Sending Video files over the net.

[NickD 202]

Did have a TV video card in my computer that let me record cam conversations with my fiancée, but were choppy and taking up tons of HD space, so just captured a couple of stills and deleted the rest. Ha, my wife teases me about suing me for doing that.

So, now with a grandchild, she would like to send videos of her holding our granddaughter, what a mess. Didn't take to realized that just about every camera uses a different format, but think, AVI is the most standard. Nevertheless, can spend even more bucks with software to change one format to another, what ever happened to standardization? Going nuts with Windows Media with MPG's, read that version 10 did not have problems, eleven created problems with XP, so tried to go back to 10. Get on the Microsoft site, use their round about technique to roll back to version 6, tried to install 10 that is listed for XP, window says it's not compatible. But 11 works fine with Vista, thing is, my wife's family does not have Vista. We get the picture, but no sound, 11 tells me I need a codex, leads me to a site, all free until you download and install them, then want a credit card. AVI works fine, will just use a camera that has AVI.

Practically any e-mail service we have limits the file size to 10 MB, and setting the camera to the lowest resolution gives us a whole 14 seconds maximum to reach that limit. Really not much you can do with that, I haven't gotten into video editing yet, something else to learn, especially when trying to record a six month old baby.

I did recall that I had webspace with an FTP program, but haven't used that in years, I tried to upload a 360 MB file, but it died, recall having 1 GB of space for large files, we could just e-mail the link using a standard format most Media versions would reproduce. I played with it for awhile and had problem after problem so contacted my server, after going around in circles for awhile, learned their users name and password only works with IE, I was using FireFox that kept on giving me 530 errors, switching to IE with my anti-virus windown flashing blocking ####### solved that problem. Finally could set it up with a working username and password.

So tried it and still failed, and finally asked the question, how much space do I have? No longer 1 GB, but now 20 MB is the limit, can I get more, don't know, have to call tech service. But 20 MB will give us 28 seconds, wow!

I did hear of sites you can upload to, anybody have experience with these? I am so backwards on this subject, don't even know how to post pictures on this site, outside of photos on the web with links, everybody is doing that, and over and over again, how much HD space does this site have?

Really would like to avoid videos, confused enough.

[Niels Bohr 72]

You can use Firefox, and add-on an app that allows you to upload to a google account. However, Google storage is limited to 8 GB. If you want larger storage, you need to use a paying online storage site such as GeekSquad Online Data Backup, etc...

[stangguy 0]

There is a free video converison software called Super Super-Video Conversion Software, that uses existing video codecs on your computer and is limited to those on your computer but has a variety of options for format and sizing. I have used it to convert 5 minutes of video at around 50mb in .WMV format down to about 10 to 20 mb in .MOV format, in order to email to my wife and also compress 1.5gb version of a full length movie down to about 700mb for a VCD. Most standard uncompressed AVI is about 1gb for 5min at 640x480 resolution.

[Niels Bohr 72]

There is a free video converison software called Super Super-Video Conversion Software, that uses existing video codecs on your computer and is limited to those on your computer but has a variety of options for format and sizing. I have used it to convert 5 minutes of video at around 50mb in .WMV format down to about 10 to 20 mb in .MOV format, in order to email to my wife and also compress 1.5gb version of a full length movie down to about 700mb for a VCD. Most standard uncompressed AVI is about 1gb for 5min at 640x480 resolution.

You gave me an idea as well.

NickD, you can use file splitter software the split the files into multiple chunks. This way you can email the files in multiple chunks. At the destination, the user can run the file splitter software to combine those files to the original size.

The one I use is WinRar.

[DeadPoolX 9]

If you're looking to convert video file formats, try Koyote Soft's Free Video Converter 2.0. It includes all video formats and works wonders.

If you're like to host videos for others to see, I'd recommend YouTube. Granted, the standard video quality isn't exactly fantastic, but you can opt for HQ (high quality) videos. You can also restrict access to your YouTube account, so only those you allow can view your videos.

In the event someone wishes to download a video from YouTube, your best bet is to acquire the Video DownloadHelper add-on for Firefox. That will allow you to download any video off any site. When dealing with YouTube, however, the file will download as an FLV. When this occurs, you have two options. One is to download an FLV Player which is free to use or use the Free Video Converter I linked to in the first paragraph to convert the FLV to an AVI, WMV or MOV.

This is also an easy way to get music. Simply go to YouTube, download the music video and convert the FLV to an MP3. It's as easy as that.

Other than that, you'll definitely need to purchase space and upload the files yourself. You'll also need plenty of bandwidth when dealing with video and if your intended audience watches it several times.

