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I don't use this so I don't know much about it but a friend of mine wants to send some small video of her grandaughter to her son. We have tried AIM, Live messenger etc. but it is really slow and it stops after a couple of minutes and says an error has occured. They are about 167mb each. As I said I don't know much about this so can anyone tell me if these are too large to send? If so, what does she do? How can we send these to her son? Thanks.

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Dani AI

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Short addendum that builds on what , @Stein and started: 167 MB is large for real-time IM transfers, which often time out or do not support resume. Two practical, reliable approaches are (A) upload the original file to a cloud/transfer service and share a link, or (B) re-encode to a smaller file before sending so upload and download are faster and preservation of quality is tuned.

Cloud/transfer services: use a modern cloud drive so the recipient can stream or download the file rather than relying on an IM push. Services like Google Drive or one-shot transfer sites let you upload and then send a single link; set the sharing permission to restrict access or add a password if privacy is a concern. For quick one-off delivery use a transfer service that gives a temporary link.

Re-encode to reduce size first if bandwidth or storage is limited. HandBrake is an easy GUI tool for re-encoding to H.264/H.265 with presets and quality controls (see HandBrake). For command-line control use FFmpeg; a typical starting command to re-encode and reduce size is:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 23 -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4

Lower the -crf number for higher quality/larger file, raise it (e.g. 24-28) for smaller files. Test one short clip to find an acceptable quality/size balance.

Troubleshooting and tips: retry uploads on a wired connection, split the file into parts only if the recipient cannot accept a single file, and verify playback before sending. For private family videos avoid publicly indexed uploads—use link-sharing with restricted access or a service that supports password-protected transfers. If uploads still fail, using a removable drive or local transfer can be the simplest, most reliable option.

HandBrake: https://handbrake.fr
FFmpeg: https://ffmpeg.org
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com
WeTransfer (one-off transfers): https://wetransfer.com

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Member Avatar for hbk619

what format is it in? you might be able to open it in movie maker, (deselect auto clip creating before doing that, either in options or the import window, depending on version) and put it on the timeline, then save movie

that should hopefully make it a smaller file (if you have the old version, could take it down as far as 30megs).

or, try upload it, and send the link to your fried son, and he can DL it from there.

Member Avatar for 'Stein

I would second the MegaUpload site. It works very well.

Member Avatar for zelkea

what format is it in? you might be able to open it in movie maker, (deselect auto clip creating before doing that, either in options or the import window, depending on version) and put it on the timeline, then save movie

that should hopefully make it a smaller file (if you have the old version, could take it down as far as 30megs).

or, try upload it, and send the link to your fried son, and he can DL it from there.

Sweet site thanks hbk!!!

Member Avatar for hbk619

no problem :)

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