Since I am thinking about DRM... recommend someone who is NOT PlayaDRM

Not sure I understand what "PlayaDRM" is. In in regard to a couple of companies who do DRM: Entrique and Object Cube, come to mind.

why not setup your own server. That's what i did.

see sig for professional DRM solutions.

What software did you use and how many licenses/month can your single server handle? I'm not opposed to setting up my own server.

SpaceAce

Thanks for the suggestions. I couldn't find the first place and the second place offered something a little TOO complete. I just want to encode and distribute myself.

PlayaDRM is a flat-rate provider from fellow GFYers.

SpaceAce

MPEG-1,2 and AVI DRM

And if you are looking to DRM MPEG or AVI videos, check us out.

Jupiter does DRM? I'll have a look.

SpaceAce

I'll look but I'm wary. I thought the only DRM for MPG format required an obscure little-used codec.

SpaceAce

Hit me up on icq to discuss 106-166-949

nope - regular codecs but a plugin is required client side.

http://www.mediakey.com

they do good work.

bump for more info

sure do

I see they list DRM on the site, but:
A) The demo video on their site does not work properly. The "Pay with creditcard" link dead-ends at a 404 if you try to follow it through and there is no indication that I saw of which username and password to use to view the demo video.
B) There is no description, as far as I can see, of prices or precise details of the services offered.

I am extremely disinclined to do business with a company that has both a screwed up demo and no disclosure of the details of their services. I become triply disinclined to bother with them when the only way I can learn anything is to fill out a form full of personal information so they can get back to me when they feel like it.

SpaceAce

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and decided to use me as a whip. I am sorry but did I offend you in some way that would wish you to seek an alternative to our solution? As always....

No problem, we might not be for everyone...not everyone needs an affordable service and an easy to use interface.

Playa BTW refers to beach....its spanish.

Ok moving on:

ALTERNATIVES TO PLAYADRM FROM PLAYADRM

DRM Networks - Randall Crockett
Object Cube - Jay aka NATNetDRM
DHDMedia - Dannis Hard Drive created
Webairdrm.com - Mike

Try those out and while you are, remember we offer free trials and I am available to answer any questions about our solution OR about DRM in general or others solutions.

I am here to help. People dont get it, if we are not right for you, go somewhere else, this is about community, if we are not right, let me help you find an alternative.

Whats wrong with Playa?

Jay from ObjectCube knows his stuff, and DRM Networks are our friends @ CCBill, but you're doing yourself a dis-service by not considering PlayaDRM

Silly...
Umm ya want something fast and easy and even willing to score out a server that costs monthly fee's for DRM. Which in turn would be more expensive than just going with PLAYA.

You do not make sense at all in this thread.
Have ya even tried talkin with them?

YOU RANG?



check us out.

contact us and we'll help you do your own thing.

what exactly are you lookin to do spaceace? We will be offering prodinix soon which is a content manager/drm packager all in one... its mainly for VOD but can be used for membership sites as well... hit me up on icq if you wanna talk.

Pathetic sig hoe, do you even know what DRM is?

http://gfy.com/search.php?searchid=16184

Forget DRM and instead leverage customer copying to your advantage ... brand all your vids, if you don't already, and keep adding new content often.

Building a strong brand will likely more than make up for the potential loss of business from illegal copying of your content.

On an aside, from a surfer's perspective, I'd never knowingly join an adult site that was using DRM; would cancel and demand a refund.

Many folks who signup for adult memberships know how to get adult stuff for free, but they signup to get exclusive/updated content without the hassles of P2P; less worry of getting viruses, etc.

Ok, I've digressed from what you were asking, but DRM is something that turns me off from both a surfer's perspective *and* also from a business perspective.

If still seeking to go DRM, find out what the better known sites are using to protect their content - start there.

Ideally, try to find a DRM scheme that allows the visitor to save at least one copy ... but most importantly find a DRM that's most compatible with people's computers/brower configs - not all DRM is created equal ... if the visitor has to download all sorts of stuff just to view a video, they're likely not going to be happy leading to less joins and more cancels/chargebacks.

Good luck ...

Ron

www.objectcube.com provides DRM solution but we charge an arm and a leg (and your first born) and I am very proud of it.

jay
www.objectcube.com

Ppl use DRM not only for members area you know?

Some ppl get 200 to 300k hits daily ONLY from ppl who trades clips with the DRM features in forums or p2p , and show them a different ad everytime they start the video in the DRM console.

Other ppl auto-install spywares in the DRM window , but its another story

No one woke up on the wrong side of the bed and I did not pick on you. I used the Playa trial in the past and there were too many things I did not find satisfactory. Unless something has changed in the months since I had a trial with you:

1) All of your "help" links lead to the same useless page. There is no real help, no specific answers to specific questions. Every help link everywhere on the site leads to the same one-page document that basically just suggests things to do with DRM.
2) The interface is rough, not enough organizational options. For instance, ALL of your media files are displayed by default. There is no way to avoid this. Even if I were to organize files into hundreds of groups, they would all be loaded every time I went to the "media library".
3) I had some very strange results when viewing protected files. Even with a rule that sets one play, I would sometimes play a file several times before a new license would be acquired. I don't know whether this is on your end or a Media Player thing. All I know is that sometimes I would have to acquire the license five times in a row then all of a sudden the file would play several times without any popups/interruptions.
4) There is a problem in your system with regards to media titles. The media title is automatically set to the media file name minus the extension. If the edia title is too long, the license cannot be acquired. Instead, the license acquisition window shows a server error from PlayaDRM. For example, if I upload a file called "Ebony_babe_sucking_a_huge_black_cock_and_swallowi ng_cum.wmv", the file will upload and encrypt just fine with the title set to "Ebony_babe_sucking_a_huge_black_cock_and_swallowi ng_cum" but produce an IE white error page when played and no license will be issued. When uploading/processing multiple files there is no way to set a shorter media title. For instance, I can't specify "Ebony babe ##number##" and have it auto-increment the number in the title for each media file. Instead, I had to manually edit each and every media title. It is not acceptable that I have to limit file names to 10 or 20 characters or whatever to avoid this.
5) At the end of the trial period, my partner wrote to extend the service and pay but we never heard back from anyone.

