For all the years I've been testing Baidu I finally figured it out.
To recap:
Baidu is like a Chinese version of Google. As such the majority of the services you get from Google have some kind of analog.
But as they are different companies Baidu has some services that rival or actually embarrass Google.
Google even tried to push its search and other services in China but due to a different mindset and policies they were driven out.
The service I've been most interested in since I first figured out how to use it and what it actually was.. is Baidu's Pan cloud storage service.
I say there's a different mindset because many of the policies that are attributed to the bigger cloud storage platforms aren't applicable to Google and Baidu.. Most probably because they are such big companies and they can afford to provide massive (read unlimited on paper) storage and bandwidth to its users.
Baidu has several more features that Google does and some of them are actually important when you're comparing them.
They end up being ease of use things that make sense when you understand them.. and at the same time you'll understand why Google can't offer them.
Google Photos, which does photos and videos has grown in the last few years in part because of the new phones that Google has launched in that time. The backup service and the software and web services (like Picasa) for mobile and desktop have also changed.
Like the amount of storage you get is now far higher than the storage available on your phone or tablet. At first I figured it was ludicrous to have more than the standard 5-10 gigabytes that you get from most other cloud storage services for free... but when Google launched unlimited backups I figured they did this more because they could than because anyone requested the feature.
Compared to Baidu though that only increases their offerings to 2TB for free storage (which is still ludicrous).. they haven't.
Instead it seems like the storage wars that occurred on the other side of the world cooled off because there really was no need to go any higher.
So while at first Baidu seemed to be the best bet because of other services and features... Google caught up quickly by offering unlimited photo backups.
Currently (due to normal usage) I have somewhere over 6TB on Google Photos. Most of it was automatically backed up.
At first I had to coax Google's software to do those backups but like when they went unlimited they changed the mobile and desktop software to back up everything.
What happens when everything gets backed up is that the service loses value because its hard to find things that aren't properly tagged or categorized.
Since Baidu also left that alone (while they do have automatic backups too) you can set where certain folders put the files they are backing up. It's a small thing but it makes Baidu much easier to use.
You set it to collect files and it puts them where they need to go.
But once they are up there in the cloud, or rather the issue with Google is that during the process of finding files and uploading them.. it ignores large files.
Again I don't understand this principal. You sell people phones and tablets that can take photos and video above 4K quality.. but you only upload them for free in a standard format?
Where are the original and raw files supposed to live then?
Backing stuff up to the internet into a magic folder doesn't matter if they aren't original quality.
So Google says pay up.
The pay up part is dumb too because it is expensive and doesn't really make sense when you consider how often you will need to access a given file.
Baidu on the other hand by providing limits about only the size of a file (up to 4GBs) of your 2TB.. says we don't care what you upload. AND anything you upload that is already shared will be ignored.. the file will just appear in your folder.
So the process of backing stuff up is faster and you actually can upload whatever you want.
So even if I'm limited to 2TBs.. there's an argument that I can make better use of that 2TB from Baidu than unlimited automatic uploads from Google.
So more recently 4K content has started to appear. VR also but since those files aren't different and are not affected by Google's upload policies they aren't relevant.
But Google (and also annoyingly Microsoft One Drive) won't let you play back 4K files. I though Microsoft did when I started testing it but I tried to watch one of the test files and it was limited to 1080p.
I was under the impression that while Google Photos Auto Backup did upload my 4K test files, it was going to reprocess them to a standard format. Also they are limited to 2GB instead of the 4GB offered by Baidu.. meaning that each 4K file uploaded would be 1080p AND smaller than the 2GB limit after being processed. But I couldn't even find them. Then the few that I could find seemed significantly downgraded in quality.. making backing them up meaningless when they are offered in standard 1080p quality.
I figure if you're making these files on your own with your phone and uploading them on an uncapped wifi connection that it would matter to you to know that they aren't being backed up in 4K and look like trash afterwards.
So I looked at Baidu again.
