Here's what I would do.

1. Transcode the video to a smaller h.264 mp4 file using Handbrake.
2. Sign up for a Dropbox account and put the video in the folder called "public".
3. Right-click the file to copy and paste a private link via email.

For added security, you can password protect the mp4 file using 7-zip, but your recipient will have to install 7-zip as well. A free Dropbox account gives you 2GB which you can fit a good quality 4 hour mp4 video into.

youtube can restrict the visibility of a video submission to a private group of contacts. although, limited to approx ten minutes, as usual.

I do not understand point 3) in jorel313 answer. Can you elaborate on that point ?

Thank you, what the screen's shot does not tell is what "copy the link" does and where does the link goes, so on my computer I was unable to get the link, using the procedure that is explained I suppose I missed some pretty trivial detail. however I could find the link by doing the the job on dropbox web site. thank you again,

HomeVideoNewbie:

I have a few suggestions.

Edit: I am apparently not allowed to post more than one URL in this post, so I removed the hyperlinks I originally provided. Hopefully I gave you enough to find the specifics on your own. Regardless, feel free to contact me (info below) and I will send you specifics.

Droopy - To quote the developer "Droopy is a mini Web server whose sole purpose is to let others upload files to your computer." It is very easy to set-up and use as it does not have all the features that make a web server a web server (or make them complex), it just has the part that lets people upload stuff. Requires python.

Secure Copy Protocol ( SCP ) - Install a SCP server on the recipient's machine and grab one of a million SCP clients for yourself then copy it over when you know the IP addresses. the URL above is for a Windows SCP server that is not too hard to utilize. Do a search on Google/where-ever for SCP clients for yourself.

FTP - Temporarily run an FTP server. Surprisingly easy if you just need to set one up for an hour or two. Most complexity with FTP is setting it up to be secure in the long run and configuring users and password, etc. Setting it up for a few hours, just long enough for the family to connect and get what they need, is easy.

Opera - The newest version of the Opera web browser has a feature called Unite built into it. This sets up a server with little intervention or knowledge need by the end user. Just download Opera, which I highly recommend regardless, and activate the Unite feature. To quote the website found at the above URL "Instantly share big project files with your colleagues. All they need to do is click the link you send them. Sharing something private? Simply add a password."

altME -http://www.altme.com/ altME is a very easy to use system for setting up personal, private, real time chat systems. It includes a very good file transfer function. Both of you download copies from the site, create a world, tell your relatives the name of the world and give them a user name and password. Then they join up using their copy of altME and grab the file. altME worlds are private and secure. I recommend it. Read up on the web site.

Some of the URLs I provided link to Windows versions of certain software. I apologize if you are not using Windows, and furthermore congratulate you. However, all of these ideas apply to many platforms, you just have to grab a version of the software for your platform. You can take my suggestions and apply them to most platforms; Droopy works on anything with Python, altME and Opera are available for Mac OS X, Linux and more, just Google/what-ever search for SCP servers on the Mac if need be, etc.

Furthermore, I would be happy to help you with the specifics of implementing any of these suggestions. davros@accesscable.net

Try Binfer. You can send large videos directly to your friends computer. Files are not stored anywhere and the transfers are encrypted, so they are completely private. The link is http://www.binfer.com