My Own Private YouTube
October 27, 2010 7:44 AM   Subscribe

My Own Private YouTube: I'm looking for a host service that will allow me to post flash (flv) videos, which would then play in a browser window. But, I also want to be able to limit access to a private group -- say, only to folks I share the video URL with. Does something like this exist?

I can't host them on my company's website because of bandwidth restrictions. Due to copyright concerns, I can't offer them to people for download. So, viewing them in a browser window similar to YouTube's interface seems like the best option. But as far as I can see, YouTube only allows you to make individual videos private which you can then grant access to for other YouTube users. I'd like to not have to ask viewers to join YouTube in order to see the videos.
posted by zarq to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Look into Youtube's unlisted videos mechanism.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 7:50 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Vimeo ?
posted by jozxyqk at 8:00 AM on October 27, 2010


Wordpress install (on your own web host)+ JWPlayer (or other flash video player with a Wordpress plugin) + password protected posts on the Wordpress posts (they need a password, but don't have to be logged in) is the way I would do it.
posted by deezil at 8:02 AM on October 27, 2010


You can do unlisted videos on Youtube as Cat Pie Hurts mentions. If someone can guess the URL they will find the video, but that is unlikely.
posted by jasondigitized at 8:12 AM on October 27, 2010


My corporate solution was Screencast from TechSmith (same people that do SnagIt). Only $100, and it does exactly what you are looking for (your needs are exactly what i was looking for too). It does the job, and we're about to renew for next year.
posted by doorsfan at 8:14 AM on October 27, 2010


Due to copyright concerns, I can't offer them to people for download. So, viewing them in a browser window similar to YouTube's interface seems like the best option.

Say what? If it can be viewed in a browser it can be downloaded. You can download any video from all the major sites like youtube and vimeo with a few clicks; sometimes it takes some skill to find the download URL but it's always there. For the popular sites there are browser add-on scripts that give you the download URL to click on, but even without that it's not too hard to figure out. The only time it becomes challenging is when the site uses RTMP instead of HTTP to deliver the streams, but even then there are several RTMP downloading tools so it's still just a matter of fishing out the rtmp:// url. I don't see how this can possibly matter in regards to copyright infringement because no matter how the video is delivered a copy is made, it's just that with streaming the copy is deleted automatically when you close the window.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:35 AM on October 27, 2010


If you've got money to spend, there are a ton of commercial video providers that would love to sell you service. Here are some.
posted by toomuchpete at 8:38 AM on October 27, 2010


Response by poster: Say what? If it can be viewed in a browser it can be downloaded. I don't see how this can possibly matter in regards to copyright infringement because no matter how the video is delivered a copy is made, it's just that with streaming the copy is deleted automatically when you close the window.

I know. For the purposes of this project, it doesn't have to be a foolproof system. I am just not supposed to make it easy for people to hold onto the videos by sending them the original file.
posted by zarq at 8:48 AM on October 27, 2010


Youtube's unlisted videos sounds like your best bet. No login required, and the links are hard to guess (but easy to hand out).
posted by zippy at 8:56 AM on October 27, 2010


Do you need to embed the videos back onto your company's website? I don't think youtube allows that for unlisted videos.

Otherwise, I came here to recommend posterous -- you can email them flv files or upload them, and set the blog posts to private (accessible by url you give out only).
posted by polexa at 9:09 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: My corporate solution was Screencast from TechSmith (same people that do SnagIt). Only $100, and it does exactly what you are looking for (your needs are exactly what i was looking for too). It does the job, and we're about to renew for next year.

Am checking out their free portal now They look great. Thank you!

Cat Pie Hurts, I'm also looking at unlisted videos. Had no idea that YT offered that as an option. Very cool. Thanks!
posted by zarq at 9:23 AM on October 27, 2010


Vimeo private video: "Password protected videos will require a password that you choose. You can also embed this video on another site and it will ask for the password there." You can also "deselect allowing users to download your video" (which won't actually make the video impossible to download, just less convenient).
posted by kirkaracha at 11:13 AM on October 27, 2010


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