video on demand

we sell currently independent movies as DVD over internet. we are thinking about to rent the film as video on demand streaming for some titles of the catalogue we have wolrd rights.
i have seen the offer of dreamhost and the offers are both very interesting about storage space and monthly bandwith?
but how is the real bandwidth. we think about streaming mpeg4 files of 500-1000 MB for 90 minutes real size (768*576 or 1024*576 at 25 fps), max 10 users at the same time, about 100-200 users in the month.
are there examples of dreamhost sites that stream this kind of movies in size so i can check if that is a possible bandwith?
the second problem is the protection. is it possible to limit access to the files in time and ip-number?

It sounds like you'll probably want to go with a dedicated server--with a shared service like Dreamhost, you are sharing your server with a lot of other people, and I don't think you'd be able to stream movies like you want to.

One of the issues with shared servers is variable performance. This doesn't work well for streaming content.

But, you might find that hosting the REST of your site here and buying guaranteed bandwidth might be a doable proposition.

Of course you could always ask dreamhost support because we're just customers.

Wholly

In reply to:

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we think about streaming mpeg4 files of 500-1000 MB for 90 minutes real size (768*576 or 1024*576 at 25 fps), max 10 users at the same time, about 100-200 users in the month.

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I would have to agree with the sentiments above, I don't think shared hosting is suitable for such a site. While it may work reasonably well in the short term, there are too many variables involved with shared hosting that you have no control over. You would be sharing your particular server with hundreds of other customers, and there is no guarantee that they will all behave responsibly, all the time. If just one of these other customers was to run a resource intensive script, it could ruin the experience for your customers.

Of-course, dedicated hosting will be more expensive, but worth it if you want your customers to have an enjoyable experience and don't want to be inundated with complaints.

Mark

You note that DH doesn't have ANY performance guarantees. The reason is not because they can't perform but that they can't be held responsible once it gets outside of their networks. And it's unfair to try to hold them to that.

Thus, streaming just seems like it might be painful for your customers.

You MIGHT sign up and try it anyway, if you use a credit card or google checkout you should have 97 days to back out. Test the crap out of it. It might work if you keep the number of streams down. Just know that if your site causes any troubles for other users it MIGHT be shut down but I can't see how file streaming on demand (as compared to icecast) could be too painful on anything but networking.

Wholly

agree with wholly.

you can just try one of the hosting plans. you can always ask for refund in 97 days.

I did ask for refund before. It was quite straight forward.

Note if you register a free domain when you sign up a plan, DH will refund all but not the domain name.