Locking a video ?

[Jas]

So, my next site is kind of a collection of tutorials, but in order to view them you need to be a member. The question is:

Is it possible to lock/ unlock a video (wmv for instance) using php? Or, is it possible to lock it with something else and then unlock it with php? I have seen this done on a martial arts site where you downloaded the vid and then type in the code to view it, though I don't know what language they used (Java or C++ maybe? I would further venture to guess that there was some sort of code in the actual video file?).

If there is no answer to this, what is the best alternitive to blocking videos?

[dzysyak]

You will have to "lock" each video yourself manually. PHP can not password protect videos. What I can suggest is to encode it into flash video and add embedded flash video player. And video should be returned by php script. You can add some smart algorithm there to protect your videos.

Something like that.

[tech_support]

PHP can not password protect videos.
...but can protect the PAGE that the video is on.

[Jas]

. . . What I can suggest is to encode it into flash video and add embedded flash video player. And video should be returned by php script. You can add some smart algorithm there to protect your videos. . . .


If it is a flash video, will a user still be able to DL it, even without having "access" to it?

[djr33]

Yes. It's always possible to hack any content given to a viewer. The end.
However, try grabbing a video off the more protected sites (msnbc.com, youtube.com, etc), and you'll find they have very complex ways of 'protecting' it, so it takes a lot of work and knowledge to hack it.
So... that's the whole story.
Write a good 'protection' method, and it may be possible to stop most viewers from getting it, but you won't ever be able to make anything you do show/serve/give to viewers completely protected.