I've got a membership video site planned for next month. My questions are:
1. What's your opinion on using WordPress to create a site that has ~100 videos?
2. What are the pros and cons of using WordPress with a membership module?
3. Can WP really deliver for video?
4. What have you learned the hard way that will save me grief? {the answer to that one greatly appreciated!}

By "membership" do you mean allowing users to have a profile page? That would require either you to create them as a user or a plugin, or consider buddypress/ instead of standard WP install.
Or do you mean, having members sign up and then have to be logged in to view the pages?
Answers:
1. I think WP is a great choice for almost ANY type of site. Doesn't matter if it has 1000 videos.
2. Haven't really used any membership modules yet.
3. I think this depends on the host provider. I suggest to clients to host videos on third party sites like YouTube and then place that video on their pages.
4. Learn what "custom fields" are and take advantage of them. Always activate Askimet spam protection and a database backup plugin to name a few. Make sure your host works well for Wordpress requirements.

good luck!

There are MUCH better options for a video/membership site. Features available in WP (altho great) can never deliver the 'community' aspect or the video delivery features that are available in other solutions.

I have learned that using the right foundation is key to any site success. Looking to WP for this type of site would (in my opinion) start the site on a foundation that cannot deliver feature-rich user experience as some of the options available.

Revisit your list of requirements and then find a solution that fits better. Let me know if you'd like some introduction to other available options.

Thanks for your reply. Here's my specs:
I'm putting together a paid membership to view training videos. I'll start off with ~100 videos and build from there. Security will be a concern so that viewers pay. I will offer promo codes from time to time, so being hooked up to a database will be important.

I'm at intermediate level at HTML and don't have a budget to farm the entire project out. If I don't use Wordpress, I probably will design a couple of pages in Photoshop and have someone convert it to HTML, and then put the site together using those pages as templates. Still, a lot of work to be done after templates created.

What landmines do I need to look out for?

I bet you could do it with Joomla as well.

Here is a link I found to make joomla a membership site: http://ecomandmore.com/2009/07/04/ho...ng-joomla-1-5/

I hope this helps.

Joomla is the best solution try that and I am sure you will be happy