Share a Product Demo Video Without Compressing It First

Chat and email compress video to save their own bandwidth. The picture softens, the UI text in your demo becomes mush, and the client asks you to "send the good one." ShareKit does not transcode video. The file you upload is the file the player and the download serve. That is the point of this workflow: a product demo leaves your editor, lands on a public playback page, and can be opened from a link or a QR code without a second encode you did not ask for.

It is still a public page. Anyone with the link can open it. There is no password. Do not upload a demo that contains unreleased customer data, credentials on screen, or a private roadmap you would not put on a slide in a cafe. Trim the recording before you upload. The product will not trim it for you, and it will not make it private.

What "no compression" does and does not mean

ShareKit does not run your video through a transcoder to make a smaller preview. Previews depend on the visitor's browser. A file extension that is allowed does not mean every phone can play it. MP4 with a widely supported codec is the safe export for a client who will tap a link on a phone. MOV, WebM, AVI, and MKV can be uploaded when they match an allowed type, and some of those will download more often than they play inline. If the demo must play in the browser, export an MP4 you have already played on a phone that is not your editing machine.

No compression also does not mean unlimited size. Chunked uploads support large video files, up to 2GB. Files under 20MB have no credit cost. Larger files use credits: one credit for each 10MB block past the first 10MB. A file with a credit cost requires a signed-in account. A five-minute screen recording is often past 20MB. Sign in before you upload it, and look at the credit cost the product shows rather than guessing.

The replacement action is stricter than the chunked upload path. Replacing a file uses the standard upload checks, which reject files over 95MB. You can upload a large master. You should not promise that you can swap a 1GB master in place later. If the demo you might revise is over 95MB, either keep a smaller review cut for the replaceable link, or plan a new upload and a new link when the picture changes. Say that out loud before the link is in a sales sequence.

The page you send, and the code you print

Start at video to URL. One upload gives you:

• A public playback page with the browser's player and a download control. The recipient does not sign up.
• A direct file URL, for a person or a tool that needs the bytes.
• Embed snippets, if the demo also sits inside a help article you edit.
• QR PNG and SVG. A scan hits the scan address, counts as a QR scan, and opens the share page.

Send the playback page to a client. Send the direct URL only when someone asks for the file itself. Print the SVG only when the video has a physical home: a booth monitor card, a package insert, a slide you will leave on a chair. A QR on a slide that is itself projected is usually worse than the URL in 18-point type under the video. Print the code when the phone is the screen. Put the URL in type when the laptop is the screen.

For an MP4-specific export, the MP4 to URL page is the narrower starting point. The steps are the same upload.

A client review that does not fork into five files

1. Export the review cut as MP4. Play it once on a phone. If the UI text you need the client to read is unreadable there, fix the export or the recording. Do not hope the share page will sharpen it.
2. Sign in and upload. If the file is large, let the chunked upload finish. Do not refresh the tab because the progress bar paused for a moment.
3. Open the public page in a private window on the same kind of phone the client uses. Play ten seconds with sound, then jump to the frame that carries the price or the button label.
4. Send one link. Write the duration and the revision in the message: "4:30 review cut, 24 October, same link if I replace it."
5. If you must change the picture and the file is within the replacement limit and under 95MB, replace it and replay the private window before you tell them it is updated. If the file is larger than the replacement check allows, upload the new cut as a new link and say so. Do not leave them on a URL you can no longer update.

Five replacements is the cap when replacement is available. Spend them on cuts the client asked for, not on every render while you nudge a caption.

What the counts mean after you send it

The upload can show views, downloads, and QR scans. A view means the page was opened. It does not mean they watched to the end. A download means the file was saved. A QR scan means the scan address was hit, which then opens the page and can also count a view. These are aggregates. They are not a list of prospects, and they are not a watch-time graph.

Use them for a simple follow-up rule. If you sent the link on Monday and the view count is still zero on Wednesday, the message was missed or the link was wrong. If there are views and no reply, they opened it and have not answered. That is a reason to write a shorter note, not a reason to send a second, heavier file through chat and start the compression problem over.

Do not describe a view as "they watched the demo." You do not have that measurement.

How long the demo link should live

A review cut for this week fits an account's 30-day stored date. A guest upload's 7-day date is a poor fit if legal or a second stakeholder will open it next Tuesday and you are not at your desk. A booth card that should still play in six months needs Keep One File on that upload, which moves one file, its URL, and its QR out by at least a year. The public page does not unpublish itself when the stored date passes. Delete the upload when the demo should come down, especially if the picture shows a price you no longer charge.

Replacement does not extend the date. A new cut on day 25 of a 30-day file does not buy you another month.

Keep the project file in your editor. The upload is the copy clients open. If you delete it, their link stops. Your timeline does not.

A booth card and a follow-up, using the same file

You are at a table for six hours. The demo is the same MP4 you uploaded last week. The card in front of the laptop uses the SVG at desk distance, with the sentence "Scan to play the 90-second tour." You also keep the share URL in 18-point type, because some people will not scan and will type. Both point at the same upload. You do not email a compressed copy from the booth Wi-Fi.

That night you look at the counts once. Scans tell you the card was used. Views tell you the page opened, including people who typed the URL or tapped the link you also put in the follow-up note. Downloads tell you someone saved the file. If scans are near zero and views are not, the card is the weak object. If both are near zero, the conversations never reached the card. Change the sentence or the placement tomorrow. Do not re-export the video to "fix" a card nobody picked up.

If a prospect asks for a change on the spot and your review cut is under the replacement size check, you can replace it overnight and the card still works in the morning. If the master is a large chunked upload over 95MB, you cannot make that promise. Tell them you will send a new link, and do send a new link, rather than a chat attachment that the messenger will crush.

Questions before you hit send

Will ShareKit make a smaller version for mobile?

No. It serves the file you uploaded. Export a size and codec a phone can play if that is who will watch.

Can the client download the original?

The page has a download control. What they save is the uploaded file, not a recompressed preview. Anyone with the link can do that. Do not upload what you would not hand over as a download.

The player is silent or black on their phone.

Ask which browser, and try your MP4 on a similar phone. Some uploads are valid files that a particular browser will not play inline. The download still exists. If inline playback is the requirement, change the export, not the link, and replace or re-upload within the limits above.

Can I track who on the buying committee watched?

No. You can see aggregate views, downloads, and QR scans. You cannot see a name, and you cannot see that they finished the video.

Where is the QR size advice?

In print size, distance, and material. A code on a booth one-pager is a desk-distance print. Prove it before the show.

Related: video to URL · MP4 to URL · pricing