Hi ESAW,
You said you need people to transfer 1000 videos of 300 Megabytes each, download then upload, per week. This is 600,000 Megabytes (about 585 Gigabytes).
I have really high speed in my home
With no bandwidth limit (Woohoo!) but many do not. What might happen is that the people who start working for you might be faced with huge bills after a short while, and then not be able to continue.
Here's an idea for you: Instead of having your people using FTP to download and re upload the content (which is a boring job anyway) why not use FXP and copy files directly from the original server to your tube servers? This will be a lot faster and save lots of money in the process.
Next, Since there are so many videos, write a script to have it auto generate a random thumbnail of the video instead of having someone dig through the video to find one. Even better, have it auto generate a NEW thumb when your users mouse-over them, then save that thumb when the user clicks on it. Why? The thumb that ultimately causes him to click will be the best thumb of course, which by itself will generate more clicks. The thumbs get better and better the more users use your service.
As for reviews, tags, keywords etc, have you thought about getting your users to do this for you? "Here's some brand new videos! What do you think? Click the words that best describe them and you could win a free blah blah blah!"
Please don't let us find out your content will be copyright or stolen. Thank you.