4 ms·

Ask HN: Do you host paid video content?

15 points by grep 16y ago

What technologies do you use? Which CDN (if any)?

trun 16y ago
I always recommend Brightcove (http://www.brightcove.com http://www.brightcove.com). It's relatively cheap and has an amazing feature set. Everything is customizable and accessible via an API and even works in sans-Flash environments like the iPhone.
- grep 16y ago
  $499 for 250GB BW seems a bit too much.
  - trun 16y ago
    It is, but you're paying for the player / CMS / advertising tools as well. It's a lot more than just a CDN.
javery 16y ago
At TekPub we use Amazon's CloudFront, it includes streaming (using Adobe's streaming server) and also allows for authenticated content. We do about 1-3 TB a month through it with basically no issues and pay less than $500/month even at the high end of that range.
- grep 16y ago
  Amazon CloudFront does not provide any security against copying your rtmp/http stream and paste it in any other website.
  - javery 16y ago
    It most definitely does. You can authenticate using a token that only allows access via that url for a set period of time and also from a set range of IPs. edit for link: http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/index.html?PrivateContent.html http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/De...
    - grep 16y ago
      "You set the Amazon S3 ACL on your objects so that only you and CloudFront have read permission for the objects. This means that end user access to the objects can only be through CloudFront." The ACL is for the S3 and not the CloudFront. Don't take my word for it: http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=49757&tstart=0 http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?t... http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=40080&start=15&tstart=0 http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?t... http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=40080&start=0&tstart=0 http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?t... Edit: The signed URL protects the "copy and paste" but not the "easy" ripping.
      - javery 16y ago
        If an authorized end user (meaning they have a valid signed URL) is ripping the content I don't see a way anyone could stop that. If nothing else I could easily just record my screen with a screen capture program. :)
        grep 16y ago
        Yes, but there's a difference in capturing the video one at a time or run Orbit and rip all the movies at once.
ninjastar99 16y ago
We use Bitgravity and could not be happier.
- user555 16y ago
  Revision3 and Break have switched to 3Crowd. Using Bitgravity and other CDNs all managed by 3Crowd. Must be something in that, huh?
ScottWhigham 16y ago
Might I ask who you are and why you are asking? I get enough phone calls from CDN sales people that I don't want to give them more ammo or a bigger target lol
- Terretta 16y ago
  > I get enough phone calls from CDN sales people And PS... we don't have any of those. We're all devs or sysadmins and prefer time-shiftable email, so you'll never get a call from us unless you ask.
Terretta 16y ago
We host paid video content. We support pay-per-minute, pay-per-view, and a variety of DRM technologies. We offer native "paid video" streaming to Android, iDevices, and all flavors of personal computer. We support the current HTML5 video stack, including WebM. Our datacenters run Wowza Pro, IIS Media Services, Windows Media Server, Darwin Streaming Server, and other less well known services. We don't make customers share a slice of "a server", we're providing hierarchical video caching and distribution across an International footprint for even our $19.95/month customers. We are a CDN -- or a VDN, actually: http://www.advection.net/ http://www.advection.net/ http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/service_provider/hosting/premier.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/servic... We like helping startups, so do Edgecast and BitGravity. If you don't need quite as much flexibility, Limelight's got great video infrastructure, while Akamai's the largest scale if you've got the budget. http://www.edgecast.com/ http://www.edgecast.com/ http://www.bitgravity.com/ http://www.bitgravity.com/ (home page is Flash) http://www.limelightnetworks.com/ http://www.limelightnetworks.com/ http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/products/streaming.html http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/products/streaming.htm...
dageroth 16y ago
If you are hosting paid video content then you probably don't have so many people accessing your content simultaneously, so hosting it yourself is not that difficult? I rented two servers at hetzner.de a few years ago. 49 Euros per month, 5 GB of streaming included, afterwards 6,90 per TB. As a streaming server Wowza is offering great software and service, the license was less than a 1000 $. With this setup you can get away for less than a hundred Euros per month and stream 10 terrabytes from two machines and can add easily more machines, when necessary, or use AWS as a fallbacksystem for trafficspikes. Beats pure AWS-Hosting by a wide, wide margin, at least it did for us...
vgurgov 16y ago
After having the same question and failing to find a good service i developed www.videolla.com for exactly this. It still not launched but feel free to get on our waiting list - i will be sending free invites soon.

