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What’s the best cloud storage for editors who send links and want them to play in browser?
Hi all. For about a decade, I’ve been sending links to QT cuts on the same server my website has been on. I’d just FTP in, upload a quicktime to a folder and then send a link https://www.MyWebsiteName.com/theprojectname . A list of the files in the folder is shown and then clients click a file name to have it instantly stream in their browser (I use apple compressor for my h264 quicktimes with autoplay on). Well as my work load has increased over the years and file quality gone up / file sizes gone up, I’m now getting told I can no longer use my site this way and must sign up for a cloud storage like Box, DropBox, Hightail, Google Drive etc. to send files. The biggest thing I’ve found over the years is that clients want their file to play right away (stream) in their browser. Asking many of these folks to download a file, find where that file downloaded to and then figure out how to play it has proved to be a serious issue in the past especially with studio execs. Is there any of these that allow the file you have sent to stream and play without recompressing the file in browser? Thanks!
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21 Replies
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Hi Bryan,
The simplest would be Youtube/Vimeo which all support private links, and best of all, they are free, and you can easily embed them on your site if you want without using your bandwidth for viewing.
There are also some cool options with ProofHQ. It allows clients to leave comments at specific times in your video, and to draw/highlight over the video.
Vince Becquiot
San Francisco Bay Area
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Thanks Vince…
My hosting company is fine with the clips on my website for my reels etc. and my traffic, they don’t want me hosting cuts to shows and bigger files anymore. Problem with Vimeo / Youtube: First off, they recompress an already compressed file. I need to be able to send out a quicktime link that maintains the exact quality as what I’m sending. This way if I’m sending out a 20 minute long cut to a show, I could be uploading a much smaller file that’s already been compressed than say one that was maximized for Vimeo streaming. Second, bigger clients strongly frown on youtube and Vimeo. They just don’t appear professional. Finally, lots of times I need to keep things frame accurate to say 23.98 if someone is pulling a file into ProTools or a color session. Again because Vimeo / Youtube recompress your files, this would be very problematic.
EDITOR
Features : Television : Commercial
http://www.BryanRobertsEditor.com -
You could pay for a Vimeo subscription which would remove all branding and allow you to embed the file in your site pretty seamlessly, the frame rate should stay the same as uploaded. It also allows the client to download the original file if you choose to let them do so. No matter what, all third party services that I know of will recompress the content for preview since it has to be encoded to work with whatever particular player they are using and minimize server load.
You could also host your videos on Amazon AWS or similar cloud storage and stream on your site. It’s would likely be cheaper than upgrading to a dedicated server since they only charge for usage.
Vince Becquiot
San Francisco Bay Area
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Hey Bryan,
[Bryan Roberts] “Well as my work load has increased over the years and file quality gone up / file sizes gone up, I’m now getting told I can no longer use my site this way and must sign up for a cloud storage like Box, DropBox, Hightail, Google Drive etc. to send files. The biggest thing I’ve found over the years is that clients want their file to play right away (stream) in their browser.”
I haven’t tried the new service yet, but I am a long-time user of Hightail (Yousendit) and they are trying their best to give this a go:
https://hightailspaces.com/A short User guide video can be found here: https://vimeo.com/129725644
My only objection to it, is that I can’t find any pricing information before signing up for the trial.
Alternatively I would suggest looking again at Google Drive and see if Google hang-out spaces can do what you want it to do – although the danger there is, that the client might expect you to be working 25 hours a day…
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.ukSome contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Vimeo framework” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
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We’ve started using Wistia. Even the free version has a lot of features. You can download the original file, or numerous compressed versions if you so choose.
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Thanks guys, these all look very interesting.
I ran a test with DropBox just to make sure it wouldn’t work for me as their pricing along with Google Drive is very enticing. So I uploaded a cut to Dropbox and just wanted to send a share link and sent one to my wife’s Macbook Air which she hasn’t used Dropbox on. Sure enough I ran into lots of annoyances that kill Dropbox for me. First off, they present you with a screen that appears like you must sign up just to watch the files. Execs would despise that. Second, after realizing I could x the box and still access the file, I clicked the play icon in the middle of the frame grab to have it preview play in my browser (I wanted to see how their conversion looked). Sure enough, my wife’s macbook air has flash autoblocked on all new sites. Click that pop up window to tell it to allow and remember… then sure enough, the video still wont play. I refresh the page and then even try re-clicking the link and it STILL won’t play. This is exactly why Dropbox doesn’t work for lots of video editors, it makes you jump through SO many hoops just to send a file share link to a client to watch. On the other hand, I did the same test with Google Drive and the link I sent opened right up on the Macbook air. No google branding, just a dark grey screen with the video preview and a download link option at the top. Their conversion was ok, not perfect but not offensive. The BIG thing I wish Google Drive had which almost all these other services seem to easily implement is password protection for a folder or file.
Frame.io looks awesome, love the hoverscrub ala Premiere over the preview windows, version comparison seems cool. It is pricier than Dropbox or Google Drive at $25/mo for the plan I’d need (over twice the cost for 1/20th the space) and since I’m a lone freelancer, $10/mo is pretty enticing for 1TB.
Hightail Spaces looks very cool also. The thing that scares me off of HighTail is I’ve been hearing more and more horror stories of slow client download speeds. I’m only assuming they’re using their same servers for the two services so I worry the same issues would apply, especially if it’s in Beta as they say on the site.
Hmmm… decisions, decisions. Thanks guys. Lots of amazing options here.
EDITOR
Features : Television : Commercial
http://www.BryanRobertsEditor.com -
Currently my 1TB Dropbox account is hope to a dozen clients.
I am going to try Frame.io with a new client soon. -
Though I haven’t tried it yet, I’m looking closely at GoDaddy Online Storage – it’s only $2.49 per month for 100Gb, with a boatload of cool features including: Video Player, FTP support, iPhone app, etc.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss ProductionsDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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I’ve heard GoDaddy can be slow with upload and download speeds since it’s more value oriented… or perhaps that’s just off base. I don’t have any personal experience with them but yeah, 2.49 a month is pretty sweet. $10/mo I can swing though too. Without 3 kids in tow, I’d jump all over the $25/mo plan at Frameio but with bills and mouths to feed a factor more than ever, I’d like to keep it a lower monthly expense.
I just read the nail in the coffin for Hightail Spaces. On their Vimeo video which has comments under it, it appears people found out that if you send a link to a client who isn’t a member of Hightail Spaces, it requires them to sign up for a free account in order to even view the files. A support member of Hightail Spaces confirms this and makes it sound like this is going to be something permanent that they as a team had already discussed. That does it for me, Hightail Spaces is out.
EDITOR
Features : Television : Commercial
http://www.BryanRobertsEditor.com
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