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) 

[Bob C.15]

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.

[Rich]

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.

[Bob C.15]

You are a lifesaver.  Thank you so much!

[Alexis G.1]

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.

[Bob C.15]

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?

[www . c.]

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

[www . c.]

we are Rober S in 2016 not in 2000. 

[Mark]

And we are still using a file syncing service rather than a file video hosting one. 

As Robert has repeatedly said, Dropbox doesnt release roadmaps and if I'm totally honest its not something I can see happening - especially with them recently tightening up on downloads and bandwidth. 

[tbanas]

Yes, we are also struggling with this one 😞

[RADA P.1]

Then, if it not possible to improve the quality, please give us the possibility to turn off the video preview. Or at least put a big Download button with text "download for high resolution" under the video.

You might say: "write this in the email that you send together with the link". I often do that but 1. It looks silly and 2. The link is being sent to another coworker of my client without that text.

I also found out through a client that the video is shortened to 15 minutes when not logged in. The client thought I did a mistake with the video. 

This is really counter productive.