‘The WordPress plugin directory has nearly 60,000 free plugins’

Different Ways to Add Video in WordPress

Pasting the video URL directly on WordPress Page or website

• Find a video you want to paste on.
• Copy the URL to your clipboard
• Paste the copied URL in the blog post or relevant position as an src attribute of < video > tag where you want the video to show.
• The video will be automatically embedded in that post.

Block Method

• To add a new block, Click on the “+” icon. Select the block which is associated with your video hosting service provider which in this case is VdoCipher.

• Enter the video ID, video title, and update the player width and height settings. Finally, embed.

Embedding using Video Block editor

This scenario is applicable in cases when WordPress does not have the block for the hosting provider your videos are hosted on.

• To add a new block, click the + icon.
• Select the video block.
• You can either directly upload the video, select from the media library or via URL.

HTML Block Method

Another method to embed video on WordPress is through embed codes (HTML scripts).

• Copy the embed code from the video.
• On the page editor, click on the + icon to add a new block.
• Select ‘Custom HTML’ block to open the block.
• Paste the embed code in the block.

Embedding using classic editor

• Copy the embed code from your video.
• Go to the classic editor and select the tab ‘Text, near the Visual editing area.
• Paste the embed code where you want the video to show.
• To see visual changes, click on the ‘Visual’ tab.

Using Video Player Plugin

Embedding through video player plugins is one of the best ways to embed videos in WordPress. In this blog, we have already covered the secure VdoCipher WordPress plugin to embed videos. Plugins typically display your videos, blogs, website, and other platforms. Embedding via custom video player plugins gives additional functionalities like customization, adding captions, playlists, and more.

WordPress Video Format and Recommended Settings

The recommended settings to ensure the best possible compatibility with WordPress editor blocks (except Video or VideoPress block) are:

• Resolution – 1920×1080 (1080p)
• Max Resolution – 3840×2160 (4K)
• Format – H.264 (if the uploaded plays only in the Video block or shared via VideoPress links, H.265 or VP9 codecs can be uploaded)
• Bitrate – 8mbps for 1080p30, 12mbps for 1080p60
• Audio – AAC minimum 160kbps

WordPress Supported Video formats

• avi
• .mpg
• .mp4, .m4v (MPEG-4)
• .mov (QuickTime)
• .ogv (Ogg)
• .vtt (upload by inserting a Video block only)
• .wmv (Windows Media Video)
• .3gp (3GPP)
• .3g2 (3GPP2)

Best Practices for Using Video in WordPress

• Video file compression – a website’s page load time slows down due to large video files. There are a number of ways to compress video and reduce file size without impacting the video quality.
• Adding transcripts and captions – Applying captions and transcripts to your videos not only increases the accessibility but also boosts video SEO. The content becomes more searchable and readable in the eyes of Google. In simple words, captions and transcripts increase traffic and user engagement with higher SEO value.
• Video Metadata – The text data associated with a video is Metadata. Search engines cannot directly crawl videos, but instead rely on the texts like video description, video titles, and tags to make it searchable.
• Video Schema Markup – Video schema markup is a piece of code that you add to your website and tells search engines how you have structured the video. It helps in making your video appear with rich results in the SERPs. The code includes a thumbnail URL, description, and upload time.
• CDN-based content delivery – Videos served via CDN suffer minimum latency and buffering. CDN is actually a group of servers that are geographically distributed across the world. The media files are temporarily stored or cached on the servers and whenever a user makes a playback request, the video is delivered from the nearest CDN server. This way the content delivery is fast and interrupted.
• Video sitemaps – a video’s sitemap includes the additional information of the video hosted on your page. It helps search engines easily find your videos. There are a number of videos in WordPress plugins to automatically create video sitemap.
• Optimize video thumbnail – a relevant, eye-catchy, and high-resolution thumbnail improves the click-through rate.

VdoCipher WordPress Video Player Plugin

VdoCipher offers highly secure DRM-encrypted video hosting along with a range of features to protect your videos from video piracy and illegal downloads. It includes Google Widevine and Apple FairPlay DRM encryption, secure offline downloads in apps, and dynamic watermarking. The DRM encryption technology we use to protect your premium videos ensures that no downloader or plugin can download your videos. Only authorized users have access to the video content along with a layer of security features.

Along with this, our VdoCipher WordPress Video Hosting Plugin provides the most secure and customizable online video player which comes with DRM content protection, Dynamic watermarking, multi-bitrate adaptive streaming, video player themes, easy integrations, and much more.

