Advice on building member-only videos

[thurlow]

Hi all.

I’m new to this site and was hoping for a little bit of guidance. I work in film production and I have a client who has asked me to create a website for his new project. Not being a developer myself I don’t know what I don’t know and would welcome any thoughts people have to point me in the right direction. If I can understand the types of issues this site will involve them I will be in a better place to discuss it with possible developers.

N.B. I used to create basic HTML and Flash sites years ago and also have a fair understanding on PHP, Actionscript, Javascript etc but this will all pale in comparison to regulars of this board!

The client wants a website with a password-protected section containing videos only visible to logged in members and only on thei site (i.e. can’t be embeded elsewhere). Each member would have their own login details. It’s very important that videos cannot be downloaded so, I presume, they would have to be streamed (I have pointed out that it’s almost impossible to fully protect a streaming video from being ripped so they have asked for us to do our best).

My first thoughts were to use PHP to enforce the password-logins and use Flash for the video, streaming via the Flash Streaming Server. Otherwise, someone has suggested buying an off-the-shelf membership software kit such as www.amember.com (http://www.amember.com) and using Windows Media Server.

I’m hoping that a few of you guys would be able to suggest how you would tackle this. Even the simplest of replies could help and if I’m asking the wrong people then a link or suggestion would be grand.

Thanks in advance!

Thurlow

[Eye for Video]

Sounds to me like you are already a long ways down the right path. I don't see a great advantage with the store-bought software over setting up your own using a PHP login. Because Flash is much more cross browser compatable than WMP, I'd suggest you stick with Flash and use a streaming server to deliver content.
The cost of streaming server will be a big one so be sure to work that into your budget. The up side should be that with login reqired, the number of viewers will be restricted, and since most streaming servers are more or less on a scale of "more play, more pay", that may help keep costs down.
I use:
http://www.upstreamnetworks.com/home.php?page=flash-streaming
for streaming and have been pretty happy with them (other than it's pretty expensive compared to a host that just does progressive download). But read through some of their help files for more info on embedding the player, etc.
Best wishes,
Eye for Video
www.cidigitalmedia.com