and minus keys on the right side of the search window bar. For instance Kind: Movie, Before: 6/11/12, etc. It uses the Spotlight indexing which can search out anything on your storage volumes, including textual content. Very powerful and very simple. Glad it worked for you.
Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1, Premiere Pro 5.5 and 6.0, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM GTX-285 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe
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