Using our plugin, you can easily embed videos in WordPress. The plugin has seamless integration with popular WordPress membership plugins like MemberPress, WP eMember, and, Restrict Content Pro. Coming to Learning Management Systems (LMS), the video player plugin works perfectly with the most popular WordPress LMS plugins such as LearnDash, LifterLMS, WPCourseWare, Sensei, and LearnPress.

How to Integrate Vdocipher WordPress Plugin in Simple Steps

• Create an account on VdoCipher and log in.
• In the Security & Config section seen on the left side of the dashboard, navigate to the API Keys section. Add API Key.

• The key must be kept confidential and is used to authorize the plugin to play videos from the dashboard.
• Go to your WordPress dashboard. On the ‘Add Plugins’ page, search for ‘VdoCipher’.

• Click on ‘Install Now’
• Click on the link “Activate”. On the top of the page, you will see a message.

• “Click here to configure VdoCipher”

• On the next page, enter the API Secret Key. On entering the Secret Key, you would be shown the status ‘Ready’.

• On your VdoCipher dashboard, you can start video upload and import. On successful video upload, the video ID is displayed.

‘Of all the websites using WordPress, nearly 64% use Version 6 – W3Tech’

Default Video Security in WordPress

When it comes to videos, WordPress does not have any default security measures in place. Videos hosted on WordPress are downloadable using software and plugins. Unless you use a video player plugin with strong encryption technology like DRM as offered by VdoCipher, videos of WordPress lack strong security protocols.

How VdoCipher Plugin Secures Videos in WordPress

DRM encryption

DRM protects videos from illegal downloads, unauthorized access, and sharing using Google Widevine and Apple FairPlay technology. The video file is converted into an encrypted format and decrypted at the player’s device via a private decryption key. The encryption methods used by other video hosting providers have a partial key exchange mechanism using AES128 and RTMPe. The key can be hacked, making them vulnerable to piracy.

Dynamic Watermarking

In this technique, digital information like user ID, email, and organization name embed into the video stream which cannot be altered or removed. The watermark is dynamic as the information changes with time. The dynamic watermarking feature we offer includes customizable text, color, transparency, and more.

Secure offline download in SDK

VdoCipher Android SDK lets you securely download the videos to your local storage device for offline playback. It also includes APIs to download media files to local storage, monitor download progress, and Fetch available download options for a video in your dashboard.

Screen capture block in Android & iOS Native app

Our native SDK integration blocks screen capture at the hardware level and discourages screen capture. It is a very helpful feature for securing your videos against piracy.

Multi-level user access

Often multiple users need access to the same video content but with different access rights. Some people have editor-level access while some are restricted as viewers. VdoCipher multi-users have four different roles, editor, uploader, OTP creator, and viewer.

Geo-Restrictions

Often you wish to restrict or limit access to your content for some regions or countries. It can be due to different pricing models, audience and market size, legal restrictions, availability of regional content, and much more. You may even need to blacklist or whitelist specific countries. Through our API guide, you can easily configure the IP and country restrictions.

OTP-based authentication

To play videos, VdoCipher uses a unique embed code based on a short-lived access token, OTP. In every session, it ensures video authentication so that only logged-in paid users can access the premium content.

Multiple file format support

Based on the browser or device type, the file format varies. On one device, a video may be low quality while comparatively better on another device. The video file into converted into various formats so that the best video resolution is served on every device.

App-based security by Google SafetyNet

With Google’s SafetyNet integration, playback on emulators is by default blocked, protecting against replay attacks and application tampering. Also, SafetyNet blocks duplicate apps by allowing playback on only the apps published by you and not modified APKs.

Creating Video Sitemap in WordPress

Firstly, a sitemap is a file with a structured listing of all the web pages of your website. Sitemaps help search engines crawl your site more efficiently and accurately. Search engines can understand your site content, changes you made to existing pages, or added new pages through sitemap, making indexing faster.

The video sitemap lists all the video content available on your website. Video sitemaps contain information like video publish date, duration, thumbnail image, video embed code, and description. This provides accurate information to the search engines and improves the video search results ranking.

A point worth noting here is that search engines like Google still index your video content and rank it but video sitemaps make the process of discovering your video much faster than waiting for the search engine to find it naturally.

