Sending video by email

williamandrews06 wrote on 1/25/2015, 3:17 PM

Can anyone tell me how to send a short video by email as an attachment? I don't mean Facebook etc. just a family video. I have created an email then attached the video file and it seems to send ok, but the recipient cannot open it on their computer. Does the recipient need anything installed on their computer or is the problem all at my end as the sender? I know there are limits on file size so I tried to send a VERY short video - same result.

Comments

Markus73 wrote on 1/25/2015, 3:24 PM

A video file can be attached and sent by email in the same way as any other file.

Of course the recipient needs a software player that is able to playback that type of video.

I would recommend the VLC Player which is free:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Regards,

Markus

williamandrews06 wrote on 1/25/2015, 4:00 PM

Thanks for your help Markus. It does seem that the problem is at the receiving end so I'll ask them to download the software you suggested. Would a similar problem exist if I tried to send to an iPad or is that a whole different matter? You've probably guessed I'm not very computer literate. Thanks again, William

johnebaker wrote on 1/25/2015, 4:05 PM

Many email clients, such as Outlook, etc drop / lock attachments which are not in their approved list because they are known to be vectors for the transmission of viruses.

This can include video, executables and files containing macros.

If you must send by email then Zip the files up into a zip package using Winzip or 7zip (free) and send this.

Windows 7 and 8 can extract the files from zip packages without the need for additional software.

For larger video files use a site like Dropbox etc.

HTH

John

williamandrews06 wrote on 1/26/2015, 1:09 PM

Hello John, thanks for your reply.It's beginning to look as though I've opened a can of worms here! The effort may not be worth it as I only wanted to send a couple of short videos. I did not realise there were so many factors involved. I had already tried using zip files (with Winzip) but the recipient (on Windows 7) cannot extract the zip packaged files. Is there a certain way to extract the zipped files? It now seems to me that the problem is not so much sending the files but the receipt of them.

Thanks again

johnebaker wrote on 1/27/2015, 8:09 AM

. . . . the recipient (on Windows 7) cannot extract the zip packaged files . . . .

Assuming you are using the default zip settings to compress the files, then the issue is at the recipients end, there is no reason why Win 7 should not extract the video, unless of course they are on a corporate computer which may be crippled by the company security/IT team.

Otherwise the recipient can try using 7Zip (freeware) to extract the video.

HTH

John

williamandrews06 wrote on 2/1/2015, 9:21 AM

Hello John, I've found out that the recipient is actually on Windows 8, not 7. It is not a corporate computer. They still cannot download my video which I did compress on the default Winzip settings.I'll try to get them to use 7zip. The video I was going to send is an unimportant one, I was using it as an experiment (which failed) as an alternative to giving them a DVD, but they ALSO sometimes fail to play on different people's players. Now there's another problem!

Bill