Secure Video Player

paulgrogan.eu

Hi there,

I have a friend who has a customer support area on their website. They wish to place videos in this area, but he only wants his customers who pay for access to this area to be able to see them. Normally he uses Youtube to host the videos and uses their embed code to place the videos on his website.

Is there another way in which we could upload the videos, and still have the viewable within the website but not publically available on the web?

Any assistance very much appreciated.

Rgds

Paul.

tomED

Hi Paul

You could use one of the many freely available open source FLV players. One that's not free for commercial use but would strongly recommend is http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/

It's likely you will need to convert your videos before you upload, but this should do everything else for you.

Zombrex

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

Hi there,

I have a friend who has a customer support area on their website. They wish to place videos in this area, but he only wants his customers who pay for access to this area to be able to see them. Normally he uses Youtube to host the videos and uses their embed code to place the videos on his website.

Is there another way in which we could upload the videos, and still have the viewable within the website but not publically available on the web?

Any assistance very much appreciated.

Rgds

Paul.

As tomED says you can get open source or commercial FLV players that can wrap around your video and provide a YouTube like experience for the customer.

As for securing the files, you need to provide a secure area of the web site that requires a log in that blocks anyone trying to access the page or the video files without permission. If he already runs a site he probably already knows how to do this.

paulgrogan.eu

Hi all,

I thought I had a solution to this problem using Vimeo where they allow you to lock videos to a specific domain, however, their site is only for non-commercial use! Sadly!

So I was wondering if anyone knows of any other website like you tube but more specifically vimeo that allow you to lock your videos to a specific domain or similar?

Many thanks

Paul

Another thing to bear in mind, if you go the self hosted route is the extra work needed to be done. You'll need to get the video into flv format choosing optimal settings for quality/size, get a screenshot, upload the video (probably by ftp as web upload would timeout) and then embed it.

It's so much simpler with a hosted solution like Youtube, but I'm not sure who provides a private solution at a reasonable price. Youtube certainly have the infrastructure for it - wonder if they'll ever offer it as a premium option?

S.M.B.

We use Brightcove where I work but it ain't cheap.

Trojan

We use BitsOnTheRun which is a hosted CDN specifically for video. It's by JW of JWplayer.