Important Tags for a Video Sitemap

<loc> – URL of the webpage having the video
<video:video> – Parent tag or video container with the following sub-tags
<video:title> – video title
<video:description> – video content description
<video:thumbnail_loc> – URL pointing to the video thumbnail image file
<video:content_loc> – URL of the video file
<video:duration> – Video duration in seconds
<video:player_loc> – URL of the video’s player page
<video:publication_date> – Video publish date
<video:tag> – Specifies several tags under one category. Max permitted tag count is 32.

Sample Video Sitemap

Video sitemap are manually added or using sitemap generator tool. When using WordPress, there are several plugins that help in creating video sitemaps for your website. Popular video sitemap plugins for WordPress are All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and Yoast Video SEO.

FAQs

How to customize the video player in WordPress?

Many plugins for hosting videos on wordpress have customizable options. One such plugin is from VdoCipher which allows theme change, custom controls, subtitles, and customizable colors to match your website’s tone.

Can I improve the performance of my videos hosted on WordPress?

Compressing the video file size without affecting the video quality, CDN content delivery, and choosing a professional video hosting platform like VdoCipher that has an uptime of 99.99%.

What video formats does WordPress support?

WordPress supports a variety of video formats, including but not limited to MP4, WebM, and Ogg. The most straightforward method to add videos is by uploading the video file directly to your website using the Video block. This allows for direct playback on the site. WordPress can also embed videos from popular services like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and more, where videos from these services will embed automatically by simply placing a link to the video in your post or page.

Are there any specific settings recommended for uploading videos to WordPress?

When uploading videos to WordPress, it’s recommended to use a resolution of 1920×1080 (1080p) for optimal viewing on most devices, with a maximum resolution of 3840×2160 (4k) supported by the player. The video should be encoded in the H.264 format for wide compatibility. It’s advisable to have a bit rate of 8mbps for 1080p30 and 12mbps for 1080p60, with audio in AAC at a minimum of 160kbps. Ensure the video is optimized for fast start/web optimized playback and consider using video compression tools for adjusting the video before uploading if it doesn’t meet these specifications.

Jyoti

Jyoti began her career as a software engineer in HCL with UNHCR as a client. She started evolving her technical and documentation writing skills to become a full-time Content Marketer at VdoCipher.

The post Videos in WordPress Guide & Best WordPress Video Format appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Importance of Videos in WordPress

Videos are a powerful tool for engaging and informing website visitors about the product and also allow promotion on social media platforms. They can be used to showcase products or services, demonstrate how-to tutorials, and eLearning courses or provide visual explanations of complex concepts. Videos are a highly engaging form of content that can capture visitors’ attention and can make a website more accessible to people with disabilities, for example, by providing closed captions support. When used with WordPress CMS, videos can help to increase conversions by providing a more engaging and effective way to present products and services. You can add videos to WordPress website, including video embeds, and direct video upload, and also by using a plugin specifically designed for managing videos.

On WordPress, you get the option to self-host the videos and display them directly on the content pages of your website. In this case, the video file gets stored on your web hosting server. Additionally, to scale up and have more cost benefits you can use WordPress video hosting services like YouTube, VdoCipher, etc. to host videos and use the embed code, API, plugin, and other integration support to add videos to your website.

Does WordPress support Video Hosting?

Yes, WordPress supports video hosting in multiple ways which depend on the use case a business or video creator has. It does not have a built-in video infrastructure. Instead, it relies on the use of the web server on which it is deployed. There are two ways to host videos for a WordPress website.

• Self-Hosted – In this case, when you upload a video in the media upload section, this video will go into your web server directory. When you upload a video to your WordPress site, it is typically stored on the same server as your website. However, as videos can be large in size, this can quickly consume a lot of storage space and bandwidth. This also means that your main web server SSD space will get utilized and can cause crashing issues if the memory goes out of space. It is not a recommended method unless the use case is very small.
• Third-Party Video Hosting Services – uploading videos to a third-party video hosting service and embedding them in posts or pages is a great way to host your videos on wordpress. Popular third-party video hosting services that can be embedded in WordPress include YouTube, AWS, GCS, and for security needs, VdoCipher. Additionally, a good video hosting provider allows you to host and embed videos directly from your website through their plugin and API integrations.

