MP4 controlled distribution via email suggestions...

[jordanspringer]

Here is what I am trying to accomplish. My dad is a middle school teacher who takes about 70 kids in grade 8 to Ottawa, Canada every year as an educational trip to learn about the country and visit the museums and other attractions. He is also quite the videographer and every year for a decade or more he has been video taping these trips and editing them using iMovie/Final Cut, then making them available for the students after the trip.

Back in 2003 he would export the final product to VHS and from there copy to about 4 VCR's at a time until he had 70 tapes.

Soon after, he switched to DVD and was burning 70 DVDs among several machines. Each DVD he would run though an inkjet printer that prints directly on the disc.

He has been burning DVDs for years now, and I think it's time to switch to a more modern format: digital download. The process of making 70 copies of VHS/DVDs takes extremely long and no longer feels practical.

What I am thinking of is offering a way for dads students to give their email address to my dad and when the video is ready, send them an email that provides a link for the download.

The issues I'm facing would are:

-being able to track each link and how many times they were clicked. I'm thinking bit.ly can pull this off for me.

-having some kind of user verification. I'm thinking providing a code in the email that the user can enter on the website, unlocking the video download link. Does anyone know of any web service that could do something like this?

-Hosting large file. Can anyone recommend a host that could host a large 1-2GB file for a period of a few weeks that wouldn't limit downloads. We are willing to look at paid options.

If anyone has any ideas that would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to be able to help him with this.

[Mr. Gibs]

Use skydrive with the free app.

- It will allow you to sync files that are larger than 300mb (I have a 900mb file synced on mine).

- You can limit the people who can download the file (send them a private link via email / IM etc)

- You can see how many times each file was downloaded

- 25gb free (You can upgrade it to 100gb for $50 a year)

[jordanspringer]

I thought of Skydrive too, but unfortunatly for video files, the public link directs you to a page so you can stream the video online, but in order to download it, you need to sign in with a Windows Live ID. I wouldn't want the students to have to create an account in order to get their download.

[farmeunit]

You can get a webhost REALLY cheap nowadays, and most have a "one-click" install of several different content management systems. It's a little overkill, but easy to do, and you can use from year to year. Just keep it fairly up to date with patches. Most of that can be done through the "one-click" process also.

You can use a generic account and send that out with the link in the email.

If you want something temporary, I can provide something for you.

[Mr. Gibs]

  On 19/06/2012 at 05:12, jordanspringer said:

I thought of Skydrive too, but unfortunatly for video files, the public link directs you to a page so you can stream the video online, but in order to download it, you need to sign in with a Windows Live ID. I wouldn't want the students to have to create an account in order to get their download.

I just tried it with a 900mb video file I have uploaded (.mp4) and it downloads just fine without a live id.

[jordanspringer]

  On 19/06/2012 at 06:17, -Razorfold said:

I just tried it with a 900mb video file I have uploaded (.mp4) and it downloads just fine without a live id.

I'm guessing you were probably already signed into Windows Live when you clicked the download button. It lets you view the video but not download for me.

  On 19/06/2012 at 05:37, farmeunit said:

You can get a webhost REALLY cheap nowadays, and most have a "one-click" install of several different content management systems. It's a little overkill, but easy to do, and you can use from year to year. Just keep it fairly up to date with patches. Most of that can be done through the "one-click" process also.

You can use a generic account and send that out with the link in the email.

If you want something temporary, I can provide something for you.

It does seem like overkill. I would also like some sort of verification, like for a user to type a code they recieved in the email to download the file.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

In regards with tracking who's clicked the links in the email, when, and how many times you could use mailchimp, for the amount of email's you need to send it will be free. It also has some nice templates you can use to quickly create a nice professional email.