Getting Videos To Deployed Spouse Via Internet?

mollyxcate

Hey all! My DH is deployed and we're expecting our first in just about 2 months. AH SCARY! Anyway, we had originally intended on using facetime while I was in labor so he could be there with me as support and see his little girl be born. His bosses already told him to tell them when I get admitted to the hospital and to not come back to work until after she is born, which is super sweet of them. Unfortunately where he is the internet is bad... and lately it's been worse. FaceTime no longer works, Skype never worked, Facebook chat RARELY works. He really has to look at videos on his own time and that is it.

I'm sad that he won't be able to see all of this (though he was never going to be down there... but at least he'd see her when she was first born right away) and I'm surely going to miss hearing his voice and having his support. I will try to connect in the hospital but he always tells me to prepare for the worst so I will have someone there filming (again, facing my face... that is all) so he can see his daughter's first few seconds. And then of course I'll make videos for him every day until he gets home.

Pictures are easy but videos are tougher. I don't want to just post them on facebook because they aren't for everyone, they are personal. I hate the idea of everyone seeing things like that before he gets to. I've tried photobucket but hes worried about the privacy on there, and our email won't let us send big files like videos.

Does anyone here have experience with sending videos? 

lew0509

DH and I have a similar situation. The internet there sucks and he can't receive videos as email attachments, on FB or even skype. We had to do it the old fashioned way. I'll take videos of DS on the camera and put them onto a flash drive and mail them to him. Yeah they're about 2 weeks old when he gets to watch them, but it's better than nothing. He can save them on his comp. and watch them whenever he wants, and put videos/pics on the same flash drive and mail it back.

mollyxcate

That might be the best bet! I'll have to invest in some flash drives I guess. It only takes about a week to get mail to him so that won't be so bad. I'll just put a lot of pictures online for him in the mean time I suppose.

lew0509

I find that from my camera, a one minute video is about 250 MB. Most email providers won't allow a file that big, except for wetransfer.com. However, just because I can send it doesn't mean he can receive it. The server doesn't allow downloads that big from an outside source. When you are getting flash drives, I would get at least a 4GB, or an 8GB depending on how many videos and pics you want to put on it. Just make sure and stick it in  a zipllock bag or something so it won't get ruined.

nicolepatricia87

I'm not too sure about sending videos, but for video chat have you tried oovoo? It's a program similar to Skype and it works much better for us. Face time has never worked and Skype will occasionally work but be very choppy. Oovoo has the best video quality by far. Hope that helps! 

shortj

For the pictures try Snapfish (www.snapfish.com).  It is free to sign up and the only thing you would pay for would be for photo gifts if you order them (books, printed pictures, etc).  It requires a username and password to get on and others can see the pictures ONLY if you share it with them (and they have to be snapfish members as well to see them anyway).  So you can always upload the pictures and send an email to your husband to let him know new pictures are up.  Obviously share the username and password with him.  The username is your email you use when you sign up.  But I love it because it is free and private.  There is no limit to the amout of pictures you can put up in the album or on the site.  Highly recommend it.

As far as the video goes the only thing I can think of is the thumbdrive and send.  Sucks big time for the delay in getting to your husband, but it is nice to get the videos (even late) and he will love them.  Although, also on Snapfish I believe you can upload photos, but it might be at a cost.  I have never tried uploading a video on Snapfish but it looks like you can.  But check out Snapfish, you might be able to upload both photos and videos on there for free.  And once they are uploaded your husband can see them right away (at least as soon as he knows they are on there but it is probably the closest thing to real time you can get with still being private).

Good luck!