Flutter Video Player with Controls & Flutter DRM Video Plugin or SDK

In today’s world of instant gratification, videos have become a go-to for people to consume content, whether it’s for learning or entertainment. People prefer to watch rather than read or listen. Whether it’s a tutorial, a movie, or a music video, when it comes to building mobile apps, ensuring video playback has become almost crucial. However, as easy as it may sound, integrating video playback into a mobile application can be challenging, especially when using Flutter. The task becomes even more challenging when you consider the different video formats, resolutions, and devices that the app will be running on.

 In this blog, I’ll explore video playback in Flutter and how VdoCipher comes into this. So, let’s dive in and discover the secrets to seamless video playback in Flutter!

What is Flutter?

Flutter is an open-source mobile app development framework by Google. It is currently very popular due to 

• Ease of development of apps across the platforms of Android, iOS, and even the web.
• Speed of development is also another factor that is pushing developers to go for flutter apps. 
• In VdoCipher’s experience, we get a higher demand for flutter integration than react-native integration.

Video Hosting and Playback is a crucial features for many mobile apps developed on flutter. VdoCipher provides a flutter video SDK that ensures smooth playback and security from illegal video downloads and screen capture.

Key Features for a Flutter Video Player possible with VdoCipher SDK

Custom flutter video player with controls

With the customizable smart video player, you can truly make your video player your own. You can change the theme and colors of the video player to suit your branding. Choose what controls you want to show your users in order to optimize their user experience. All these controls can be enabled via the dashboard and even with API to create automated workflows. You also get support for video playback on iOS, Android, HTML5, and react native. You can ensure that the colors of the player are according to your brand, giving you much more flexibility to showcase your videos along with the style of your brand. You can even customize what controls you want to show to your users, including chapters for navigation, search through the transcription, and much more.

Adaptive player with multiple video qualities

Adaptive Bitrate Streaming will ensure that your users’ video quality scales with their network. This will ensure that there will be no buffering in the video on low network bandwidth as the video will automatically scale to lower quality and as the network improves so will the quality

Features like speed change, forward-rewind, and multi-lingual subtitle.

With our flutter video player, you get the option to keep features like speed change, you can choose which speed change options you want to show your audience. Our flutter player also supports multilingual subtitles, you can give them the option to choose which language they want the subtitles in.

Flutter DRM encryption support to prevent illegal downloads and screen capture.

Our flutter video playback is secured with DRM encryption. Ensuring that your videos can’t be downloaded at all and the screen capture will also be blocked on the Flutter video streaming app. DRM is far better than basic encryption because of its secure key exchange mechanism that is protected under a hardware-backed black box. On the app, DRM also provides screen capture protection.

Dynamic watermarking to deter Screen Capture

To add an additional layer of security over the DRM, the VdoCipher player allows you to enable a dynamic watermark that captures the dynamic details of the user like IP, email, etc., and displays it over the video. This deters the screen capture or screen recording attempts.

Offline secure download and playback

Users who have network issues can also use the offline download feature in such a manner that videos can not be taken out of the app. Also, VdoCipher has now started providing web users with an offline download feature as well.

Picture in Picture (PIP) mode

For overlay and advanced video viewing experience, picture-in-picture mode is also available.

VdoCipher flutter video plugin

How to Integrate Videos with Flutter for Android and iOS Apps?

1.VdoCipher trial account – Create a trial account with VdoCipher at vdocipher.com, and upload 1 or 2 test videos to the dashboard. 

2. Integration Flutter VdoCipher video SDK – Click on the ‘embed’ button below any video in the dashboard, and go to the ‘mobile app’ section. It has the relevant SDK links and also steps on how to first integrate the backend APIs available in the ‘custom backend’ section.  Detailed steps for the SDK integration are mentioned here – https://pub.dev/packages/vdocipher_flutter

A sample projection creation video tutorial is also available on this page (2nd video)

3. DRM integration for flutter video player – Google Widevine DRM is default included in the android flutter integration. Fairplay DRM integration for the ios flutter app requires an additional step which is explained in the dashboard config section here, let us know on support if you want to proceed with it.

4. Dynamic user-based watermark and Screen Capture block with flutter videos – To configure the user-specific watermark in Flutter, you require no change in the front end. The only change required during backend integration in OTP parameters, sample watermark code, and steps to integrate are here. (check all the steps on the left panel including the watermark)

iOS playback with flutter can not have a watermark but with fairplay drm integration, screen capture is totally blocked in iOS app. Screen capture block is also default present in Android flutter app.