Self-Hosting Videos on WordPress

Before understanding the process of self-hosting on WordPress let us look at the file storage structure present on your server on which WordPress is deployed. WordPress files that take up any disk space include things like:

• Images, videos, and other media files are uploaded to your media library. These are stored in /wp-content/uploads/ by default.
• Plugin and theme files like PHP, CSS, JS, etc are stored in /wp-content/themes/ and wp-content/plugins/ by default.
• Your WordPress core files or installation files are usually present in the root or public_html folder.
• You could also store other library and font files by uploading via FTP under root or in its sub-directories.

As discussed, video files in a self-hosted default setting environment will use the space in the /wp-content/uploads folder. It is always advisable to regularly check your disc space stats and take corrective action if required. In current versions of WordPress (5.2+), it is very easy to check the same using the Site Health option under the Tools section. Switch to the info tab and click “Directories and Sizes” for a dropdown listing like below example,

To upload a video file in a WordPress self-hosted environment, you can simply go to the editor of your post or page and click the “Insert Media” or “Add Gallery” option as per theme and editor settings. This will open up your media library where you can click on the Upload files tab and select the media from your local library. Once uploaded, you will be able to add alt text, title, and other details of the video. Finally, add to the gallery and insert the media options will directly insert the media using < video > tag with src attribute as “example.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-video.mp4”. You can save the page or post and anyone with the required access will be able to make the playback easily via the default HTML5 player. Further customizations to the player can be made by using custom javascript and CSS for the player.

Cons of Self-Hosted WordPress Video Hosting

It is technically possible to use the same web hosting server for video hosting, but it may not be the best option in all cases. Using a web hosting server for video hosting can put a significant strain on the server resources, especially if you expect to get a high amount of traffic to your videos. This can lead to slow loading times, buffering, and even server crashes.

Web hosting servers are not typically optimized for WordPress video hosting, which means that videos may not be delivered as quickly or as smoothly as they would be from a dedicated video hosting server. Also, the use of CDN and transcoding to optimize for multiple devices, geo-locations, network speed, and browsers is nowadays a minimum requirement to have. This enhances the overall user experience and a higher likelihood of viewers not leaving your site before the video has finished playing.

Security is also a major drawback when you try to self-host videos on the same web server. The reason is the non-availability of any default video protection infrastructure at the WordPress end. Even if you try using javascript and other basic security plugins, you are always vulnerable due to the private key being revealed through the network and other logs. Any illegal download attack on your main server will also lead to service disruptions.

However, if you have a non-vulnerable and small use case, you can choose to self-host your videos. Just make sure that your web hosting plan is suitable for hosting large files, has enough storage space and bandwidth, and that you keep an eye on your website’s performance.

Security needs with WordPress Self Video Hosting

As a WordPress user, it’s important to consider the security of your videos, especially if you’re self-hosting them on your website. Here are a few key security needs to keep in mind:

Access control: Make sure that only authorized users can access your videos by implementing user authentication and permissions. This can be achieved through the use of Access Manager plugins, which allow you to restrict access to specific videos based on user roles and capabilities.

Multi-DRM Encryption: Consider encrypting your videos to protect them from being accessed by unauthorized parties. This needs to be done by partnering with Google and Apple to use their DRM protection technology and is the safest method to protect your videos from illegal downloads and screen captures. Although, setting up a multi-DRM infrastructure is difficult and that is why a secure video hosting provider like VdoCipher brings the complete package to all categories of users at a highly affordable cost.

Backup: Regularly back up your videos to protect against data loss due to server failures or hacking attacks. This can be done through the use of backup plugins, which allows you to schedule automatic backups of your videos and restore them in case of an emergency. Keep in mind that using backup will increase your storage use of the main web server and might result in problems.

Analytics and Monitoring: Keep an eye on your website’s performance and security by monitoring it regularly. Use tools like Google Analytics to track the number of views your videos are getting or if you are using a plugin like VdoCipher, you can easily check your complete video analytics through a video dashboard.

By considering these security needs, you can ensure that your videos are protected and there is no respective revenue loss.

