Delivery without a re-encode

How to send a 4K video to a client
without losing quality.

Almost nobody loses 4K quality in the export. They lose it in the handoff: a platform that re-encodes on arrival, a preview that quietly downscales, or a link that gives the client a 12 GB download and nothing to watch. Here is what each common tool does to the file, and the workflow that keeps the master exactly as you graded it.

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Video hosting for filmmakers · 5 GB free · Paid plans from USD 9/month

By uncompressed.io · Updated September 2026

Three places quality dies

Quality does not die in the export;
it dies in the handoff.

You graded it, you exported it, you checked it on the calibrated monitor. Then it went somewhere, and what came back to the client was softer, blockier or simply absent. There are only three ways that happens, and knowing which one you hit tells you which tool to stop using.

The platform re-encodes it

The host takes your file and makes its own copies. Vimeo states that during transcoding your file "is re-encoded into several formats", and its 4K H.264 playback rung tops out at 22 Mbps, described on the same page as a maximum. Your 150 Mbps export is not what anyone watches.

The preview downscales it

The stored file is fine; the thing on screen is not. Google Drive plays video at a maximum of "1920 x 1080" on every plan, paid included. Dropbox previews at up to 1080p on Basic and up to 2160p on paid plans. WeTransfer says its preview "plays at a slightly lower resolution for streaming speed".

The client never watches it at all

WeTransfer supports in-browser preview "for MP4 and MOV files up to 300 MB". A finished 4K film is never that small, so the client gets a download link and a wait. Approval then happens after a 12 GB download, in whatever player the client happens to have, or it does not happen at all.

300 MB

WeTransfer preview cap

The largest MP4 or MOV that previews in the browser. Above it the client downloads blind.

1920 x 1080

Google Drive playback maximum

The ceiling on every Drive plan. A 4K master is downscaled for everyone who presses play.

22 Mbps

Vimeo 4K H.264 playback maximum

Published as a maximum for the 4K rung; a complex image can transcode lower.

Re-encodes here

The player is handed the stored master. There is no ladder and no lower rendition to fall back to.

The same 4K master, five routes

What each tool does to the file,
and what the client actually sees.

Take one deliverable: a 40 minute 4K film, exported at 150 Mbps, about 45 GB. Every figure below comes from the vendor’s own help pages, fetched the day this page was written.

WeTransfer

Google Drive

Dropbox

Vimeo

What happensto the fileon arrival

Nothing. The bytes youuploaded are the bytesthat are stored and served

"does not re-encode,compress, or alter yourfiles at any stage"

Stored as uploaded, thenprocessed for playback:"Video is still processing."

Not documented;the preview is capped bythe file owner's plan

"re-encoded into severalformats" on every upload

In-browserpreview

The film itself, streamedas stored, if the viewer'sbrowser decodes the codec

"MP4 and MOV filesup to 300 MB" only

Yes, on the processedversion

Basic "the first 30 minutes";paid two or four hours;file must be under 100 GB

Yes, on a re-encodedrendition

Resolutionthe clientsees

The resolution youexported, up to 8K wherethe viewer's hardware decodes it

"a slightly lower resolutionfor streaming speed"

"1920 x 1080" maximum,every plan

Basic up to 1080p;paid up to 2160p

Up to 4K, delivered at22 Mbps for 4K H.264 maximum

Passwordon the link

Every plan, free included;checked server-side beforethe page renders

"before or after sending","costs nothing extra"

Not documented on thepages cited here

Listed for Professional,Essentials, Standard, Advanced,Business and Enterprise;not Basic or Plus

"Available with paid plans"

How longthe linklives

As long as the filmis in your library

Free and Starter "up to 3 days";Ultimate can keep transfers"as long as you'd like"

As long as the file isin the drive

Transfer: "7 days" on Basic,Family and Plus; "30 days"default on Standard and above

As long as the video isin the account

Per-fileceiling

5 TB

Free: "10 transfers(or 3 GB total)" perrolling 30 days

"Up to 5 TB"

"2 TB"; browser uploads over375 GB "may cause timeoutsor interrupted uploads"

"300GB gigabytes and aduration limit of 24 Hoursper video file"

Every quoted string is verbatim from the vendor's own help centre or pricing page, fetched 5 September 2026 and listed in the sources below. Dropbox preview limits are set by the file owner's plan, not the viewer's. Our 5 TB per-file limit is checked in the browser and on the server before an upload begins. ProRes 422, ProRes 4444 and DNxHR are hosted here for client download rather than streamed, so a viewing export is what plays on the page.

Read the first two rows together, because that is the trap. WeTransfer is honest and correct about the file: it arrives byte for byte as it left. It is simply not a place anyone watches a 4K film, so the client either downloads 45 GB before forming an opinion or forms the opinion without watching. Drive and Dropbox are the opposite: comfortable to click, and the thing being clicked is not your grade. Vimeo watches beautifully and re-encodes on the way in. Each tool is missing a different half of the job.

The workflow

One page the client watches,
the master beside it.

The fix is to stop treating the watch copy and the master as two deliveries. Put them on the same permanent page: one link, one password, one download switch.

Export one viewing file at a high bitrate

HEVC or H.264 at 100 to 200 Mbps in your delivery resolution. There is no platform ceiling above it here, so the export bitrate is the playback bitrate. This is the file the client presses play on.

Upload it, and the master if the client needs it

5 TB per file, checked before the upload starts. Parts go up in parts sized for the file across three to six parallel lanes, and a part that fails is retried up to 60 times before anything is lost. Moving around the app mid-upload is safe. Reloading the tab is not: the browser has discarded the bytes, so you re-drop the same file and it continues from the last finished part.

