Large File Transfer Blog

Online file transfer - another one bites the dust

The news has been flying about all over the Internet: social media giant Facebook has bought out file sharing service Drop.io.

For those who don't know, Drop.io took an unusual approach to sending large files by allowing users to create temporary "mini-drop-boxes". There were no other features - just the ability to anonymously share files for a brief period of time.

According to TechCrunch.com, the social media moguls have bought not only Drop.io's technology, but their talent: CEO Sam Lessin (and perhaps others) will be moving out to Palo Alto, California to join the Facebook team.

The company's incipient demise (non-paid accounts have already been shut down, and paid accounts will be closed on December 15, 2010) sends an interesting message to the rest of the file-sharing industry: Facebook is planning to add online file transfer to their service offerings.

This may or may not be a good thing, depending on one's point of view. Facebook has 2 main strengths that they can apply to the field that most online file transfer services cannot:

1. Massive traffic, and

2. Massive capital to spend on application development.

If they do go ahead and implement a technology similar to Drop.io's, and integrate it fully into their service, it would probably mean the demise of many of the current companies in the field - especially the new, smaller start-ups with little to offer besides sending files too big for email.

If the services that let users transfer big files wish to survive, they are going to have to "go the extra mile", and offer more than ad-serviced large file transfer.

(Photo credit)

What sort of value-add features should users look for in a big files transfer service?

1. The ability to receive large files: only a few of these companies let their users receive files from those without accounts, and they usually charge for the privilege.

2. Storage: while many users are only interested in sending large files, many more (especially businesses) are also looking for the ability to store files online - allowing them not only to collaborate but preserve valuable data.

3. Robust tracking: of special value to corporate users (from any size business), the ability to track uploads and downloads is a must - especially if multiple users in separate locations share one account.

FilesDIRECT (of course) offers all these features, and more, for free with all accounts:

1. Free customizable upload and download pages ("dropboxes"). Now your clients can upload files to your personal page - or download files from a set of private files you send them a link to.

2. Paid accounts start with a whopping 10GB of free storage - and it only goes up from there.

3. Tracking: live tracking of what files have been uploaded and downloaded, when and by whom.

There are many more features and our development team is always working on more...while fly-by-night "free" operations should be worried about the news out of Brooklyn, we know that FilesDIRECT will still be around for a long time to come.

Video And Email Attachments: Forget It

If you've never tried to send a large video clip across the Internet via email attachment, let me save you the trouble -- don't bother.  Email wasn't designed to haul around large multimedia objects like video and that weakness still shows even at this late date.

(Photo: Brankomaster)

The problems are:

The File Probably Won't Get There

Video files are big by nature, and with the proliferation of cameras on laptops more video clips than ever are being created.  Sharing these clips is key to business in a lot of cases, just like it is for PDFs, photos (JPEGs and GIFs) word processing and spreadsheet documents and all kinds of data types.  The problem is that video clips are larger (contain more data) by far than any of these kinds of files.  When you send a file using email, the sending program doesn't check with the receiving program if the attached file is too large to make it over, and with video, most of the time it is too large!   So what happens is the email is sent - and bounces back with "attachment too large".  But sometimes, much worse than that, the second big problem with video email happens:

The Attached Video Didn't Get There And You Don't Know It

The way email works means that a message with a big video file attachment probably won't get where you're sending it, which is bad enough.  What's worse is: you might not even know it didn't get there.  When email fails, you get a bounce message, but maybe not right away, and maybe not at all.  Plus, it's very common that the email makes it over but the attachment is prevented from coming over -- and you are never told!  That's no way to conduct business.

The Solution: Files Direct

Because Files Direct doesn't rely on email, any video attachment up to 2GB will make it to its destination!  Just send the file and an email confirmation to you and to the recipient appears immediately, taking the mystery and unreliability out of video file delivery across the Internet.

