Is there a way to limit plays of a video

[plainman007]

Hi Everyone,

Is there a technique similar to windows DRM where i can make a video playable only a certain no of times after which it would expire and not play ? or something which will allow playback till a certain date and then expire ?

I believe DRM needs to tie up with some content licence provider online etc. Too complex for what i need. Is there some simpler way to do this please ?

[SRTDodge05]

Whats the point?

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by plainman007

Hi Everyone,

Is there a technique similar to windows DRM where i can make a video playable only a certain no of times after which it would expire and not play ? or something which will allow playback till a certain date and then expire ?

I believe DRM needs to tie up with some content licence provider online etc. Too complex for what i need. Is there some simpler way to do this please ?

I dont know of any codec that does that (someone else may know) but I think there is a technique where a URL can be imbedded and if not found then vid wont play. Interesting question actually, might be a useful feature, say if you want to put out an interim "how to" training video or a notice or something.

[plainman007]

STRDODGE > Hi, Actually it has abundant uses. To start with my own use would be demo videos that we send out about our events. We dont want our clients to analyze them too much. We are basically in the events industry. We sometimes send out demo videos. They are only to give the client an understanding of how the show looks. We dont want them doing the rounds for long. Because we dont want people seeing a 3 yr old video and thinking we are selling the same show even today. We also dont want people seeing too much of it to learn our ideas and technical details. .

Zapionics > you are right. This will be useful for companys and for passing on technical information etc. Sometimes we will build a 3d set for a client. We send them a video of a 360 Deg shot of how the stage will look. We dont want them using it after the said event is over. So a self terminating video is the best. I know there are ways to do it online. With the video playing online. But that defeats the ability to give out HD quality video since it would pccupy too much bandwidth. Also clients will want to present the video to their higher ups etc. They cant go everywhere and expect a internet connected machine in every boardroom. Their hi-flying executives (Mr.Important) may not even have the patience to wait till it downloads. . Im trying to find a way to do this on a stand alone video. Im sure theres some way to do it. Like embed the video into an exe program or something. The exe prog can be wirtten to count down a said no of days and destroy or not open up the video within. What we need is a exe program like media player, which will play usual videos which are supported by the system codecs. But it should have an internal timer to not work after a few days. So the video which is inside the exe file will not open since the main container is programmed to self destruct. What devilish thinking

[SRTDodge05]

Makes lot of since. I dont believe there is away to do that. Unless show how you host the demo on a website and give them access to it. Then say after 30days you remove it and dont give the option to download it.

[Gorganzola]

In order to do what you want to do, you will have to come up with a wrapper for your video that facilitates this. This is essentially a rendition of DRM. You will also have to supply a player that can handle the video that is in this custom wrapper.

Next you have to decide how you want to set your termination state.

1) By date, so the file has a time stamp in the wrapper and as a for instance the file can only be played for a week after the date stamped in the wrapper for the video file.

2) Keep a counter on the computer, thus the file could only be played X number times on any given computer.

3) Provide video file only on media that can be written to and keep an updated counter on the media you are distributing the file on.

You'll probably want to do some sort of encryption as well to make it harder for people to strip the wrapper off and just play the video file directly.

So, can it be done? Yes.

How much you willing to pay?

Does the potential loss in revenue outweigh the cost of putting a system like this in place?

Originally Posted by plainman007

STRDODGE > Hi, Actually it has abundant uses. To start with my own use would be demo videos that we send out about our events. We dont want our clients to analyze them too much. We are basically in the events industry. We sometimes send out demo videos. They are only to give the client an understanding of how the show looks. We dont want them doing the rounds for long. Because we dont want people seeing a 3 yr old video and thinking we are selling the same show even today. We also dont want people seeing too much of it to learn our ideas and technical details. .

Zapionics > you are right. This will be useful for companys and for passing on technical information etc. Sometimes we will build a 3d set for a client. We send them a video of a 360 Deg shot of how the stage will look. We dont want them using it after the said event is over. So a self terminating video is the best. I know there are ways to do it online. With the video playing online. But that defeats the ability to give out HD quality video since it would pccupy too much bandwidth. Also clients will want to present the video to their higher ups etc. They cant go everywhere and expect a internet connected machine in every boardroom. Their hi-flying executives (Mr.Important) may not even have the patience to wait till it downloads. . Im trying to find a way to do this on a stand alone video. Im sure theres some way to do it. Like embed the video into an exe program or something. The exe prog can be wirtten to count down a said no of days and destroy or not open up the video within. What we need is a exe program like media player, which will play usual videos which are supported by the system codecs. But it should have an internal timer to not work after a few days. So the video which is inside the exe file will not open since the main container is programmed to self destruct. What devilish thinking

[iMogal]

How do them snail mail DVDs work? don't they terminate after a set period?

uhm... found it: old news, but here: Self-Destructing DVDs
Not what your looking for tho huh?


WARNING: THIS THREAD WILL SELF DESTRUCT AFTER 3 MORE VIEWS

[plainman007]

Gorganzola > Thanks. Yes its similar to what i was saying. To put the vide into a container or wrapper which is an exe program. If we are making a seperate player for it. Then we dont need a wrapper. We have a container which is a player by itself. The player is an exe program set to destruct after a given variable condition is reached such as date, no of plays etc.

Imogal > Hey thanks buddy. Im going to read the link now. Will let you know what ideas i get out of it.