Best FLV player to embed video using S3 server

[bwall]

I want to set up a secure web page with my video series on it hosted on Amazon S3 server. What is a good FLV player to use for embedding the videos? I looked in to JW Player-Longtail Video, but they charge €49 per site for commercial use. Is there a good FLV player that I can use on multiple sites for one price?
Also, what is the best way to:
1. Secure the video page.
2. Secure the links on the S3 server.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Ben

[JoshuaWriter]

I use this player, works great.

Web-Anatomy - Web Design, Free Downloads, Web Components

[MikeHumphreys]

Grab Josh Bartlett's Easy Video Player's WSO while you can.

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ve-launch.html

[David Chamberlain]

I second Josh Bartlett's Easy Video Player - its probably the best software on the market, and its going to get better in the future!

[BlueSquares]

Josh Bartlett's Easy Video Player is using Flowplayer....which is free.

Flowplayer - Flash Video Player for the Web

If you're semi-tech oriented, save your cash.

[Profolegy]

Looks good to me just bought it. Trying not to spend money.
I am glad I had found this deal I wasnt supposed to be
looking in the warrior forum. I am nearly ready to do a load
of videos for my affiliate marketing mindmap

Cheers bruce

[Steve_Dougherty]

Hello Ben,

There are several single-pay products that will do the job for you and like many of the others here, Josh Barletts EVP is a fantastic one - I bought mine last week

S3FlowSheild is another at $97. It has loads of flexibility but the difference (one of them) between S3FlowSheild & EVP is the Flowsheild protects the files. On EVP you need to allow All Users access for it to work where on S3 FlowSheild you can allow all users, or you can secure it by making the url expire after so long on that page. This prevents your stuff from getting passed around.

The Easy Video Player of Josh Bartletts has other features that are missing in the S3 FlowSheild but you mentioned the security thing and that is where S3FlowSheild will work better.

Now if you are not in need of the bells & whistles - and want to keep the $97 in your pocket - here is a no frills FREE product that will protect your goods and allow you to play your flv files. It is called S3Vault

There are a few others out there but I think this will get you started

Ben, I hope this helps you.

[francof]

You'll probably like Flowplayer - Flash Video Player for the Web

[bwall]

Thanks for all of your replies.
I am going to try using Flowplayer and Amazon S3 Downloader to protect the S3 files.

What is the best way to secure the product delivery page so that access to the videos is restricted to only the customers who purchased.

[Craig Desorcy]

Originally Posted by bwall

Thanks for all of your replies.
I am going to try using Flowplayer and Amazon S3 Downloader to protect the S3 files.

What is the best way to secure the product delivery page so that access to the videos is restricted to only the customers who purchased.

Any membership or download protection software will work.

The two I use is amember and Download Guard.


Craig

[Josh Anderson]

Originally Posted by bwall

Thanks for all of your replies.
I am going to try using Flowplayer and Amazon S3 Downloader to protect the S3 files.

What is the best way to secure the product delivery page so that access to the videos is restricted to only the customers who purchased.

S3 downloader won't work for the purpose you are thinking it will. Sure he claims it will...

I purchased that product a while back and tested it.

The owner did not even realize the technology he advertises cannot be used to lock embedded content with a video player...

I'll prove it to you... he tried to lock the tutorial video for his own software with his solution. This is the page that the tutorial video icon in his software solution links to:

S3 downloader Video Tutorial which does not work because its protected with S3 downloader

In the source code for that html page you can see he links to a php file generated by his software which he uses to try and lock his file.

Pretty embarrassing... and worse yet I told him that it did not work for embedded media after I bought it and he is still marketing it as a solution for that purpose.

The only thing it will work for is download files.

The reason is because it uses curl to temporarily download the file to another location and flashplayer is not compatible with that method.

I purchased his solution because I wanted a solution that worked... once I discovered his solution did not work I started developing my own to resolve the issue only to discover why his solution did not work with flash it dynamically downloads the file to another location using curl.

And then I discovered another problem... his solution requires php and s3 does not support PHP so it is a double whammy (ec2 does but not s3 by itself)...

And that meant that my solution which also used curl would not work on s3...

So we went a totally different route and developed a content securing solution that works with s3 perfectly but also integrates several other layers of security on top of the s3 security... we added this to nanacast.

Nanacast has built in s3 security and works with any video player that has a place for the video file url in the embed code. You can secure s3 files uploaded through the nanacast system and embedded in pages created in nanacast generated membership sites.

