Where can I host a 1.5 gig file inexpensively?

[Stephen Pruitt]

Hi all. . .

I have the first eight minutes of our feature completed (all shot on the RED) and would like to find somewhere to host it reasonably inexpensively for download by interested parties and potential investors.

The file is a 720p H.264 compression of our 2K file.

I certainly don't want to break the bank, but I also don't want the film to look lousy, either.

Any thoughts?

Stephen

[Justin Kirchhoff]

Hey Stephen,

Try going to Dreamhost.com. They host my website and do an excellent job and aren't too crazy expensive, especially for what they have to offer.

[Ed Watkins]

Hi all. . .

I have the first eight minutes of our feature completed (all shot on the RED) and would like to find somewhere to host it reasonably inexpensively for download by interested parties and potential investors.

The file is a 720p H.264 compression of our 2K file.

I certainly don't want to break the bank, but I also don't want the film to look lousy, either.

Any thoughts?

Stephen

How many people do you expect to view it?
Dreamhost is great, but even they have bandwidth limits (although they say they don't.. but I reached them a couple of times) you might consider setting the file up as a bittorrent, to spread the download. Try a client like vuze ( www.vuze.com ), which is designed for HD video distribution.

[Priyesh P.]

How many people do you expect to view it?
Dreamhost is great, but even they have bandwidth limits (although they say they don't.. but I reached them a couple of times) you might consider setting the file up as a bittorrent, to spread the download. Try a client like vuze ( www.vuze.com ), which is designed for HD video distribution.

Don`t you think it could be too much asking people to install torrent-software?

[Ed Watkins]

He asked for some options.. that is one of them. It is also free.

[JoshBertrand]

Amazon S3 is definitely the best for reliable (pretty good, not stellar) bandwidth and you only pay based on the bandwidth used monthly.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261

[Martin Weiss]

I don't really see investors downloading a 1.5 gig file. Why not compress it with say .h264 and get it down to a more webfriendly size?

If an investor is really interested, you could always send them a DVD-R for full quality.

[Stephen Pruitt]

My file IS an H.264 compression. . . took it down to 720p from the 2K "finish." And that 1.3gig is what eight minutes takes at 1280x720.

I will be passing on DVDs with the file burned on them (but not DVD material.. . I hate SD these days) for some, but others might be interested in following along from afar. But you're right. . . probably very few people will download it.

I guess I was just looking for as much quality as most folks care for at this point.

I loaded it up on Google, and it said it loaded, but I can't find it. I wonder if it has to be approved or something. I'm now trying VUZE, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks very much.

Stephen

[Martin Weiss]

Hmmm... I would try different compression settings.

For quick conversions, I can recommend VisualHub (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21888/visualhub). Just drag, chose your file-format, preview, run, done.

[Martin Weiss]

P.S: As host I can recommend mediatemple (httP://mediatemple.net)

[Joel Kaye]

My file IS an H.264 compression. . . took it down to 720p from the 2K "finish." And that 1.3gig is what eight minutes takes at 1280x720.

Seems a little big though. For reference, an IronMan 720P clip is about 50meg per minute. So your clip should probably still look good around 600MB at 720P.

[Priyesh P.]

He asked for some options.. that is one of them. It is also free.

Hey Ed, it wasn`t meant to be offensive, I was just wondering. Even people who just want stuff for free are too lazy to do more than a click. At least I am hesitant when I`ve to install apps in order to check something out - especially when it`s a one-timer.

[Priyesh P.]

In my opinion I`d downscale it to SD and only distribute the HD-version via DVD, especially if you can`t afford a proper server. I`m mainly using my small laptop to watch things on the net and playback starts stuttering really hard on vimeo HD-clips - maybe your potential investors are in the same situation, at least a lot of people I know use macbooks and tiny sony vaios to watch and review things. So maybe you`re better on with lower res anyways.

[Scott M]

My file IS an H.264 compression. . . took it down to 720p from the 2K "finish." And that 1.3gig is what eight minutes takes at 1280x720.

Yeah, that's too big of a file size for 720P, see this thread for the standard bitrates that most HD trailers on the Quicktime Trailer site are compressed to which are plenty good for web viewing: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7802

By my calculation it shouldn't be too much bigger than 200MB if you use between 4000kbits/sec and 6000kbits/sec, my Afghanistan presentation clip is 6.5min and weighs in at 155mb at 720P at 1280x640 2:1

[Joe Carney]

drop.io, 10 gigs for 10 dollars a year, you can setup torrent, email, rss...to distribute the file.
drop.io offers 100meg for free.

[Stephen Pruitt]

Boy, talk about making me feel like an idiot!

I managed to successfully upload my first 8 minutes of footage to Vuze, but I can't play it! However, 26 other people have done so, which makes me feel all the dumber!

The one thing I do know is that this file, which I sent in as 1.3 gigs, has somehow been compressed down to 87 meg. I suspect that the quality really suffers. (However, one person voted and that person gave us a "10". . . so I guess it can't look too bad. And, no, it wasn't anyone of us. . . :-)

Here is the link:

http://www.vuze.com/details/DCVVZATILCCCFCTV6WTBS7R6LBOI36FE.html?a=SALL&cat=X&ch=X&cs=X&ct=X&page=Scontent%2FBucketSearch&pb=X&pg=1&pr=X&s=SWorks+in+Progress&st=SRELEVANCE&t=X&vt=1

Another question. For some strange, when I play my 720p 1.3 gig file, all works perfectly, but when I used compressor to compress it again, I got a lot of stutter in tracking and moving shots. Is there some way to keep this from happening?

Thanks very much.

Stephen

[Stephen Pruitt]

I finally figured out how to play the Vuze file. But I'd still like to know if there is any way to compress something and not get such stutters on the pans and tracking shots.

Stephen

[Michael Schrengohst]

?
I would set-up a website and upload an H.264 and WMV trailer if you really want people to watch this. I have never been able to get VUZE to work and I just don't like it.

[Harva Raj]

you can try filedropper. up to 5Gb. you need to be a member to use it (duh). but i don't know if you have to pay to use it or not. i highly recommend trying it because it was on digg front page. link below:

http://www.filedropper.com/


(watch on vuze download the full quality file on filedropper,that kind of solution)

[Michael Schrengohst]

I don't understand how an 8 min file can be 1.5 gig if it is h.264.
1080p Trailers on Apple are 2-3 min and are only about 180 megs on average.
I doubt many people with have enough patience to download a
1.5 gig file.

[Harva Raj]

i heard apple is using some other method in compressor to make the trailers look soooo good. every trailer is unique and needs different settings and tweaking. i 'think' apple is using different 'version' of compressor. its tool of the their trade, so i 'think' they don't give up the secret.

[Scott M]

i heard apple is using some other method in compressor to make the trailers look soooo good. every trailer is unique and needs different settings and tweaking. i 'think' apple is using different 'version' of compressor. its tool of the their trade, so i 'think' they don't give up the secret.

I'm pretty sure it's just using the appropriate compressor settings at the same bitrates they do, try these (http://glorycubed.com/compressor/compressor.zip) (compressor settings for 720P and 1080P 2:1 as well as 2:1 > 16x9 padded/letterboxed). Occasionally they will be a few hundred kb off (Indiana Jones 720P trailer was 6800kb/sec for instance) but that's the average settings I've noted.