I am going to assume that is meant in a friendly way because it's not a great customer-service attitude.

This, of course:

is an idiotic statement. If anything, it seems I caught you on the wrong side of the bed. Of course I like affordable and easy-to-use systems. I just want them to work properly and provide at least a modicum of support on how to use them. I am not looking to fight or smear anyone, I just want to try another DRM service provider. I will look at the ones you mentioned.

SpaceAce

I used the PlayaDRM trial in the past. Again, this is not an effort to talk smack about them. I didn't find it to be what I wanted so I moved on. I like the fact that they are part of our industry and I like the fact that they offer a straighforward service instead of integrating a lot of delivery options and fancy crap I don't need. There were other issues with the service.

SpaceAce

I already have servers, as in multiple. Computing power and bandwidth are not issues.

SpaceAce

Wait, is this a future thing? The person right above you is flying it, too.

I am looking at several angles, right now, including pay-per-view and simple viral distribution with ads/popups (althought SP2 might have screwed that up).

SpaceAce

Ron,
As another person stated, this is not neccesarily for my members area content.

SpaceAce

Your still not making sense.

DRMNetworks.com

i remmonded objectcube there product looks good

Space Ace,

I am not going to address each individual issue you had except to say they were not a result of our system but rather a lack of understanding and communicating with us as to what it is you wanted to accomplish. For example: Ebony_babe_sucking_a_huge_black_cock_and_swallowin g_cum would need a unique identifier as there were multiples of this so the system was confused. Each file is unique and you can group content.

So you know, I am not taking this as an attack so dont worry, I am just providing come clarity so others might benefit from the read. I address issues personally with clients who want to address their issues and detail what they want to accomplish. Those who do, make more.

Ok that being said, let me call this what it is...If I am not mistaken and based on the limited info you have provided here, it appears as through you are looking to viral market content over P2P networks and torrents and use the functionality and services that DRM can provide as a control mechanism from which you can capitalize off of the base. You were more than likely not contacted because we probably noticed that this is all you wanted to do along with delivering other stuff. I am not a fan of our clients doing this but I am not the police dept either, but I would like a heads up and a conversation with the client before I would let this run out of control. Its like letting a spammer exist at your hosting facility without knowing them...it can be trouble even if they pay their bill on time.

That being said, use DRM Networks, they are perfect for you and this and they have a hosting company. I now know what you want to do...you might want to know that we are experts at it. *wink* trust me, their system will work for this, Objectcube and some of the others won't prove as effective for this use of the technology. Best of luck and happy p2p spamming.

Thanks Lori, you rock!

As part of a billing provider that encourages having a back up provider, I wonder when the day will come where DRM Users will:

1. Use multiple providers for various applications of DRM and,

2. Do what the big boys/girls do and outsource their DRM to highly specialized DRM companies rather than try to do it themselves to save a couple of bucks.

Debating who has the best Microsoft DRM solution is sort of like debating between Mexican Food and Italian food. It's really a matter of preference, relationships and needs. Determine what you want to do, what you need from a solution and then talk directly to the providers themselves. And most importatnlty, make sure they show a contact phone number on their website.

I hope this helps and it should make life much easier.

-Randall

Well Said

Randall, Jay and Tucker,

Well said. Keep repping this space and time will do us all well. SpaceAce I highly suggest you look around at all the providers and what they have to offer.

Here's a good list:

www.DRMNetworks.com
www.BuyDRM.com
www.ObjectCube.com
www.PlayaDRM.com

I think those 4 are probably the leaders in the space right?

-streamOG

You dont have a clue do you? Why would you use drm on a memberssite?

Setting up your own DRM server.

First you need a MSFT server running XP, Win2k, or Win2k3.

Then you need to get the SDK from microsoft through their application process. The process is free however to get approved you need to be able to digitally sign a piece of code requiring you to have a verisign/globalsign code signing certificate which runs around $300.

As for how many licenses can a single DRM server issue in a day? the answer is a shitload. A bare bones 512 mb 2.4 GHZ p4 server can do a million per day without breaking a sweat. Each license issued takes about 5 kb in upstream bandwidth, and 10kb in downstream bandwidth to deliver.

So the cost in a DRM solution is generally eaten up by development costs.

Why use DRM?

Well for member sites unless you have some really high value content it's use is debatable. You lose a percentage of your customers who don't have a DRM capable system (mac users, people with Win9x boxes with a corrupt DRM). You do get the benefit of preventing users from downloading your entire site during a $2.99 trial and then canceling.

For marketing purposes DRM has a lot of potential in the P2P space for viral marketing. Anyone on Kazaa has undoubtedly tried downloading a .wmv clip and wound up being directed to some web page.

Anyhow, hope this helps.

FYI, anyone that's interested in trying out P2P "spam" marketing drop me an email at [email protected]. I'm looking at assembling some deals to provide advertisers a free DRM solution in exchange for roughly 10% of your traffic. I provide a DRM encoding application you download and use to encode your files and you're off to the races. (No need to upload all the files to a server and then download them again)

DJScrib

Object Cube seems to get it done.