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KarenB
01-13-2010, 02:10 PM
Hello all,

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question, so please feel free to redirect it to the appropriate area.

I need to send very large video files to my transcription team and have been using Send This File. Unfortunately, this takes so long to do. The rate of transfer (even with a paid account) is at the rate of a snail.

I'm thinking that I need to create an FTP site or something similar for my team to download video files. Am I thinking along the right lines with this?

Any tips or hints would be appreciated!

Karen

billbenson
01-13-2010, 05:12 PM
Certainly one way to do it is upload it to a site via FTP and send the link via email. I find sending files over 4Mb can be problematic. May not make it through the network, users server may reject it, your ISP may restrict the file size of outgoing emails.

Paper Shredder Clay
01-13-2010, 05:38 PM
You might try dropbox.

vangogh
01-14-2010, 10:47 AM
Karen I upped the limit on my email in order to be able to accept larger files. That helps, but doesn't always work.

When it doesn't I upload files to a server, usually the client who needs to download the file. You could upload things to your server and then give out a link for others to download.

You can try Dropbox as Clay suggested. That will likely be the easiest thing, though everyone will need to use Dropbox in order to have access to the files.

nighthawk
01-14-2010, 12:25 PM
FTP is probably your easiest bet, as it is a fairly widely used protocol, and doesnt require signing up for anything or installing additional software (Most browsers support FTP, although a dedicated client is recommended). Additionally, FTP supports file resume, so if you are disconnected halfway through, it should pick up where it left off later. I am not sure how DropBox works, but typically downloads from websites do not support resuming.

When transferring a large file, the limiting factor will always be the upload speed of your connection. On most ADSL lines, the upload speed is only 512kbps, giving a speed of 64kb/s for uploading. The figure often quoted, ie "up to 8mbs" is only your download speed.

As such you might not notice any difference using FTP or any other solution.

Harold Mansfield
01-14-2010, 12:58 PM
I think I have an easy answer. Instead of sending the videos, why not use an already existing video server like You Tube ?

You can start a group and make it so only your group can see your videos with the proper log in credentials. When there is a new video you can send messages to your group alerting them, and then you will also have the ability to easily embed your videos in your website for your group to view there as well.

You are limited to a certain size video, I believe under 10 minutes, but you can upgrade the account.
There are also others like Vimeo...I think a business account there is $50 yearly and I don't think there is the same limit on size. Vimeo is also a better quality.

Just a suggestion.

KarenB
01-20-2010, 11:39 AM
Thanks everyone for your suggestions! You have given me a lot of great ideas to explore.

These MPEG-4 videos are normally about 30 minutes in length and about 250 MB each.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Thanks again,

Karen

vangogh
01-20-2010, 06:50 PM
Karen what did you decide to do? FTP or some other way to transfer files?

Another idea might be Google Wave. I know you can upload and download video files though I'm not sure if there are any size limits.

You can also try using something like Basecamp (http://basecamphq.com/), which is a project collaboration application. It's not free, though. I think there are open source applications that will do much of what Basecamp does, maybe not everything, but probably enough for what you need it to do.

a.singh
02-22-2010, 07:16 AM
You can try Pando.