Are all scene file names unique?

C

Chris Ho

New member
I'm perplexed. I was under the (perhaps false) assumption that all scene files coming out of the HVX are unique. Today I found that this is not the case.

I use the Media Manager function in Vegas to tag all my footage. I'm backing up my MXF files with self-contained AVIs, which is what I edit from. Although I maintain a highly structured file naming format for my archival MXF files, I put all the AVIs for each project in one folder.

This is where I run into a problem. For each project I make a Media Library, and each time I render new AVIs, I drop them in the folder and tell vegas to just find the new files. This worked great up until today, where a key shot I knew I had was missing. I looked for it and found that it was on my hard drive, but not imported into the Media Library because Vegas thought it was an "old" file - another file had the same name.

Do scene file names repeat? Or is this a one in a million kind of thing? I've got thousands of clips and this is the first time I've seen it happen...


thanks for any insights,
chris
 
Well, don't confuse the clip names with "scene file" names; scene files are different things.

There are 1300 possible combinations for each scene "number," i.e., every clip 0001 has two random digits behind it, from A-Z or 0-9. From card to card, with multiple clips (0001, 0002, 0003, etc.), the chances of getting a repeat are pretty slim.

But "random" doesn't mean exactly that in the computer world, so depending on how sophisticated the algorithm really is, perhaps there's a better than 1/1300 chance of getting the same two random digits on your next clip 0001, and so on.

So, it shouldn't happen very much at all, but at the same time, don't be surprised that among hundreds and hundreds of clips (or cards), you might occasionally find the same clip name.
 
Thanks David,

Got it. I'm going to tweak my system a bit, as this is a long format doc project - with a greater than 1 in 1,300 chance of repeats it is bound to happen again.

You have saved my an afternoon of bewilderment and frustration.

thanks again,
Chris
 
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