15 points by grep 16y ago

What technologies do you use? Which CDN (if any)?

trun 16y ago

I always recommend Brightcove (http://www.brightcove.com http://www.brightcove.com). It's relatively cheap and has an amazing feature set. Everything is customizable and accessible via an API and even works in sans-Flash environments like the iPhone.

grep 16y ago
$499 for 250GB BW seems a bit too much.
- trun 16y ago
  It is, but you're paying for the player / CMS / advertising tools as well. It's a lot more than just a CDN.

javery 16y ago

At TekPub we use Amazon's CloudFront, it includes streaming (using Adobe's streaming server) and also allows for authenticated content. We do about 1-3 TB a month through it with basically no issues and pay less than $500/month even at the high end of that range.

grep 16y ago
Amazon CloudFront does not provide any security against copying your rtmp/http stream and paste it in any other website.
- javery 16y ago
  It most definitely does. You can authenticate using a token that only allows access via that url for a set period of time and also from a set range of IPs. edit for link: http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/index.html?PrivateContent.html http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/De...
  - grep 16y ago
    "You set the Amazon S3 ACL on your objects so that only you and CloudFront have read permission for the objects. This means that end user access to the objects can only be through CloudFront." The ACL is for the S3 and not the CloudFront. Don't take my word for it: http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=49757&tstart=0 http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?t... http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=40080&start=15&tstart=0 http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?t... http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=40080&start=0&tstart=0 http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?t... Edit: The signed URL protects the "copy and paste" but not the "easy" ripping.
    - javery 16y ago
      If an authorized end user (meaning they have a valid signed URL) is ripping the content I don't see a way anyone could stop that. If nothing else I could easily just record my screen with a screen capture program. :)
      - grep 16y ago
        Yes, but there's a difference in capturing the video one at a time or run Orbit and rip all the movies at once.

ninjastar99 16y ago

We use Bitgravity and could not be happier.

user555 16y ago
Revision3 and Break have switched to 3Crowd. Using Bitgravity and other CDNs all managed by 3Crowd. Must be something in that, huh?

ScottWhigham 16y ago

Might I ask who you are and why you are asking? I get enough phone calls from CDN sales people that I don't want to give them more ammo or a bigger target lol

Terretta 16y ago
> I get enough phone calls from CDN sales people And PS... we don't have any of those. We're all devs or sysadmins and prefer time-shiftable email, so you'll never get a call from us unless you ask.

Terretta 16y ago

We host paid video content. We support pay-per-minute, pay-per-view, and a variety of DRM technologies. We offer native "paid video" streaming to Android, iDevices, and all flavors of personal computer. We support the current HTML5 video stack, including WebM. Our datacenters run Wowza Pro, IIS Media Services, Windows Media Server, Darwin Streaming Server, and other less well known services. We don't make customers share a slice of "a server", we're providing hierarchical video caching and distribution across an International footprint for even our $19.95/month customers. We are a CDN -- or a VDN, actually: http://www.advection.net/ http://www.advection.net/ http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/service_provider/hosting/premier.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/servic... We like helping startups, so do Edgecast and BitGravity. If you don't need quite as much flexibility, Limelight's got great video infrastructure, while Akamai's the largest scale if you've got the budget. http://www.edgecast.com/ http://www.edgecast.com/ http://www.bitgravity.com/ http://www.bitgravity.com/ (home page is Flash) http://www.limelightnetworks.com/ http://www.limelightnetworks.com/ http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/products/streaming.html http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/products/streaming.htm...

dageroth 16y ago

If you are hosting paid video content then you probably don't have so many people accessing your content simultaneously, so hosting it yourself is not that difficult? I rented two servers at hetzner.de a few years ago. 49 Euros per month, 5 GB of streaming included, afterwards 6,90 per TB. As a streaming server Wowza is offering great software and service, the license was less than a 1000 $. With this setup you can get away for less than a hundred Euros per month and stream 10 terrabytes from two machines and can add easily more machines, when necessary, or use AWS as a fallbacksystem for trafficspikes. Beats pure AWS-Hosting by a wide, wide margin, at least it did for us...

vgurgov 16y ago

After having the same question and failing to find a good service i developed www.videolla.com for exactly this. It still not launched but feel free to get on our waiting list - i will be sending free invites soon.