How Do I Create a Password Protected Video Page on My Site?

It all depends how complicated a setup you want.

At the simplest level you can have an integrated payal button and then redirect them to a password protected page from paypal on completion of their payment. This password protected page could be done with a PHP script or by going into CPanel on your hosting and setting up a password protected directory.

For a unique password for each customer you are almost getting into 'membership site' territory. WIll you want them to sign up, have them verify an email address then have the password sent to that email?

As for stopping people downloading/sharing your video - that's a much more difficult proposition. You will be able to make it difficult but someone with some web tech knowledge will be able to find away to download it to their PC.

This is what I think I will do. Here is the order process....

1. Customer pays and is directed to the "thank you" page

2. Thank You page has a "register" form (aweber) that they will put in their name and email.

3. Once registered, they will be sent the password protected URL and password to access the page with the videos.


So my question now is, how do I put the video on the page for them to play? I just want them to be able to play and view, but not have something like a YouTube link available for sharing.

EDIT: I would love for a way to make the password auto-generated for each buyer if possible.

Sorry Dane, I keep forgetting things that I meant to say...

If you have a video file in a format such as avi, mov or wmv you can convert it to flv format using the free program WinFF. You can use that program to convert to and from many formats.

Again, it depends on your understanding of video files and bitrates as to how you select your settings to get the optimal file size and best achievable quality settings.

1) You will need to convert your video to FLV format which makes it a Flash video file.
2) You will then need to upload your video to the password protected part of your site.
3) You then set up this page with a video player linking the FLV file you created. Here's a good, free player you can use: Flowplayer Setup - Add video to your website

If you need a hand, drop me a PM and I can come up with some code.

Martin

hey,

i would suggest you use wordpress and create a password protected page or use a free membership plugin.

if not wordpress then something like amember will be secure.

that should do it

Hi Dayne,

as far as prevening the video's from being shared, that is almost impossible. The thing is you need to have an understanding of video streaming.

Most websites like Youtube, load the video into the cache which is why the videos can be downloaded, it is not being truely streamed to the viewers computer.

In order to make it as tricky as possible for the videos to be shared, you will need to invest in a dedicated server set up for true live content streaming, unfortunately, this can be expensive.
Heres a link which enters into detail on the subject of live streaming:

Video and Media Streaming Servers (not my website)


Chris

You Warriors never cease to amaze me with your generosity and help, thanks so much! I think I have plenty info to work with now!

Streaming video is the most difficult to capture, but not too difficult. Realplayer.com says their software (about $30 if I remember right) will capture anything that can be shown on your monitor.

wopg.org (words of peace global) uses a streaming video system and when it is loading intermittently you can see a url in the status bar, ooyala.com. I know they do the streaming video for much smaller operations too, so if you don't want to go with a server of your own they might be good.

This organization does want to make the videos available for download and they are switching over to Quicktime to do that. I think it happens to be cheaper to do it with ooyala.com, and they are non profit with not a lot of money.

The free version of realplayer would start a new file every time there was a pause in audio. It didn't work really well, but the paid is supposed to be a lot better.

Anyone know of a free way to convert an AVI video file to FLV on mac only?

Dayne, I've done exactly what you want to do to a wordpress site successfully with the use of a wordpress plugin. But I'm not sure if you're using wordpress. Are you?

Dayne,

I've run across several software and software services that specifically cater to downloads. They provide tracking e.g. # of downloads; offers controlled access e.g. username/password; and even a payment module. I had them bookmarked on an old PC.

You may try searching sourceforge.net, freshmeat.com, hotscripts.com or other sites.