I am looking at hosting DRM-protected content using azure media services. It's noted in the media services diagram that you can upload, encrypt and play DRM protected content, but it doesn't explicitly say where the playready server fits in?
I've been looking at potentially hosting my own playready server, but the licenses cost $30k!! Are there alternatives?
I need to stream to the silverlight player.
No. Azure media services does not include PlayReady server. It includes however the possibility to protect the content with PlayReady server. For dev/testing purposes you can use the Microsoft PlayReady Test server.
If you want to give a shot, you can download the WaMediaWeb demo project. It includes PlayReady encoding demo. Just go through the readme as there are some important points listed (mostly how the conversion would flow).
UPDATE (NOV. 2014)
Please note that original question and answer was in 2012 !!! When Microsoft did NOT offer PlayReady service!
Azure media services NOW supports PlayReady as a service. As well as simple AES Encryption.
Media services is releasing PlayReady As a service, please check out the announcement here: http://mingfeiy.com/playready. And our service just hits GA: http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2015/01/29/azure-media-services-enhances-streaming-security-with-general-availability-of-drm-technology/.
Windows Azure Media Services now has EzDRM as an Azure Store Partner: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/store/service/?id=f06b5541-00c3-415e-b195-e951127b6e9e
You can also use commercial services like BuyDRM:
A first-party DRM server is on the roadmap for Windows Azure Media Services, stay tuned to the community portal:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/media-services/
And forums:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/MediaServices/threads
For announcements.
