Improving Dropbox video preview quality - thinking outside the box

[Robert K JSS Tech]

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 streaming is now commonplace.

So our clients are unforgiving in their distaste for the Dropbox preview product.

Dropbox has made it plain, that as far as they are concerned the solution is just download. However many many clients want to be sure the product is right for them before they download.

Thinking outside the box, if we load two versions of each video, one optimised for preview, of smaller file size etc.(so clients can be sure its the product they want- but we can be certain that for instance, the preview won't be out of audio/vision sync)  and the full res version for them to download.

Surely the Dropbox engineers who work on the auto transcoding know the optimum specs for the preview file?

Can that please be shared with your clients? ( after all we are supposedly on the same team) 

[Rich]

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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.

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They already do. The message appears if the video is paused, or when the 15-minute preview time has been reached.

[uEduard]

That message should be all the time, not if you pause the video of 15 minutes have passed. My videos are no longer than a few minutes so that should be displayed all the time.

[Sanchez]

Hey @uEduard, 

You make some good suggestions here about video playback, and I’m letting our team know about them. Thanks for the feedback! 

Cheers 

[derloopkat]

What I need is preventing the user to open the video. Only download should be allowed. Not giving the opportunity to watch this rubbish is essential.

[Mark]

Hi Derloopkat - when you send the link alter it so that it is forced to download

https://help.dropbox.com/desktop-web/force-download

[dojima]

Thanks for the solution. It's hilarious this is even an issue. When you share a file with someone, you expect that they're going to receive, bit-for-bit, the exact file intended—not some transcoded, inferior garbage version. If I wanted someone to mangle my video files, YouTube already does a perfectly acceptable job of that. Dropbox is basically using people's ignorance as a way to try to save bandwidth under the guise of a feature. Sure it's possible to share videos in full quality...that is, if you're willing to take the time to figure out how to do it. Silly. Glad I'm not paying for this abomination.

[Rich]

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dojima wrote:
Sure it's possible to share videos in full quality...that is, if you're willing to take the time to figure out how to do it.

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Doesn't take much time to click "Download."

[dojima]

Clicking download has nothing to do with 'sharing' it in full quality. To 'share' it in full quality, you have to use Mark's solution.

Let me break it down for you: let's suppose I'm trying to share a video. I create a link and give it to someone. Unless they have previous knowledge of how Dropbox works, they have no idea they're watching a transcoded video on the link I provided to them. Indeed, as people in this thread have mentioned, their clients thought something was wrong when they were provided a video that cut off after 15 minutes. It wouldn't occur to the ordinary person to download the video in that situation, and it doesn't occur to the uploader that their file will be altered, since it's not mentioned anywhere, and that's not the default behavior on any cloud storage site that I'm aware of other than Dropbox. I just happened to find out because I checked the link. Further, even if I know that the file has been altered, there's no intuitive way to find a link that I can share with someone without Googling. I first tried removing '?dl=0'. That doesn't work either.

In the Dropbox "About us" page, they state, "When people put their files in Dropbox, they can trust they’re secure and their data is their own."  People are rightfully upset about this issue.  A transcoded video is certainly not my own data.

[Sanchez]

@dojima, I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on this, and I’m sending your feedback on to our team. 

Thanks

[Sanchez]

Hi everyone,

Would you mind taking a minute of your time to fill out a survey sharing your experience using our Dropbox Community? You can access the survey here: http://bit.ly/2lNKIxT

Thank you!

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