Streaming Video/Pay Per View

[Chessboxer]

Hey all,

I'm building a website (learning as I go) and have a question about paying to view a streaming video.

What type of program is there that allows a recorded video to be viewed only once after a payment has been made? Ideally I would like this to be hosted by me and not a third party. Is there an encoding technology out there?

Thanks in advance!

[anshul]

How can I stream video from server.
Is that so simple?
Does Windows OS or Linux matters?
Someone has idea, please revert quickly.
Thanks & regards.

We generally use Linux OS.

[Storyman]

There is streaming and then there is streaming. Not all streaming is equal. The most common form of streaming is where the video starts once the program believes that it will be able to play through to the end without interruption. The process requires a complete download to the user's hard drive. With a little bit of poking or a search for a large file for that day an insightful user will be able to locate the file and store it for later playback.

The other, more sophisticated type, is probably what you are after. The video plays in real time and isn't stored on the user's drive. Unless you have a broadband and the end user has the same and the network Gods are smiling on you whenever your video is played it is a dicey proposition.

To overcome the bandwidth problem this type of system determines the available bandwidth and then delivers the the appropriate compressed file. That's why you'll find high end compression programs that will render several files all with different size and frame rates from the same source file.

I don't mean to suggest that you are providing any particular type of material, but just in case it is adult material you will have an added problem. That is collecting money. Not all transaction services will want to handle transactions for that type of service. Just a heads up in case.

[Chessboxer]

Thanks for responding. The content is for a consulting firm, so the videos are of speeches given :).

Definetely video that can't be recorded is what I'm looking for. Any particular software you've seen in your experience that would handle these needs?

Thanks again

[Storyman]

For video compression I use Sorenson's Squeeze. IMHO it's the best out there. This is the company that developed both the QT codec (pro and standard) and Spark (for Flash, which also has a pro and standard). Squeeze can batch the rendering process.

For delivery I'd suggest you use a company that specializes in it. The server software is expensive and well as the need for being a top-notch system/connection.