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Forum Discussion
Improving Dropbox video preview quality - thinking outside the box
The poor quality of the Dropbox transcoded preview has been discussed over the years, particularly between 2015-2017. Over the last six years, internet speeds have changed remarkably and online stre...
I just upgraded my account pro plus and it appears to me playback quality online seems low res.
The file dowloads full resolution and looks great but not during playback online thru dropbox. Is there a setting for this?
The video quality plays lower resolution thru dropbox too.
- Robert S.
Super User alumni
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.- Robert S.
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?
- Robert S.
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.
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.
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.
- Robert S.
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.
Well, in this case, Dropbox at least should consider, informing the users, to download the video in order to get the full HD quality.
Here is my case:
1. I record various tips and tricks using QuickTime
2. I save the video directly to my Dropbox folder
3. Share the video with my clients
Now they will see a very low quality of that screencast, with no way to inform them that they can download the video to see in HD quality - I get that they don't want to provide this way directly into the player itself, but still, they should consider taking into consideration their clients feedback.
For example, Google Drive - still the same service as Dropbox, offers ways to see the video in HD.
- Rich
Super User II
uEduard wrote:
Well, in this case, Dropbox at least should consider, informing the users, to download the video in order to get the full HD quality.
They already do. The message appears if the video is paused, or when the 15-minute preview time has been reached.
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.Video quality is soo poor that we are forced to use Vimeo and set up new portfolios on a weekly bases in order to send videos to clients so that they can preview files. Dropbox still has not improved video playback in the 3 years i have been using it
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