Sending video files as e-mail attachments?

frederick-wise wrote on 10/15/2012, 7:29 PM

Help needed,

I'm working on a short video for a remote client (about 2 hour drive) and want to send updates via e-mail attachments. Does anyone know the best way to do this while maintaining a high resolution? I've been sending them out in little low resolution attachments (2 minute segments rendered at 512 Kbps in wmv format) but assume there may be a better way to do this. I've tried sending them as ZIP files created in Win7 but they don't seem to reduce the size much (I've read video files are already very compressed).

NOTE: I have no budget to pay for an advanced ZIP file program. I use VP11 and send via my old AOL account on Google Chrome.

Thanx in advance!

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 10/15/2012, 7:34 PM

There's a limit to how big an email attachment can be. In these circumstances I upload files to my internet server and send the clients an email with a link which they can click and download. If you don't have that facility, I've read here about sites such as Dropbox.

rs170a wrote on 10/15/2012, 7:40 PM

I've been using Dropbox for over a year and it's great.
You get 2 gigs of free space to begin with and can earn more.
If you signup using the link below, we each get and additional 500 MB. free.
http://db.tt/rYE74u2

Mike

Former user wrote on 10/15/2012, 8:06 PM

Check out yousendit.com.

I like it real well.

Dave T2

Rainer wrote on 10/15/2012, 8:20 PM

Dropbox, yes. Or just post it as private on YouTube and send the link.

frederick-wise wrote on 10/15/2012, 8:24 PM

Thanx for the ideas. How big of a file can I send via these methods? All my finished work is rendered to 720P. I was thinking about the youtube route but need to learn how to keep it private.

monoparadox wrote on 10/15/2012, 8:29 PM

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/skydrive/home

Former user wrote on 10/15/2012, 8:31 PM

I believe for yousendit, the free account limits to 50meg.

The privacy on youtube is real easy. Just click the PUBLIC button and change to private. Your client has to have a youtube account and you must use their youtube listed email for them to access the file.

Dave T2

frederick-wise wrote on 10/15/2012, 8:41 PM

I think "yousendit.com" is $50 to join - not in my budget right now. It looks like maybe the "dropbox" or youtube/private may work.

monoparadox wrote on 10/15/2012, 8:53 PM

Go with Skydrive. It's the best kept secret out there and will work spiffy with your wmv files.

frederick-wise wrote on 10/15/2012, 9:42 PM

OK, I'll give SkyDrive a try. It claims it's the best - we'll see. Thanx for the info.

monoparadox wrote on 10/15/2012, 10:28 PM

Assuming you're running Win7 or Vista, be sure to install their explorer extension. It puts your skydrive in your file explorer and it's as easy as dropping files into a local folder.

NickHope wrote on 10/16/2012, 12:20 AM

Also Google now have their competitor to Dropbox and Skydrive. Google Drive.

Rainer wrote on 10/16/2012, 12:32 AM

Just another plug for Youtube - if private is too much trouble you can also make your video unlisted - only you and whoever you send it to has the url, and it's as simple as clicking the unlisted button. There's no advantage to uploading where you can't see a vixdeo until it's downloaded - if your client needs to download it, they can still do that from YouTube in the original format it was uploaded.

NickHope wrote on 10/16/2012, 2:10 AM

if your client needs to download it, they can still do that from YouTube in the original format it was uploaded.

They could only download YouTube's compressed versions of the original, and that would be via extensions, scripts etc. that are probably against YouTube's TOS.

Rainer wrote on 10/16/2012, 2:17 AM

No, you get a choice of several versions, including the original upload. Use a browser extension, not one of the shonky websites. Google for the one that suits you.

NickHope wrote on 10/16/2012, 3:26 AM

Sorry Rainer, I can't find one which does that. Could you point me in the right direction?

Rainer wrote on 10/16/2012, 3:33 AM

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/ is good for Firefox, other browsers have similar

NickHope wrote on 10/16/2012, 3:48 AM

Thanks. I have had that installed in the past and have now installed the lastest version. I cannot see an option to download the originally uploaded file. For example my upload for

was 378MB, but the nearest to that I can see in DownloadHelper is 131MB, which is the 720p version compressed by YouTube.

rraud wrote on 10/16/2012, 8:59 AM

I use 4Shared, Dropbox, and my website's server via FTP. Dropbox and 4shared (and Skydirve) offer an app. that when a file or folder is added it's uploaded automatically. YouSendit has a low file size restriction unless one pays extra. 50MB I recall the last time I (tried) use it.

Rainer wrote on 10/16/2012, 4:56 PM

Hey Nick, there's obviously something more to YouTube policy. I checked with one of mine (

and it gave me 17 options for download, including my original 1080p upload. There might be a size/format limit. Do you upload as mp4? Your footage is incredibly beautiful, btw (got back from Tulamben myself last month but don't own a proper uw camera).

NickHope wrote on 10/17/2012, 12:40 AM

Rainer, here I'm only seeing 7 download options for your video.

I wonder why you can see so many more. As far as I know there was no way even for a creator to retrieve his uploaded files until very recently, when they started allowing you to download all of your uploaded youtube files as one big archive as part of Google Takeout.

Yes, I upload mp4 files that I render with the x264 codec. My complicated method is explained here.

Thanks for the kind words about my videos. I love Tulamben. Did you by any chance dive the brand new wreck there?

Rainer wrote on 10/17/2012, 5:50 AM

Hi Nick, I meant to say "not including the original", and I wasn't counting WebM, so that's 4 formats (MP4, FLV, 3GP and WebM at 1080, 720, 480, 360, 240 and 144 resolution, 24 options, could use YouTube for handy conversions. The catch is I'm using ByTubeD, not Download Helper, I just assumed it would be the same. Other downloaders will give you different and even more options, like Mp3, AAC and some weird ones which may or may not exist. No, the new wreck hadn't arrived - next time.

Kimberly wrote on 10/17/2012, 10:24 AM

+1 for Dropbox.

Randy Brown wrote on 11/1/2012, 11:06 AM

http://www.largefilesasap.com/

up to 2 GB for free