Re: Improving Dropbox video preview quality - thinking outside the box

The video quality plays lower resolution thru dropbox too.

The web player delivers a transcoded, browser-
friendly fifteen minute preview.

To view a video in its original full-length HD
glory, it's necessary do download and play
locally.

Yes just found some other information and not too happy that you can't play full resolution thru Dropbox.

However my Vimeo account has no problem to view full resolution even while online. Dropbox should really consider a way to view
the view full res video files thru Dropbox. Kinda a buzz kill as I just upgraded for a year mainly for video purpose.

The bottom line is, Vimeo and Dropbox are not comparable services.

The former is a video streaming service, the latter a file synchronisation tool.

Best advice is to use the correct tool for the job.

You are correct However I have some clients that would preffer to use dropbox so I was trying to appease them.
I would rather have know this first, this just adds another step for my process.

Why does Dropbox compress video files and how to you change this?

Dropbox doesn't change your files in any way.

Robert, you're lying and you know it. Plenty of my uploaded photos get compressed and I can't figure out how to stop it from happening. Personal experience, Dropbox 3.8.6, Windows 10 Pro.

I have the same problem. I was thinking about upgrading but the poor quality playback of video files that are 1080p playing poorly through Dropbox makes me reconsider.

Will Dropbox be thinking of ways to allow high resolution streaming?

If your going to do something, might as well make sure its done well. Not much point having the ability to play videos if the quality is going to be poor.

Will Dropbox be thinking of ways to allow high resolution streaming?

Dropbox don't reveal their product roadmap, but if I were to hazard a guess I'd think not.

Dropbox have never given any indication they wish to be a content streaming platform, which is what that would steer them towards. Add the fact of bandwidth being a major cost factor to the company, a cost burden which would increase significantly if they chose to adopt higher quality streaming. All in all, I just don't see it.

I work as an animator and what I and everyone working with film uses dropbox for is quick sharing of video previews. highres video streaming would be very helpful for us. If a competitor got highres previews we'd probably leave dropbox.

Please Please. The video quality is so bad that I am ashamed to send the link to clients. 

It would be great if the qualitiy would be improved - even just a little bit. Also audio is very crappy. 
On google Drive you can play videos in full resolution!
I'm shure dropbox can find a way. 

While not being totally unsympathetic, I'd note that Google own YouTube and their own data centres, so the infrastructure and income streams to offset bandwidth costs are there. With bandwidth being a major cost component for Dropbox (who have no comparable means to directly offset that cost), the question then becomes, 'how much am I willing to pay for higher quality streaming?'

Is there an update on this? We really struggle with low quality streaming videos. 

Is there an update on this?

I'm afraid Dropbox don't publish their product roadmap.

Generally speaking, the first any of us know about new features is when they're released.

Video files don't appear "compressed" in size, i.e. they're the same size on my desktop as they are in drop box, but the video playback online "appears" very compressed that's for sure, compared to when I upload to amazon S3. 

Robert isnt lying at all. What you see on the website is a preview of it. These are encoded at a set rate and play for a maximum of 15 mins. To see the full version, or longer files, you need to download it. 

That's exactly what I said. Files aren't compressed, but the playback online definitely appears that way. If you download or share the video to be downloaded (i.e not played online) it'll be the full, original version. If you share the link to be watched in a browser, you'll notice a significant quality loss, which could be interpreted as the actual file being "compressed" - which it actually isn't. 

Is there a way to disable online playback?  I have clients who have gone nuts because, despite my instructions to download the video, they just click on that arrow, and see a horribly pixilated version of their program.  They are really upset, and worst of all, I've learned that some of them did not tell me why they were upset, leaving me with a potential ex-client.

PLEASE allow me to disable video preview.  Or I'm outta here.

Is there a way to disable online playback?

No, but you can change the link that you send them so that they're only presented with a download. Change the ?dl=0 at the end of the link to ?dl=1 and it will force a download.

You are a lifesaver.  Thank you so much!

Robert is correct. Dropbox don't modify your original files. Just share the link with the 1 at the end and your clients will be forced to download the video.

Okay.  I tried changing ?dl=0 to ?dl=1.    

That link immediately initiates a download.  

But there are two problems: 

1. The download arrives as a .zip file.  Unless the user is set up to deal with that, it just results in more confusion and alienation.

2. In fact, when I tried decompressing the .zip file, I was told the file was unplayable.  

Added note: When I tried to create a link of only the one video file, the URL did not have ?dl=0 at the end.  So I created a link for the entire folder, which did create a URL ending in ?dl=0.  Even though the folder contains only one file, the result was a .zip file.  Is there a way to create the forced-download URL of a single file, at the file level?

why is low res? I pay 9.9 EUR for this useless stream?

we are Rober S in 2016 not in 2000.