Has anybody used Drop Box?

geek84

Hi Folks

Has anybody used Drop Box?

If so, could you please explain how I can copy a video recorded on a DVD onto the Drop Box website / folder?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

victor2

First of all, unless you have upgraded from the free account, you probably don't have enough storage space.
Then consider how big the video file is going to be and how long that would take to upload on your broadband connection. Use something like speedtest.net to check what your upload speed is.
You will probably need to convert the video to a file you can upload, such as an avi or wmv file. There is a selection of freeware can do that for you, but depending on the length of the video, you are quite possibly looking at gigabyte sized files.

If all that looks OK, try sharing a single file, such as a jpg image via dropbox. It's fairly simple, but if you struggle you will find help on here. Only when you've done that would I consider sharing a video.

geek84

Thanks victor2

I hope you don't mind me contacting you again, should I need more help?

victor2

geek84 wrote: »

I hope you don't mind me contacting you again, should I need more help?

No problem. There's no shortage of people on here prepared to offer assistance or suggestions...

cookie365

You might be better off with Google Drive, it has much more space.

I use Drive for long term cloud storage, and Dropbox for more short term sharing of small files.

Also have a look at Sugarsync which is similar and has more space with the free account.

esuhl

Dropbox is great. If you install it, you get a "Dropbox" folder in your "My Documents" folder (Windows) or user directory (Linux). Then it's as easy as putting the file in that folder, and it'll be automatically uploaded to Dropbox and will be automatically downloaded to any other devices that you have installed Dropbox on.

If you don't want to install Dropbox, you can just upload/download the file via their website.

I wouldn't use Dropbox to store any personal data, though. They've had security problems in the past, and with the files being stored on US servers, they may well be monitored by Big Brother!

The "refer a friend" scheme gives both the referrer and the friend an extra 500MB free space, so feel free to drop me a PM if you'd like me to refer you! :-)

Ant555

As already suggested DropBox is a very useful tool and I use it all the time.

If so, could you please explain how I can copy a video recorded on a DVD onto the Drop Box website / folder?

In answer to your question, once dropbox is set up (dead easy), you simply copy the file or files to the 'My Dropbox' folder that has been created on your PC. This will then get copied to the dropbox cloud - Note that its still on your PC as well.

You can then email someone a link to the file or folder (right click on it - 'share dropbox link') and they can view it in a browser or download it to their computer without having to know your password or see any of your other files - its really nifty.

If you install dropbox on another PC/Mac/Android phone etc then all your files can automatically sync between the devices. This morning I copied some files to dropbox on my home desktop, drove to work and they were already on my work PC dropbox folder.

As already discussed, dropbox gives you 2Gb of free storage when you sign up - no credit card or any payment details are required - which may or may not be enough.

There are lots of ways to get additional/free storage. I think they still give you some if you do simple things like watch the tutorial video.

Note that you don't have to download the dropbox application to your PC if you don't want to as all this can be done by logging on the dropbox web interface - its just that its a little bit trickier with more steps and a bit fiddly if folders are involved.

hope this helps.

geek84

Good Morning Folks

Many thanks indeed for your help.

I just have a few more things to ask -

victor2 - I have a free account. How do I work out how big my video file is, and how much storage space I would need?
How do I convert the DVD to a file that I can upload?

cookie365 - Is Google drive easy to use? How do I put the DVD recording on google drive?

esuhl & ant 555 - I have used drop box for storing photograp[hs. Have you used it to store DVD recordings?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

DKLS

I store a few dvds for work on dropbox average size is 3-4gig per dvd, initially they dont give you much space, but I now have 29gig of free dropbox space after referring a few people, liking them on faceache and linking my phones with my dropbox account.

geek84

Thanks.

But could you explain how I go about storing it in the first place!

Thanks

victor2

geek84 wrote: »

victor2 - I have a free account. How do I work out how big my video file is, and how much storage space I would need?
How do I convert the DVD to a file that I can upload?

Look at a directory of the DVD - you'll probably see one or more files with a VOB extension. If so, you can look at http://www.convertvobtoavi.com/, or just google "convert VOB to AVI". It's been a few years since I did one, but I used convertvobtoavi to get a home video into a format I could edit and distribute.
I seem to remember the avi was very large, but I converted it to mp4 at different resolutions to get a more manageable file. For example, a 10 minute video at a 768 x 576 resolution (with audio) was 75Mb. The quality was not fantastic, but OK for viewing on a PC screen.