Set the password and the download switch

Per-video passwords work on every plan, free included, and are checked on the server before the watch page renders. The original-file download is a per-film toggle with no tier gate: on, and the client saves the exact file you uploaded from the same page; off, and it is watch only.

Send the clean URL

The film lives at uncompressed.io/yourhandle/film-slug. The handle is yours, the slug is editable, and the player carries no platform logo or watermark on any plan. If the cut changes, upload a new version onto the same entry: the URL, the embeds and the view count survive the swap.

Why the two-file page beats two separate sends

When the watch copy lives in one tool and the master in another, sign-off drifts. The client approves a compressed preview, the master ships, and the difference between them surfaces later, in front of somebody else. One page removes the ambiguity: the file being watched is the file being sent, at the bitrate you exported, and the download beside it is the same bytes. Views, plays and viewers are unmetered on every plan, including the free one, so nothing changes if the client forwards the link around a boardroom for a week.

Honest limits

When a transfer tool is the
right answer.

Hosting is not the answer to every handoff. There is a real category of delivery where a transfer service is better than any player, and pretending otherwise would waste your money.

The clearest case is a one-time handoff of source material that a client will archive and never watch in a browser: camera originals, project files, audio stems, graphics packages, a folder of deliverables for an agency’s own storage. Nobody is going to press play on that. It needs to move once, land intact and stop costing money. WeTransfer states that files travel with no re-encode; MASV charges $0.25 per gigabyte pay as you go, with 15 GB of transfers free a month and at least five free storage days on every plan, which suits a large delivery that happens twice a year better than a subscription does.

A second case is a folder or card-dump handoff. Individual files up to 5 TB can fit here if you have enough storage, but a dedicated transfer service or shipped drive can be a better fit when the recipient needs a complete working folder rather than a review link.

The third is the client who genuinely only wants the file. If there is no review, no comment, no second pass and no link that has to still work next year, a three-day link costs nothing and does the job. Where hosting wins is the opposite shape: a film that gets watched, forwarded, re-watched by somebody who joined the project late, and pointed at from an email three months later. That is when a link with a three-day life becomes a support ticket, and a preview that downscales becomes an argument about the grade.

One more honest note about the free tier here: it holds 5 GB and one film at a time. It is enough to prove that the file plays at full bitrate with your own footage, and not enough to run a delivery pipeline. Everything else on the list, the password, the unlisted mode, the embed-only mode, the custom slug, the download switch and the unbranded player, is available on it.

Before you send

Four things to check
on the client’s screen.

Open the link yourself, signed out

The most common delivery failure is a link that only works because you are logged in. Open it in a private window, type the password the way the client will, and watch the first thirty seconds.

Confirm what is actually playing

If the file is ProRes or DNxHR, expect the page to work as a download rather than a stream. Upload a high-bitrate HEVC or H.264 export as the thing that plays, and keep the master behind the download switch.

Decide the download deliberately

The toggle is per film. Leave it off for a cut in review, switch it on the day the invoice clears. It does not change the URL, so the same link changes behaviour without a re-send.

Say what the client should see

One line in the email: the resolution, the codec, and whether they can download it. It costs nothing and it stops the conversation where a client compares your 4K master to a phone-sized preview and calls it soft.

Questions

Frequently asked

How do I send full quality video to a client online?

Upload the finished file once to a host that does not re-encode, then send the client a watch link rather than an attachment. The client watches at the file's real bitrate in a browser, and if you switch on the per-film download, saves the original from the same page. The failure mode to avoid is any route where the thing the client watches and the thing the client downloads are two different files, because that is where a sign-off happens on a version you never approved.

Does WeTransfer compress my video?

No. WeTransfer states that it "does not re-encode, compress, or alter your files at any stage", and the downloaded file is your original. The catch is watching it: in-browser preview covers "MP4 and MOV files up to 300 MB", and WeTransfer notes the preview "plays at a slightly lower resolution for streaming speed". A finished 4K film is never under 300 MB, so the client cannot watch before downloading.

Why does my 4K file look soft in Google Drive?

Because Drive plays video at a maximum of "1920 x 1080". A 4K master is downscaled on every plan, paid included, and Drive may also answer with "Video is still processing. Try again later." while it prepares the file for other devices. The stored file is untouched; the thing your client is looking at is not it.

What about Dropbox previews?

Dropbox caps preview by the file owner's plan. Basic streams "the first 30 minutes" at up to 1080p; paid plans reach up to 2160p and either two or four hours. The file must be "smaller than 100 GB" to preview at all. Link passwords and expiry dates are listed for Professional, Essentials, Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus and Enterprise, not for Basic or Plus.

Should I just upload the ProRes master?

Upload it if the client needs the master, but do not expect it to play in a browser: ProRes 422, ProRes 4444 and DNxHR are hosted here for download, not for streaming. The practical answer is two files on the same page. A high-bitrate HEVC or H.264 export is what plays, and the ProRes master sits behind the download switch for the person who needs it.

How large a file can I send?

Direct uploads accept up to 5 TB per file within your available storage. At a constant 150 Mbps, that represents about 74 hours before audio and container overhead. Check the size of the actual export; browser playback depends on its codec, the device and the connection.

Can I put a password on the link without making the client sign up?

Yes. Every plan, free included, can put a password on a single film. The client types the code you gave them and watches; no account, no invitation, no sign-in. The check runs on the server before the page renders, the code never travels back to the browser, and attempts are rate limited to 20 per IP per hour. You can change or remove the password later without changing the URL.

Send the master, not a version of it

uncompressed.io streams the exact bytes you upload. No re-encode, no resolution ceiling, no bandwidth caps, with per-video passwords and original-file downloads on every plan, free included.