Is it possible to build a custom flash video player in a browser that is capable of grabbing video files off of a variety of other sites (YouTube, etc.) and playing them? If this is possible, I'm wondering if ther'e any mechanism that other sites can employ so that I can't play their videos in a custom player on my own site?

Most popular sites stream video in one of common formats, perhaps h.264 via HTTP. Video itself is transmitted using standard HTTP protocol and can be played back using standard codecs. To download video, wget is enough.

Exception is live video, which may need some massaging to get into playable format.

However, there's licensing issues. Most sites strictly limit use of such video and may not allow custom players or even storing files locally beyond temporary caching. Youtube also provides an official API which is only allowed means of accessing such video and it may not be used for storing files locally.

I'm wondering if ther'e any mechanism that other sites can employ so that I can't play their videos in a custom player on my own site?[/quote]

By downloading it? No. That is piracy with big P (really). Unless you have a content distribution license, you cannot do that.

To embed video on third-party sites, read through documentation for the hosting site which will specify how to embed their content into your page. Video will be streamed to clients from their servers but will appear embedded in your page. Not all video hosting sites support that. Youtube makes it easy, they even provide you with a link under each video you can insert in your page. Other major sites have similar methods.

Custom players are typically not allowed for such use case.

Thanks, that was a very informative reply. I'm not sure if my main problem was clear/specific enough though so I'll try to explain it better.

- I want to build a simple site that has a custom flash player that has additional functionality
- For example, I want my flash player to be able to repeat specified segments of the video (The user enters something like 0:10 to 0:20 and it loops that part of the video)
- I want users to be able to enter the address of videos stored on other sites (around 10 or so different sites)
- I want the video to play through my custom player as it is streamed from the 3rd party servers to the user (I don't want it downloaded to my server)

Is this possible?

Is this possible?[/quote]

Anything is possible, it's just a matter of effort and cost.

Video hosting sites have strict policies on how exactly their materials may be used. There is no other way than to read through each of those sites' policies and see if it allows doing what you need.

Custom flash player might not be allowed, they might require you use one provided by them (mostly for security and analytics purposes).
Modifying video might also be subject to various terms.
If modification is allowed, it might need to go through their own API and/or using your application's key.

Google's policy is somewhat broad and covers more than just video, but also content around it. So you might be limited in amount and type of adds or other stuff on your site.

The barrier to entry of hosting video content is still high enough for hosting sites to be able to get away with fairly draconian policies which keep them fully in control. There's also so many legal issues involved that they might need to enforce some of those rules.

Unless I were to thoroughly read through all of those 10 sites' policies, I simply cannot give an answer if something as trivial as "looping a video on third-party site" is allowed, by whom and under what conditions. For example, YT might not want you to watch same video all the time but move to others so they can serve more ads.

[quote name='Jethro_T' timestamp='1331594064' post='4921498']
Thanks, that was a very informative reply. I'm not sure if my main problem was clear/specific enough though so I'll try to explain it better.

- I want to build a simple site that has a custom flash player that has additional functionality
- For example, I want my flash player to be able to repeat specified segments of the video (The user enters something like 0:10 to 0:20 and it loops that part of the video)
- I want users to be able to enter the address of videos stored on other sites (around 10 or so different sites)
- I want the video to play through my custom player as it is streamed from the 3rd party servers to the user (I don't want it downloaded to my server)

Is this possible?

I have learned everything is possible with flash
[/quote]

Yes, unless you want to make something cross platform, or lightweight, or something involving distributed high-performance number crunching...

I'd suggest you use an existing video service unless you insist on implementing the player yourself, of course.
There has got to be a web-based player that allows for what you want to achieve...