Back in the days when first discovered and started trying to figure out Baidu's cloud service I was doing so through a mobile website. It used to allow you to search for shared files and add them to your own folder. It still does this but it is incredibly hard to find files like it used to be.
As each user has something like a social network front page for their account, they can share and post links to shared files.
So if you're using Google, Baidu, or any other search engine you used to be able to find the links to shared files.
Eventually I figured out you can just download the desktop and mobile clients for pretty much all available cloud storage services.
Since Google's client software is integrated, like Google Photos.. and work better as webpages.. they effectively killed their client applications.
Baidu has been developing there's over time to greatly exceed what you can accomplish.
Like between the major services a common feature is streaming back audio and video. Instead of download stuff from your cloud folders you can open them directly in app and pretend like it's a free version of Netflix.
For the most part that's what I've been testing on all of them. But not all of them actually have that type of features OR ridiculous amounts of storage space. I think its Box that has some of the worst restrictions and the fewest features.. but that's fine for software meant for business not to replace Netflix.
Between Baidu and Google specifically.. streaming video is very different.
Using the Google Photos app you can locate your uploaded files either by searching for them by a key term.. or trying to remember an upload date.
If you're smart about it you make albums and can share stuff.. but over the years I gave up trying to sort things into albums because it is something that has to be done after uploading things.
Once they are uploaded if you can just search for them.. just do that. Years later, and 6TB of content backed up, apparently the trouble with that strategy is that it is really hard to remember the names of everything and when it got automatically uploaded.
If shit doesn't even have a unique name.. forget about it. And forget about sorting through 6TB of files.
The GOOD, or best part is that you can stream virtually everything from Google easily such that it started to make sense that Google imposed quality and file size limitations because it knows it can serve that stuff back to you.
And that makes Baidu's services for people that don't live in China seem bad. While you theoretically can stream anything you have in your folder.. the ability to do so without buffering verges on negligible.
I was able to watch movies and TV shows, of comparable quality to Google's format standards.. but for the most part everything buffers.
But the real issue is that, unless I just haven't figured out how.. there's no way to view content uploaded to Baidu in high quality on a desktop.
Or so I thought.
Since I started with Baidu, and probably because everyone in China is on mobile and the rest of the world isn't... I figured it made sense to Baidu to concentrate on mobile. Meaning if you want to watch something you do so on mobile.
They even have an android TV like device so you can stream you content to a TV.. But I haven't been able to buy one to test it.
So.. A huge restriction to using Baidu has been that it is mostly about mobile.
That isn't to say that you can't use desktop.
They website and desktop client allow you to stream video from your folder without first having to download it. This is convenient and useful because you can just click and watch, like Netflix.
Unless it is there and I just haven't found it.. there's no option for HD or high quality when using the website or desktop client.
The quality is thus reduced to something like 60%. That makes streaming possible.. if you're fine with crap quality.
Since I'm all about the best quality.. which back when was Bluray.. streaming from Baidu was a let down on desktop. Trying to test 4K was un-shockingly also a let down. because you can't stream at full quality and the files are bigger so there was no point in testing it.
So ultimately if you're on desktop.. Baidu loses its biggest advantage over Google.. and Netflix, because you would need to download a file to watch it in HD or 4K again.
Or so I thought...
Because I was annoyed by both Google and Microsoft dropping my 4K videos to 1080p I tried to figure out if Baidu at the very least can play back files at 4K resolution.
The issues being that while you can upload files to Baidu at 4K up to 4G.. playback on PC is restricted to 60% of original quality.. unless I just haven't figured out how to get it to stream in HD.
And play back of 4K files on a mobile device (which they do play) is useless because the screens are so tiny. And it buffers like crazy.
It felt though that there must be a way and I was determined to figure it out.
WAY back in the beginning, as mentioned, I used Baidu through their WAP webpage. It allowed access to all of your stuff without restrictions.