Receive and Send Large Image Files

 

(Photo: Herkie)

With the ability to upload, send, and store large files online in just one click, FilesDIRECT is the perfect solution for any print or design company looking to transfer large image files. Unlike FTP, FilesDIRECT doesn't require downloading any programs or worrying about setting up any servers - everything is done through your browser and can be used on any operating system.

You avoid couriering cd's back and forth, saving you and your clients time, money and frustration.

FilesDIRECT also uses SSL encryption so that you'll never have to worry about your files getting in the wrong hands. With a variety plans to choose from, FilesDIRECT is the most affordable site for anyone needing to email large images or any other type of media file.

Try FilesDIRECT free for 30 days and start sending your files today!

Transfer Large Media Files From Anywhere

Gary Shaw is a television writer in Los Angeles. Without FilesDIRECT, he couldn't get his job done.

"I write scripts for animation shows - cartoons for kids and adults," says Gary. "I'm on a team with the animators, the voice talent, the producers of the show and the network airing the show. That means there are four places video clips have to move every time something is changed or added to any episode of any of the shows I write."

Gary uses FilesDIRECT to download the video clips as well as clips of audio and video from the show's producers containing changes they need made to the show.

"A single episode runs 11 minutes, with two episodes per show. There could be twenty or thirty changes during production time. None of us works in the same office, so we rely on FilesDIRECT to get our video to where it needs to go at the right time." Gary says "With so many people in the loop - animators, producers, voice talent, interns, network execs, - it's incredibly easy to get mixed up with the wrong video file being sent to the wrong place at the wrong time."

FilesDIRECT takes the guesswork out of the process by reducing the complicated process of large file uploads down to simple emails containing links, which keeps the laughs coming on your TV or computer screen.

"It's true that the further you get away from the front line of production, more toward the network offices or producers' offices, the more you need your tools to be simple and easy to use. Without FilesDIRECT, I can only imagine what kind of nightmare we'd be facing every day."

Replace Unreliable IT Resources With FilesDIRECT

You know how it can be with enterprise IT departments sometimes. Maybe it's a case of the grass always being greener on the other side, but trying to get large-file work done seems tougher than it should be no matter where you work.

Independent or small-company media producers look with envy at the big companies with their large IT staffs who make technical problems go away. Yet the reality inside these large firms can be very different: a corporate media department is often saddled with legacy systems that are set up for smaller files and more generalized business use. Having IT keep a shared drive available for internal use can be a challenge - and just try getting one made available to the internet through the corporate firewall in less than a few weeks time - if you can even break through the political firewall!

Meanwhile, media staff at big corporate outfits look with envy at their small-company or independent counterparts and imagine they can quickly put up any shared drive service they want as fast as they need it. But the reality there is also troublesome. Many small operations use web hosting for FTP services, and we all know how much of a hassle FTP is.

The best files transfer solution for large and small business is FilesDIRECT. Big-company media shops can punch through the corporate firewall using a plain old web service and email - two things their IT department can't complain about. And small service providers can get the job done with nothing more than web and email - no FTP hassles. Truly, FilesDIRECT is the best of both worlds!

FilesDIRECT Customer Success Story

Jenny's a Producer at a boutique advertising agency in St. Louis. The company is small but the clients aren't - major national retail and restaurant chains depend on her work for TV commercials and viral videos on the web. Without FilesDIRECT, her whole job would grind to a halt.

For one thing, the video files wouldn't get where they needed to go without FilesDIRECT.

"I use three video editors, one of whom sits across from me, but the other two are in Chicago and Minneapolis," says Jenny. "I can have five or six different projects cooking at any one time, so there's raw video footage flying all over the place. Files Direct is the easiest way to be sure that the editors get the footage they need to finish the clips."

What goes out must come back, so Jenny's editors ship back their cuts to the home base using FilesDIRECT the same way.

"Then our client needs to see the cuts, give notes and approve. They even will add graphics and send back, so their involvement is hands-on. The last thing I want to do is make things difficult for them with technical glitches. We just need the file transfers to work. Files Direct makes that happen - every time."

