C300: corp promo video sending to China from USA

StrobelPhotography

StrobelPhotography

Well-known member
Hi, I just finished a video for a client that wants it sent to china. I warned them that china may block this video file and it would be better to take on a thumb drive but they have ignored the warning. Now they are in china and they want me to help them figure this out. Does anyone have any experience with this? Much thanks!
 
really? oh man that's good news. I used we transfer, I'm just assuming it will fail because of everything that I've read about trying to send video files to china.
 
I lived in China (2013-15) and can tell you.... VPN VPN VPN. Without a VPN, pretty much everything you're familiar with won't work. Dropbox won't work. However, with a working VPN, Dropbox, Youtube, Google, FB..... They'll all work.

I used several VPN providers, but the one that seemed to get through the great firewall most often was PandaPow (https://pandapow.co/). PandaPow also has an Android App that works really well.

Another thing you can try without a VPN is WeChat. It's a China based messaging app (actually, it's the most popular app in China) that allows for video/audio chat, messages, and you can send files..... Install on Android or iOS, then download the PC or Mac version. (You need the Android/iOS to login to the computer based version.) You can then send files to people.

I have no idea if there's a size limit, but assume that anything you send will be scanned by the Chinese authorities. If you aren't sending anything they would object to, and are simply trying to get files there, you should be okay.

Finally, if you host the video files on your own server (you can get a hosting account lots of places for $5/month) then that will probably work as well. Put them in a protected directory, send the link and password, and you should be good to go. The server won't generally be blocked. (Since it sounds like the person receiving needs to download the files, if you wrap the video files in a zip or rar, they won't stream.)

Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to share what I learned living there.

Cheers!
 
Thanks for the info! Unfortunately, I don't have a vpn. I'm going to guess that even if I did they would still have no idea how to receive the file. The file is around 200megs so not sure if wechat would work. Do you think if I uploaded the video to youku, they could download it or even just play it from there?
 
Probably Youku would work, but I imagine the video will be heavily compressed. They need the VPN, not you. VPN software just punches through the firewall so they can access youtube, fb..... They'll be able to sync with Dropbox too. With a VPN, everything they can do outside of China, they can do inside of China. There connection will be a lot slower with the VPN, but they'll still be able to sync. PandaPow costs $9 for one month. You can download the VPN software for them, zip it up into a zip file with a password, and email it to them. They should be able to use it to connect.

Then again, hosting the file on your own site is probably the easiest way for them to get it.
 
keylight said:
Probably Youku would work, but I imagine the video will be heavily compressed. They need the VPN, not you. VPN software just punches through the firewall so they can access youtube, fb..... They'll be able to sync with Dropbox too. With a VPN, everything they can do outside of China, they can do inside of China. There connection will be a lot slower with the VPN, but they'll still be able to sync. PandaPow costs $9 for one month. You can download the VPN software for them, zip it up into a zip file with a password, and email it to them. They should be able to use it to connect.

Then again, hosting the file on your own site is probably the easiest way for them to get it.
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gotcha. thanks for replying and helping to clarify this stuff. very much appreciated.

maybe in a stroke of luck I just heard that the we transfer file made it. It may very well be because they have a vpn. I just heard tho so now I can relax.
 
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