BUT they at some point added restrictions even to mobile because they wanted people to use the apps.. not the webpage.
Arguably the policy was put into place for the end user to have more security through the use of the app versus a WAP portal.. but if you're using Chinese cloud storage I doubt security is your first concern.
The apps though impose streaming restrictions unless you're trying to pass the job to a dedicated app like MX or VLC.
The internal video play app gives you the option of HD or SD playback.
Which had me thinking for years that the option should be available on desktop as well. After all this is INTERNET.. it doesn't care what platform you're using.
But my two attempts at getting a link from Baidu's app and MX player failed because they aren't formatted in a way a PC application will understand.
So I tried to search.
I found a page referring back to the WAP page. That first place I learned how to use Baidu. And remembered that downloads from that page have to be in a format that PCs can understand.
But the WAP page.. the page designed for mobile devices.. doesn't work on PC anymore.
It took a long time to access the WAP page because even on mobile (nexus 5) it won't load. Baidu must have tried to disable it on purpose.
But I found a way and opened my folder on my phone.
And eureka.
I found my 3.22 GB 4K test file which has been sitting in the folder for a week or so.. probably wouldn't have ever accessed it anyway... got a download link for it since the WAP app came before the android app. After the android app came out the more recent non WAP site forces you to use the app to download your files. You can't stream them. I text messaged the link to myself with Google Voice, using the desktop google hangouts application I opened that text and got the link.
Sigh.. but it still isn't in a format I can use to stream the video. t just lets me download it.
So undaunted I fed that link to Google Chrome and it asked where to put the file. Also tried it in both Maxthon desktop and mobile which will give the properly formatted link too.
I gave this second link to Windows Media player and VLC on desktop.
Windows media player didn't do much with it.. and VLC just sat there doing nothing.
I got frustrated because at this point I knew I'd done just about everything I could to get a viable link that a PC application would need to stream the file if I could download it.
After something like 10 minutes I looked at VLC again. It was playing the file.
Success.
Of course the bandwidth to China at the moment is trash. So isn't Netflix. It isn't even loading a single frame per 5 minutes. But the point was it works.
AND furthermore the point was the file can be accessed in its original format.
I'm streaming a 4K video from a free cloud service.
Or rather Baidu is the ONLY free cloud service where this is possible. But access to the file is so slow it doesn't matter.. AND it takes like 15 steps and multiple devices.
I'd call it a win since it was what I had set out to do so many years ago. To find a cloud storage service that allowed me to back up my Bluray and other high quality files. If you want to do bluray.. you take advantage of the sharing feature.
As mentioned free accounts can only upload 4GB files. Blurays are like 6GB to 40GB.
Baidu offers a free upgrade to vip every now and then. If you're a VIP you can upload up to 20GB and share those files.
Even if you're on a free account you have access to those shared files. But they count against your 2TBs.
If you choose to pay the ridiculously cheap fee you can have VIP service.. but it requires a method of payment Baidu accepts. For the most part they don't accept foreign payment methods. I even tried Alipay but hit a wall. And the cheaper VIP offer ran out before I could figure it out.
Failing uploading the files yourself.. you use a torrent file.
Among its many uses the desktop client software offered by Baidu lets you feed it links to downloads. Either just about any standard right click to save as HTTP link.. or a few other common protocols.. but also Bittorrent.
For ease of use, you can give the client (or the pan.baidu.com) website link to the torrent file or a magnet link.
It will figure out the file you want and if it has it will automatically give you access to it out download it.
A long time ago it actually did used to download files and transfer data from bit torrent trackers. I don't know why or remember when but a few years ago it stopped working.
You can still try feeding it links but the service mostly now only responds to files it already knows about. I haven't been able to get it to transfer anything using Bittorrent protocol and for the most part I've given up feeding it http download links.
Still though.. it works and I'm shocked. I'll have to keep testing if 4K files do work (while writing this up VLC seems to have chocked to death trying to stream the 4K test file from Baidu).