@galleherjazz wrote:
Why Can't I Play a Movie for More Than an Hour on the Dropbox Link?
Because the Dropbox website only shows a time-limited preview of videos. For Basic (i.e. free) accounts, previews are lmited to the first 15 minutes. For Plus and Professional accounts, it's 60 minutes. For Business accounts, it's 4 hours.
I have been a longtime Dropbox user and tonight, for the first time
These limitations have been in place for years. Nothing has changed recently.
... the movie stopped playing on the Dropbox website after one hour and gave the viewer the option to Download the movie. Why is this?
Because Dropbox is not meant as a streaming service, so it only shows a transcoded preview of the original video. If the user needs to see the entire video beyond the limitations of your account, they'll need to download the file and play it locally.
Is there any way to overcome this SERIOUS limitation on the link to the movie?
WIth Dropbox, no, because those limits are there for a reason. You can, however, use a service like Vimeo and add your videos directly from Dropbox and have your users view them there.
Is there an upgrade to overcome this?
As noted above, different account levels have different limits.
I think this is a serious flaw of Dropbox ...
It's not a flaw; it's an intended function of the preview process. Dropbox is not intended to be a streaming service. There are far better options out there if your sole purpose is to watch videos through a website.
