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) 

[Haakon G.1]

Most other people I know making videos use wetransfer and vimeo plus. I think I'll make the switch soon as well.

[www . c.]

"It is. But thats up to your ISP and not Dropbox. "

LOL! I have 100MB/S upload speed. This is dropbox fail man. HUH!!!!!

please dont manipulate customers again. Mark!

[Rich]

What's the point of saving space on my hard drive

That's not the purpose of Dropbox. Yes, it can help save space with Selective Sync, but that is not what Dropbox is meant for. It's a synchronization service, not a cloud-based folder or drive. The entire point of Dropbox is that it keeps a copy of your files on your computer and in your account online. Any features other than file sync are secondary. This includes sharing and streaming. They're extra features built on top of a file synchronization platform.

Most other people I know making videos use wetransfer and vimeo plus

Vimeo can import your videos directly from your Dropbox account, without having to upload them again.

I have 100MB/S upload speed.

What does that have to do with the quality of a preview video? Also, you have 100Mb/s upload speed to your ISP. You don't have 100Mb/s upload (or download) speed to every server on the Internet. Your actual speed will depend on distance, network traffic, server and computer load, and a number of other factors that all play their part.

[tkelestemur]

In the previous replies, it is mentioned that Dropbox adjust video quality depending on your our internet speed. I have more than 50 Mbps speed but it still show very low quality (I think it's 240p) while the other cloud services show me the same video on same network HD.

[jlpsfo]

I'm sorry but I did try watching videos on two different computer with wired connection in two different networks and both presented the same low quality video

[rafael jr m.]

By experience this is not true. I had several issues with video playback quality running on dropbox even with high internet speeds as compared to what I am using now for video playback which is screenlight. Try it and compare. use the same computer and the same internet connection and see the BIG difference.

[jamieC1770]

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

[KF]

Please do "?dl=1" by default in client(right click "copy Dropbox link").
"?dl=0" give bad video quality and full useless for me.

[Leo6]

Just for those guys who are wondering...

I tested every possible format for videos and looked if some formats work better than others...

Answer: No.

Tried mov, mp4, avi, prores, m4v . And everything with different scales.

Please Dropbox, fix this. Everything else works great. And it is not a thing of how fast your internet connection is, you guys know that.

[jamieC1770]

Glad to see this issue is gaining traction. I still have no hope that this issue will be resolved anytime soon....as already mentioned our business has been using it for 3 years now and this issue has since remained.....Dropbox are too busy installing their free 20Gb bloatware on new laptops than actually looking as to how they can improve their product.....