Edited April 8, 2009 by Sentinel

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Did have a TV video card in my computer that let me record cam conversations with my fiancée, but were choppy and taking up tons of HD space, so just captured a couple of stills and deleted the rest. Ha, my wife teases me about suing me for doing that.

So, now with a grandchild, she would like to send videos of her holding our granddaughter, what a mess. Didn't take to realized that just about every camera uses a different format, but think, AVI is the most standard. Nevertheless, can spend even more bucks with software to change one format to another, what ever happened to standardization? Going nuts with Windows Media with MPG's, read that version 10 did not have problems, eleven created problems with XP, so tried to go back to 10. Get on the Microsoft site, use their round about technique to roll back to version 6, tried to install 10 that is listed for XP, window says it's not compatible. But 11 works fine with Vista, thing is, my wife's family does not have Vista. We get the picture, but no sound, 11 tells me I need a codex, leads me to a site, all free until you download and install them, then want a credit card. AVI works fine, will just use a camera that has AVI.

Practically any e-mail service we have limits the file size to 10 MB, and setting the camera to the lowest resolution gives us a whole 14 seconds maximum to reach that limit. Really not much you can do with that, I haven't gotten into video editing yet, something else to learn, especially when trying to record a six month old baby.

I did recall that I had webspace with an FTP program, but haven't used that in years, I tried to upload a 360 MB file, but it died, recall having 1 GB of space for large files, we could just e-mail the link using a standard format most Media versions would reproduce. I played with it for awhile and had problem after problem so contacted my server, after going around in circles for awhile, learned their users name and password only works with IE, I was using FireFox that kept on giving me 530 errors, switching to IE with my anti-virus windown flashing blocking ####### solved that problem. Finally could set it up with a working username and password.

So tried it and still failed, and finally asked the question, how much space do I have? No longer 1 GB, but now 20 MB is the limit, can I get more, don't know, have to call tech service. But 20 MB will give us 28 seconds, wow!

I did hear of sites you can upload to, anybody have experience with these? I am so backwards on this subject, don't even know how to post pictures on this site, outside of photos on the web with links, everybody is doing that, and over and over again, how much HD space does this site have?

Really would like to avoid videos, confused enough.

Microsoft offers 25 gig of storage space on their SkyDrive system. Just need a live account.

With the other programs above to condense your files, you can use that storage space to allow your family/friends to access it.

SkyDrive

[Dakine 26]

Youtube!

[NickD 202]

Looks like google is going to stop uploading, but SkyDrive is cool, and wife is already set up for it with MSN messenger, I just didn't know about that, and up to 25 GB, would have been happy with 500 MB.

Playing with those two converters, thank you for the links. And for some strange reason Media 11 for XP is working on my computer today playing both the video and audio, before, just the video, no audio with MPG files. Jesus or somebody must have fixed my computer last night when I was sleeping.

Terribly proud of my six month old granddaughter, super smart. Wife and I babysat her last Sunday, and I did get to hold her because my wife couldn't hold it any longer and had to use the restroom, LOL. So I sat her on my lap on my piano bench, she has never seen a piano before in her life, and I didn't touch a thing, but she knew to bang on the white and black keys, then started to experiment as each key has a different pitch. I was astounded about that, should try her on a computer keyboard next. Wife was recording all of this. Then she took her grandaughter back.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.freedrive.com/index.php

[NickD 202]

http://www.freedrive.com/index.php

MSN seems the best so far with a 50 MB limit per file, freedrive is limited to 20 MB per file and not really free if you have to pay 50 bucks per year to get a little more file size space, and google is posting they are dropping that service.

Had one 75 MB file, really got lost using eRightSoft\SUPER, so many combinations and if not done correctly, get an unreadable file, but haven't given up on it yet. Had more success with Free Video Converter, that KB per second window at the lower right corner after several tries finally reduced the file size, had to use 1090 KB/sec to reach the SkyDriver limit, but still not a bad video, that had more effect on reducing the file size than anything else. Ha, hit the wrong buttons, and that 75 MB file became a 400 MB file.

Maybe the easiest thing to do, is to set the camera to the lowest possible resolution and use a stop watch for the best quality. It took a very long time to upload these videos to SkyDrive. My wife's sister and mother got to see these videos last night, made them happy.

With still photos, resample my 2.4 MB files to a 7" width and 100 DPI, still very clear, but reduces them down to a more reasonable 75 KB, so can send a bunch of those, but feel I have a lot to learn with videos.

I thank you for the tips.

Am on a high speed internet with a 3.2 GHz box, but with videos, reminded me of having an 8086 with a 300 BPS phone modem.