Nanacast creates several layers of security for this:

1. Nanacast allows you to create unlimited membership sites and manages subscriber accounts. You can set various levels of security including limiting the number of IP addresses that can access a membership account in a day. You can set the system to email you if it is breached or you can set it to email you and suspend the users access.

2. Nanacast creates a cloaked dynamic generated url for the media file location that actually works with embedded video players because it does not use the curl method. This url is locked to the ip address of the individual who logged into the membership account and even if the source url for the video file is copied and shared no one else can use it.

3. Nanacast uses similar technology on its side to what s3 does when files are made private and sets a private and public key on the nanacast side. Then when our system uploads the video file to your s3 account our system sets the permissions automatically and uses your private and public key to unlock access for the individual once they are verified and validated by our system.

4. Through our membership wizard you can create "episodes" and upload each media file you want to secure. The system will supply you with a tag to place in the html in your embed code in the content of the secure nanacast generated membership page which will dynamically populate your embed code with the video url.

The trade off is that you need a nanacast account to publish secure video membership pages in this way...

Unless of course you are using a blog... there are a few plugin solutions for this in a blog... my favorite has already been mentioned which is s3flowshield. It does not use all the same methods as we use in nanacast but we go overkill because we have some other applications of our own private/public key security that we use it for.

[bwall]

Thanks for the warning about S3 Downloader Josh.

Nanacast looks like a great system but the $97 per month price is too high for me. Is there an effective, low cost alternative?

Originally Posted by Josh Anderson

S3 downloader won't work for the purpose you are thinking it will. Sure he claims it will...

I purchased that product a while back and tested it.

The owner did not even realize the technology he advertises cannot be used to lock embedded content with a video player...

I'll prove it to you... he tried to lock the tutorial video for his own software with his solution. This is the page that the tutorial video icon in his software solution links to:

S3 downloader Video Tutorial which does not work because its protected with S3 downloader

In the source code for that html page you can see he links to a php file generated by his software which he uses to try and lock his file.

Pretty embarrassing... and worse yet I told him that it did not work for embedded media after I bought it and he is still marketing it as a solution for that purpose.

The only thing it will work for is download files.

The reason is because it uses curl to temporarily download the file to another location and flashplayer is not compatible with that method.

I purchased his solution because I wanted a solution that worked... once I discovered his solution did not work I started developing my own to resolve the issue only to discover why his solution did not work with flash it dynamically downloads the file to another location using curl.

And then I discovered another problem... his solution requires php and s3 does not support PHP so it is a double whammy (ec2 does but not s3 by itself)...

And that meant that my solution which also used curl would not work on s3...

So we went a totally different route and developed a content securing solution that works with s3 perfectly but also integrates several other layers of security on top of the s3 security... we added this to nanacast.

Nanacast has built in s3 security and works with any video player that has a place for the video file url in the embed code. You can secure s3 files uploaded through the nanacast system and embedded in pages created in nanacast generated membership sites.

Nanacast creates several layers of security for this:

1. Nanacast allows you to create unlimited membership sites and manages subscriber accounts. You can set various levels of security including limiting the number of IP addresses that can access a membership account in a day. You can set the system to email you if it is breached or you can set it to email you and suspend the users access.

2. Nanacast creates a cloaked dynamic generated url for the media file location that actually works with embedded video players because it does not use the curl method. This url is locked to the ip address of the individual who logged into the membership account and even if the source url for the video file is copied and shared no one else can use it.

3. Nanacast uses similar technology on its side to what s3 does when files are made private and sets a private and public key on the nanacast side. Then when our system uploads the video file to your s3 account our system sets the permissions automatically and uses your private and public key to unlock access for the individual once they are verified and validated by our system.

4. Through our membership wizard you can create "episodes" and upload each media file you want to secure. The system will supply you with a tag to place in the html in your embed code in the content of the secure nanacast generated membership page which will dynamically populate your embed code with the video url.

The trade off is that you need a nanacast account to publish secure video membership pages in this way...

Unless of course you are using a blog... there are a few plugin solutions for this in a blog... my favorite has already been mentioned which is s3flowshield. It does not use all the same methods as we use in nanacast but we go overkill because we have some other applications of our own private/public key security that we use it for.

[Josh Anderson]

Since you are a war room member you can learn all about how to code it here:

http://www.warriorforum.com/war-room...content-3.html

And hire a programmer to implement your own strategy.

[Josh Bartlett]

Thanks for the great comments about Easy Video Player.