Disadvantages of Sending Large Files via FTP

Let's say you're working on a video project. You've edited some video and you've parked it at an FTP server so that your client can download and view it. You need the client's notes to proceed and time is of the essence. But the clock is ticking and the deadline is approaching while you wait for the client. A quick phone call to their office discovers the problem: the client's assistant is having a hard time with the FTP download program. Sometimes it doesn't connect to the server. When it does connect, he has to navigate to the right folder. And once he does that, he has to figure out how to move the file along to his boss.

Meanwhile, your costs just increased because your editors are on overtime while this drama plays out.

Headache! Delay! Expense!

Why ever mess with FTP when FilesDIRECT uses the power of email notifications along with the ease of linked downloads? Put your video and other large files directly into your client's email boxes - no navigating, no playing with servers. No room for error. They click on a link and the file starts downloading. Cost-effective, easy to use and tailored for business - that's FilesDIRECT.

Video And Email Attachments: Forget It

If you've never tried to send a large video clip across the Internet via email attachment, let me save you the trouble -- don't bother.  Email wasn't designed to haul around large multimedia objects like video and that weakness still shows even at this late date.  The problems are:

The File Probably Won't Get There

Video files are big by nature, and with the proliferation of cameras on laptops more video clips than ever are being created.  Sharing these clips is key to business in a lot of cases, just like it is for PDFs, photos (JPEGs and GIFs) word processing and spreadsheet documents and all kinds of data types.  The problem is that video clips are larger (contain more data) by far than any of these kinds of files.  When you send a file using email, the sending program doesn't check with the receiving program if the attached file is too large to make it over, and with video, most of the time it is too large!   So what happens is the email is sent - and bounces back with "attachment too large".  But sometimes, much worse than that, the second big problem with video email happens:

The Attached Video Didn't Get There And You Don't Know It

The way email works means that a message with a big video file attachment probably won't get where you're sending it, which is bad enough.  What's worse is: you might not even know it didn't get there.  When email fails, you get a bounce message, but maybe not right away, and maybe not at all.  Plus, it's very common that the email makes it over but the attachment is prevented from coming over -- and you are never told!  That's no way to conduct business.

The Solution: Files Direct

Because Files Direct doesn't rely on email, any video attachment up to 2GB will make it to its destination!  Send along the file and an email confirmation to you and to the recipient appears immediately, taking the mystery and unreliability out of video file delivery across the Internet.

Media File Types Explained

The work you do creates big files. The work we do moves them to where you need them to go. But what do we know about these files? Why are they so big? What's in their name?

1. VOB: When you see the filename extension VOB, you're looking at a file that came from a DVD. They're commonly big, often 1GB. The format name stands for "Video Object", because VOBs contain the video part of a DVD. And as we know from watching DVDs, they usually have the highest quality of all digital video. More quality means more data, means larger file size.

2. ZIP: Named for the PKZIP file format developed in the 1980s, the ZIP file is an archiving and data compression format. When you see a ZIP file, you're usually seeing a collection of files that have been "zipped" into one large file. And they can get big. Photo collections commonly run in ZIP files.

3. MOV: This is another video file format, commonly of less visual quality than a VOB file. It's also called a "QuickTime" file, because it was created with Apple's video program QuickTime. MOV files can become very large depending on their purpose. If they're meant for high-quality playback, they can reach to nearly a GB (gigabyte) in size.

4. AVI: A Microsoft video file format, the name stands for Audio Video Interleave. Developed in the middle 1990s, the early standards for computer video used video and audio as separate parts, interleaving them together at playback. AVI was one of the earliest formats to combine both data types into one file. Generally of lower visual quality than MOV, a five-minute AVI will generally be smaller than a five-minute MOV.

5.WAV/AIFF: Audio files. WAV stands for Waveform Audio Format and AIFF for Audio Interchange File Format. These file types are much more similar to each other than is commonly found in the media file universe. They both encode audio in nearly the same way (the encoding technique is called PCM) and so tend to be of the same size for their running times. No top-end limit means these files can run to many hundreds of megabytes.