Flash vs DRM vs drm free WMV?

[krunnch]

I have worked on some of this technology for my day job. I agree that DRM is not practical. Yet.

There is no technical reason that it would be impossible. It just hasn't been done in an elegant way. So far.

Lots of people say things about various technologies "that will never work". It usually turns out to mean "not until the next Google, Youtube, Myspace, .... figures it out".

Just $.02

[TropixxxStudios]

mickey, first off DRM means 10% less customers at the gate because no mac users can watch DRM videos. then you'll probably lose at least another 2% of other users who can't use DRM - and that reminds me, can the most common programs that play WMV in linux watch videos using DRM?

With WMV DRM this is true, BUT NOT WITH FLASHER. I am a mac only person, I would never use any DRM that would not allow Mac user to watch...hence the FLASHER based DRM solution. So, DRM does not mean 10% less viewers...(if you go with FLASHER versus wmvDRM)

of course, a microniche site will fare a little better than a standard site on this. if you have the only site in a niche or one of the very few, you'll always do better because there's nowhere else members can go. but even so you'll lose around 12% off the top with people who can't watch the videos at all, and i'd be interested to see stats on these sites with and without DRM.

Well, from what I can tell, the site in question is a MicroNiche site, so DRM might still be the best solution for him. ;o) Plus, I would imagine that they would not even be asking this question if there was not a problem with retention? Maybe I am wrong.

[aaronjacob]

With WMV DRM this is true, BUT NOT WITH FLASHER. I am a mac only person, I would never use any DRM that would not allow Mac user to watch...hence the FLASHER based DRM solution. So, DRM does not mean 10% less viewers...(if you go with FLASHER versus wmvDRM)

Well, from what I can tell, the site in question is a MicroNiche site, so DRM might still be the best solution for him. ;o) Plus, I would imagine that they would not even be asking this question if there was not a problem with retention? Maybe I am wrong.

If I was going to support a DRM solution, it would definitely be something like Flasher rather than the usual Windows only stuff. But it still wouldn't be ideal.

With retention, what would you say is a decent retention ratio compared to a poor one, for a niche/microniche site? (Sorry, I did say I'm quite new at this!)

[mickey]

mickey, first off DRM means 10% less customers at the gate because no mac users can watch DRM videos. then you'll probably lose at least another 2% of other users who can't use DRM - and that reminds me, can the most common programs that play WMV in linux watch videos using DRM?

then whether webmasters like it or not, a lot of guys join sites not to watch the videos but to save the ones they like to their collection. they won't charge back, but a lot of them won't rejoin and won't rebill for as long because they're not getting something they want.

of course, a microniche site will fare a little better than a standard site on this. if you have the only site in a niche or one of the very few, you'll always do better because there's nowhere else members can go. but even so you'll lose around 12% off the top with people who can't watch the videos at all, and i'd be interested to see stats on these sites with and without DRM.

believe me i would say 12% at the moment is low as there are some well known problems with WMV DRM and WMP11 and/or Vista, so i would say you lose more than 12% if you go with a WMV DRM setup but as i said in my orginal post, i would never do WMV DRM now..

I sadly can not list the numbers for our niched sites when we went from no-DRM to DRM only movies a few months after DRM hit the scene but believe me when i say that we went up in retention and made more money using pay per view than before...

When i started my own site last year i didnt go for a DRM solution as i didnt want the trouble and i personally dont feel that WMV DRM is a workable solution anymore.. Will look into flasher DRM but with the price etc it might not be worth it for me at this point..