I just wanted to quickly jump in and say that we are working hard right now on a range of security features to try to make it as difficult as possible for people to rip and use your videos within members only content sites.

One of those features will provide all the features of S3Shield to our users. (Along with all the rest of EVP's features)

All the features we are working on are free upgrades for anyone who buys the program at present and the upgrades will happen this month (November)

With all the features such as embed buttons, opt in forms, auto redirect, ease of use with Amazon S3 etc and at its current price, the product is a steal (as many current users will testify, check out the testimonials on the WSO page) and we are fully committed to making some great security feature upgrades to the product shortly.

So, I believe that Easy Video Player would be a great choice for your videos.

Thanks,

Josh

[Josh Bartlett]

Originally Posted by BlueSquares

Josh Bartlett's Easy Video Player is using Flowplayer....which is free.

Flowplayer - Flash Video Player for the Web

If you're semi-tech oriented, save your cash.

Yes one part of EasyVideoPlayer is the use of Flow player at its core as the basic player that powers the actual playback. This is because Flowplayer is a proven, tried and tested solution which means our customers benefit from the positives that it brings but the name EasyVideoPlayer is slightly misleading..

EVP is MUCH MUCH more than just a video player however, sure if you want to try to mess around with code or hire a coder every time you can get FlowPlayer to work with Amazon but we provide a solution which takes seconds and works seamlessly without the hassle.

You are not just buying the ease of use and time saving ability of the product.

Thats just the beginning, it also provides a HUGE range of features that at present is not matched by any product on the market, especially one with no recurring fee's!

* You can embed buy now buttons into your videos
* Embed call to action buttons and Paypal buttons into your videos
* Embed opt in forms right into your videos (Compatible with all major auto responders)
* Auto redirect the video once finished to ANY url/cart
* Obscure the url to stop easy ripping of the videos url (More advanced protection coming soon as a free upgrade)
* FULL professional tracking of your videos including play percentage and sales, conversions and opt ins that result from your videos. (VERY powerful)
* Advanced organisation of your videos
* Customisable skins and settings for the player itself included
* Easy integration with S3
* Ability to embed ANY html into your videos. (adsense ads, banners etc)

Plus much more and MANY more planned features in our regular free upgrades for current users.

Obviously the entire product as a package at a one off price (especially the current special offer WSO price) is a completely different animal to Flowplayer or any other basic video player.

It provides a total video marketing solution, including advanced tracking for all of your video marketing needs in your business.

It is the most powerful solution on the market bar none and our users agree. (Read the testimonials from users in our WSO thread Here.)

I hope that helps highlight the huge difference and benefits of Easy Video Player as a complete video marketing solution compared to a basic video player to anyone reading this thread.

[twistedpixel]

I have yet to find anything that can touch S3Flowshield for its functionality and security in the 1-time payment arena.

It's currently a plugin for Wordpress (the developer will soon release a version that will work for any site or CMS)

I researched every S3/WordPress product I could find for MyBizClub and even challenged a few capable friends to try and steal any video I have on the site in the free members area. So far nobody has been able to break the security.

If you run a membership site with WordPress and have video content, this is a great solution with awesome support.

[Josh Anderson]

Originally Posted by twistedpixel

I have yet to find anything that can touch S3Flowshield for its functionality and security in the 1-time payment arena.

It's currently a plugin for Wordpress (the developer will soon release a version that will work for any site or CMS)

I researched every S3/WordPress product I could find for MyBizClub and even challenged a few capable friends to try and steal any video I have on the site in the free members area. So far nobody has been able to break the security.

If you run a membership site with WordPress and have video content, this is a great solution with awesome support.

Don't you mean try to copy the url to the actual file and share it?

The authorized viewer could download the file in as little as one click with a firefox plugin but then they'd have to actually pass the file around.

These security features that are being discussed in this thread are not "streaming" or "drm" type security... they are only meant to lock down against snooping out and sharing the source file url.

NONE of these s3 solutions being discussed can ever prevent the authorized viewer from simply in one click downloading the entire file to their desktop and uploading it somewhere and sharing it...

These solutions are designed to do only one thing... prevent the sharing of the hotlink of the source url for the actual file.

Amazon security keys and any of the other methods we have discussed will NOT prevent an authorized user from downloading the file using a simple one click download plugin like VideoDownloadHelper and then doing whatever they want with it.

That would require drm.

Plus since we are talking about progressive download media and not streaming media the browser itself caches the file ;-)