Video on demand

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

Users can connect to your Web site, select a movie, and either purchase it as a rental with a limited number of playbacks or purchase it for unlimited playback. You can provide users with the option of downloading or streaming the content from the server.

When implementing this scenario, consider the following:

  • You must have suitable video content, as close to DVD quality as possible, with a high frame rate and full–screen capability.

  • You must have a suitable method for licensing your content. For more information about the methods for streaming protected Windows Media-based content, see the Windows Media Rights Manager SDK.

  • Because this scenario assumes that streaming will require high bandwidth, you can avoid excessive buffering and network congestion by distributing your publishing points across several servers and by placing limits on each publishing point to control how many users can stream from each.

  • You can use the authentication and authorization plug-ins that are included with Windows Media Services to control access to your content. You can also use a logging plug-in to record the activity on the publishing point.

  • Windows Media Services includes announcement features which can help you create a link on your existing Web site that users can click to connect to your publishing point or create a default Web page that contains a link to your content. For more information, see Announcing content.