The "right" way to solve it is for everyone to use seekable MP4 (or seekable WebM), especially since things like Chromecast don't natively support anything else. That's hard to do but possible if you provide a highly desirable service (people will start to complain for torrents in unsupported formats).
I created (and later closed) a similar service using mega.co.nz instead of torrents. The main problem I see with your approach is that you serve video from your server (and presumably do the torrent fetch server side). This opens you up to liability, makes you responsible for DMCA take downs and puts the workload on the server.
In contrast NimbusVid was entirely client side. The drawback was that the source data needed to be a web friendly seekable format; you couldn't play an arbitrary video file.
If you want more privacy you can try
http://www.nimbusvid.com which uses mega.co.nz plays encrypted video in the browser. Content is never sent to nimbusvid.com so you can watch your videos in privacy.
Although it relies on Mega and Chrome, neither of which is recommended in the article, http://www.nimbusvid.com streams encrypted videos from your private cloud storage in your browser.
No other service does this and it allows you to have the convenience of the cloud and video streaming while maintaining the privacy that you would get by viewing videos on your local computer.
As far as I know it is one of the few examples of a (client-side) web app based on encrypted cloud storage. (I would like to know other examples, I don't know any).
Downloading from a cloud service provider is more consistent and will probably provide a better experience for most people. But the use case is a bit different: The site linked above is not designed to search or widely share files but only to play them from cloud storage.
NimbusVid nimbusvid.com - Remote only (Based in Montreal)
NimbusVid is a new unfunded site that streams encrypted video from your Mega.co.nz cloud storage.
NimbusVid is looking for a full stack web developer in exchange for equity (no salary is being offered).
You should:
- Have very strong Javascript skills
- Have experience with a web framework (Rails, Flask, Django, Bottle, etc).
- Be good with git
- Regularly use Linux (Ubuntu). Be able to do basic administration and be proficient with the shell.
- Be self-directed with get-it-done attitude.
- Be able to work alone and with minimal oversight.
- Be compatible with a scrappy, low-resource environment.
Although not required please mention if you have experience with any of the following:
- Parsing or manipulating MP4 and WebM containers
- JS promise libraries (Q.js)
- Design skills
- HTML templating libraries (e.g. Jinja2)
- HTML5 video
- Any experience with video advertising.
- EC2, AWS.
- Make
- Deployment tools (ansible, salt stack).
- SQL (Postgres)
Applicants should submit relevant sample work products as links or attachments along with a short resume and a short introductory message describing how the position matches what you are looking for and how your skills and experience relate to the position being sought.
Applications without relevant sample work products will not be considered.