Secure Videos

Bigred23

Hello, I'm back, and am still having problems with videos.

What I would like to have:

I would like to have logged in members view videos inside the web browser. ONLY LOGGED IN MEMBERS. Anyone who is not logged in can't access the videos ( as in can't go to http://mysite.com/videoclips/video.mpg).

What I have:
I have the login in scripts (with sessions) and the members are able to download the videos through header and save it to their computer. The files can't be accessed directly because its in a different document root. I don't like this because members can easily download the videos and then file transfer to anyone through aim or whatever.

How I guess it would work
I'm guessing I would have streaming videos that are stored in a document root that is not accessible to the public. When a person is logged in it requires the necessary src to display the video.

My Problem
How would I display videos inside the browser while the user is still logged in, not have the file stored on their computer, and videos not accessible to anyone that is not logged in.

Addition Information
My Document root system works as follows (I rent):
mysite.com

Public folder, anything inside is accessible to the public.
mysite-whatever
Private folder (that I made), anything inside is not accessible to the public.

I'm guessing the simplest way to put it is "How does YouTube do it?"

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

ragedigital

Personally, I would use Flash for this...

Bigred23

Ok, I understand that, but still how would I display the flash video in the browser, while the file is in a document root. Since i can't use the include function or anything.

ragedigital

It becomes an Actionscript issue. You should still be able to call which video you want with PHP, but after that it is all Actionscript.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/video.html

WDPEjoe

I would look into using the header() function to send the Content-Type header, then using PHP's readfile() to send the file to the browser. That way, it gets sent properly to the user, and leaves the video outside of the document root.

Bigred23

How would the action script work? I've seen other people linking to videos using http://theresite.com with action script, but is it possible to link to a different document root?