DizzyDan Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Not exactly sure where to post this.I am building a page that has free instruction videos and members only instructional videos.I want people to be able to see some instruction vids hence the free instruction and then i want a members only section where users have to register to see the more detailed instruction videos. Eventually the site will build up its reference sources and will have a small annual fee for users to view the members only video section. For now i want it to be completly free but users must register to see the members only section.Does anyone know of a good free or a relativly inexpensive service for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justsomeguy Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 You mainly need bandwidth, which isn't generally free nor inexpensive. We've got a deal with a local host now where they charge $35 per month per MBPS of bandwidth. So, we can get a server that can have a 10MB/s connection for $350 per month. If you want to handle a decent amount of users you'll probably need at least 5-10MB/s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyDan Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 I have a hosting account with Bluehost.com says i am allowed infinite bandwith, though i know this may not be true but 5-10mb doesnt seem to like it would be abusing the unlimited bandwith for them to shut the site down.but lets say i have the allowed bandwith that you say i need. Is there a service that can provide me with a site that memebers must log into see its content? or should my hosting service have something that already provides that for me and i should ask them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 There are free Flash video players out there, and there are also free encoders. Combine that with your existing PHP knowledge, and you can create such a thing yourself.Here's one site that offers free of both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justsomeguy Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 The word "bandwidth" is often used to describe two different things. Your host is using it in the sense of "traffic", not "throughput". Your server might have no quota on traffic, but the wire connecting that server to the internet is most definitely not unlimited. There's no such thing as unlimited throughput. Throughput is the total capacity of the connection, while traffic is the amount of data sent over time. Our server may send 500GB of traffic in a month, but it's doing so at 10MB/s, burstable up to 20. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyDan Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 The video flash player seems easy enough, thanks! Now, what exactly does encoding the video do, does this mean they cant view the video anywhere else? cant download it? can't record it? Just curious.Also i am concerned about the 'site that memebers must log into see its conten. I am not so firmilliar with PHP and dont know how to really do this part. I can design and put together a site but when it comes to the development end i get stuck. Though it will be very beneficial to me to do this my self and i plan on it as well I just feel that i shouldnt wait to launch this site any longer, I want to get it out there sooner than later in-order to build up somewhat of a name. Then when i can change it over to my own system i will do so. I spent hours trying to make a PHP form send me an e-mail then getting it to work on the site itself. I can imagine developing a page where only registered users can view its content <sarcasm>taking me a tad longer.</sarcasm>EDIT: About the bandwith throughput, If its going to cost me $350/m well that is just way out of its budget. Infact free is mainly the budget for this hah but realistically free would be optimal and as the site builds popularity i would look for a better solution, unless the only solution is a pay/month service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Flash video players can't play all video formats there are. In fact, they can only play stuff that can legally fit into an ".flv" file. That's different from your camera or whatever, which records in another format... I'm guessing MPEG4 within an ".avi" container.To "encode" a video means to turn it from one format to a specific one. "Convert" is basically the same thing, but it usually implies there are multiple output formats from which you can choose, whereas the term "encode" usually implies a specific one, ".flv" being the one in this case.Constructing a login system with PHP isn't exactly trivial, but it's not that hard either. There is a short tutorial in the PHP forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justsomeguy Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 There's a thread here about how to register and log in users:http://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=12509As far as bandwidth goes, you can calculate how much you'll need, or how many users your server can handle. If your videos are being encoded at 256KBps, then that means you need 1MB/s to serve 4 users at once. So you can change how many users your server can support simultaneously by changing the bitrate of the videos, or the bandwidth available to the server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyDan Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Ok video player seems pretty clear, thank you.I will give my best attempt at developing my own Registering users log in site. I read through the tutorial you posted and it seems doable for me but we will see haha. Im sure you will be hearing from me.Talked with bluehost.com they said it is unlimited bandwidth throughput but a maximum of about 20 users at one time. thats how they put it. Since i dont have any users yet I suppose i will deal with this till they shut me down, then i will move on to a different host. hah.Thanks for your help agian im sure you will be hearing from me about this site some more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himler Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 I never believed this story of unlimited bandwidth, unlimited traffic much less. Everything is limited! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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