dropbox
I've a Dropbox Plus account. I want to host some videos and share a Dropbox link for 3rd parties to be able to view them.
I've noticed when I view the videos using the Dropbox link the quality is quite poor, compared with the original video file.
I guess they reduce the streaming quality to limit bandwidth, which I would expect on a free plan, but not on the paid plan.
Is there a way to prevent the video quality being lowered?
There doesn't seem to be a way to do this at the time. Using Windows shortcuts is one possibility to make it as though the files are located in the same folders, however, it seems like it would get a bit complicated if there are a lot of folders.
There is a feature request for this exact issue, which you can vote on.
Other features you may want to look for is the ability to watch any folder, which you might be able to use in conjunction with your file system to create a limited set of folders to sync. Another one that might help is excluding certain file extensions, this would help if all the large files are of the same type (e.g. .exe, .avi, etc.).
Your referrer can see your email associated with the account in the history of bonus space (requires login to your account).
Best Answer
According to the official Dropbox support forum, they transcode different versions of your video when you upload a file and decide on which quality to serve depending on your Internet connection. However, it seems that even with a high-speed connection, the video is downsampled and the official stance is that Dropbox isn't a video sharing service, but a file syncing service, even for Plus accounts. I'd host the file on Vimeo or YouTube via a private link as an alternative to Dropbox.