5. Custom Flutter Video Player – VdoCipher provides 2 forms of player integration with its
1st is Player UI integration, which provides a ready-to-use video player with flutter. This Player UI is very easily customizable directly from the dashboard. Player customization tutorial is here.

2nd is a sample player that you can edit from scratch and have as per your requirements.

6. Offline secure download and playback  – Offline download is possible by customizing the backend OTP parameter and setting a time expiry to it. Document here.

7. PIP mode is also possible with VdoCipher SDK.

8. Video Management is possible through a dashboard or APIs on the VdoCipher account.

Why is Playing Flutter Videos Directly from a Video URL not Secure? 

As seen in the above steps, VdoCipher provides a detailed API backend authentication mechanism to play videos. It does not simply fetch a non-encrypted video from a direct video URL and tries video streaming in Flutter. The reason for this is that playing directly from the video URL is not secure and any hacker or tool can sniff the network and get access to raw videos. 

Compressing Videos in Flutter 

One key advantage of using the VdoCipher video hosting solution is that the video compression and creation of optimum different qualities for playback is directly handled by VdoCipher. You can upload the raw video file while VdoCipher takes care of the video compression, video transcoding, and video encryption. 

How is Video Hosting Taken Care Of With VdoCipher Flutter Video Playback?

When you upload the videos to the Vdocipher account, they are stored in the AWS cloud and served globally across all 6 continents via CloudFront CDN. The transcoding, and encryption is taken care of by VdoCipher through AWS compute instances. VdoCipher already serves 3000+ video websites/apps across 120+ countries with this solution. Flutter Video Streaming integration is the hottest VdoCipher integration these days. 

What Are All The Flutter Video Player Features That Come Along with VdoCipher SDK?

• Adaptive multi-quality playback, video quality changes as per user internet speed.
• Speed change options (which are customizable as per your needs)
• Forward rewind 5/10 second.
• Multi-lingual subtitles and caption search
• Chapters
• PIP mode
• Disable any control (e.g. timeline, speed change, etc.)

How Can I See a Flutter Video Player Example?

The Flutter Video player example is here

What Is a Flutter Video Player?

Flutter video player is basically a pre-built widget that uses Flutter’s video_player plugin to ensure video playback functionality on an app built through Flutter. The video_player plugin can be used to stream any stored video file or on the internet.

Flutter video player users AVPlayer on iOS to stream videos and exoplayer in case of Android.

All in All

Flutter is a great cross-platform app that is being widely used for Android, iOS, and even the web. Flutter video playback has become more crucial than ever as almost every platform wants to leverage video to drive user engagement. 

VdoCipher’s Flutter video player supports video playback in iOS and Android. Our flutter players come loaded with features like custom player, DRM protection, watermark, and more. We have enabled more than 3000+ customers in over 120+ countries.

FAQs

How do I use VdoCipher with Flutter for secure video streaming?

To integrate VdoCipher in Flutter for secure video streaming, you’ll need to use the VdoCipher Flutter SDK. This involves registering for a VdoCipher account, obtaining your API keys, and using the SDK to embed secure video players in your Flutter app. The process ensures that your video content is securely encrypted and streamed, protecting against piracy.

How can I implement a video player with controls in Flutter?

Implementing a video player with controls in Flutter involves using the video_player package along with a customizable UI for play/pause, volume, and fullscreen options. You can start by adding the video_player package to your pubspec.yaml file, then use the VideoPlayerController to load and control your video. A typical flutter video player with controls example includes creating a VideoPlayerController from a network or asset video and wrapping it in a VideoPlayer widget with a custom overlay for controls.

What are the best practices for hosting videos for Flutter applications?

Flutter video hosting applications efficiently requires selecting a reliable video hosting service that offers good streaming quality, bandwidth, and storage options. Services like Firebase, AWS S3, or VdoCipher can be used. Ensure your videos are optimized for mobile viewing, with appropriate encoding and compression. Additionally, consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to reduce latency and improve load times for a global audience.

How can I implement DRM (Digital Rights Management) in Flutter for video content?

Implementing Flutter DRM for video content involves using a platform that supports DRM policies, such as Google Widevine or Apple FairPlay, alongside services like VdoCipher. You would typically need to integrate a DRM solution that is compatible with your video hosting or streaming service to manage access and protect your content from unauthorized use. This may require working closely with the DRM provider to ensure compatibility and security for your video content in Flutter apps.