Must have Features in Third-Party Video Hosting

• Secure video playback and streaming – Includes the security measures like multi-DRM encryption to control and protect your videos from unauthorized access and downloads. DRM-encrypted video files need a private decryption key at the player’s end to decrypt and play the video.
• Various video format compatibility – Different devices and browsers support different file formats and a video hosting platform must accommodate a wide range of file formats to increase content availability. This also allows users to upload files in various formats and the hosting platform can encode and transcode the videos.
• Video analytics and tracking tools – Key metrics related to your videos are very important to monitor and analyze the performance. The various parameters are view counts, and engagement metrics like how many videos are viewed and which part of the video is played more. Some hosting platforms even provide heatmaps (visual representations of viewer engagement), conversion tracking, and a detailed report of the analysis.
• Adaptive bitrate streaming – Based on various device types and availability of internet connection, the videos should be played seamlessly without much buffering or latency. Adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) technology chunks a video file into variable bitrate segments. This ensures that the video quality is automatically adjusted to the viewer’s available bandwidth.
• User access and management – If you are already using or looking for a video hosting service, you obviously have a library of videos and need multi-user access. Some team members have just the view access while some have an editor or upload access. A third-party video hosting provider must offer easily accessible multi-user access.
• Subtitle support – Hosting platforms like VdoCipher offers multilingual subtitle support to encourage more viewership and content availability. You can select the desired subtitle language and upload the SRT or VTT file.
• Easy embed options – When videos are uploaded on a hosting platform, you will require an embed code to embed the video on your website or blog post.
• APIs and SDKs – SDKs and APIs make the whole process streamlined and faster. For example, VdoCipher has server API, Player API, and Android SDK.

Hosting Videos on WordPress

We have discussed the necessary features to have in a third-party video hosting platform. Overall, using DRM-encrypted video hosting with WordPress can help you protect your revenue-producing content while giving you more control over distribution and access to your videos. The best hosting will eventually cover all features that will make the overall user experience far better. Let it be multiple file and device format support, adaptive bitrate infrastructure, bug-free plugins, and integration options. You can even find new video hosting companies offering full-scale solutions, but experience tells that it is easy to offer but making it bug-free is difficult. Bugs result in errors and downtime, thus affecting your user experience and also monetary loss.

VdoCipher, a secure video hosting solution provider has a fully featured WordPress video plugin for easy integration, dynamic watermarking, and many other features. VdoCipher video plugin enables you to host premium video content on your WordPress website. It gives you complete control over your video content, so you can start minting money out of your awesome videos.

With VdoCipher’s WordPress video plugin, you get the highest protection from video piracy through multi-DRM encryption. Multi-DRM video encryption technology makes sure that no downloader or plugin can download your videos and in many cases also protects screen capture.

VdoCipher uses AWS-powered server, transcoding & CDN infrastructure to ensure a smooth playback across 6 continents. Its smart HTML5 player includes options like speed change, forward/rewind, multi-quality adaptive & responsive playback, add multi-language subtitles, chapters, and many other features. If you are looking to automate or integrate the upload, etc processes, you will also need the required VdoCipher APIs and SDKs.

VdoCipher also has well-written documentation and videos to make you understand the basic uploading, embedding, and customization options available with WordPress integration.

Top WordPress Video Hosting Plugins

1.VdoCipher

VdoCipher is a game-changer for folks who are serious about video security. VdoCipher brings Hollywood-grade video protection to your WordPress site. With VdoCipher’s DRM (Digital Rights Management) your videos can’t be downloaded or shared without permission. It is perfect for educational content, paid courses, or any premium video content. You can use VdoCipher’s plugin to embed videos on wordpress.

VdoCipher offers smooth video playback, without any buffering, and high-quality video streaming across all devices. You also get detailed analytics to see how your content is performing, which can be incredibly valuable for understanding your audience.

With VdoCipher’s dynamic watermarking, you can add customizable watermarks to your videos, a powerful deterrent against piracy. It adds an extra layer of security by making it easy to trace any unauthorized sharing. You also get other security features like User-based Security Analytics to prevent password sharing and track any malicious activity. App protection against emulator, cloning, and rooted devices via DRM & Play Integrity

Pros:

• Hollywood-grade DRM protection to prevent unauthorized downloads and sharing.
• Customizable watermarking for an added layer of security.
• Detailed analytics to track viewer engagement, video performance, also any malicious activity can be tracked
• Smooth, high-quality video playback across devices.

Cons:

• The high level of security and advanced features might come at a higher cost compared to less secure video hosting solutions.

2. The Ultimate Video Player For WordPress – by Presto Player

Presto Player is a game-changer for anyone serious about adding video content to their site. It’s like having a personal cinema on your website. You get tons of customization options, allowing you to match the video player to your site’s design perfectly. It supports multiple video sources, including self-hosted videos and external platforms like YouTube. One of its standout features is the ability to add calls to action directly in your videos, turning viewers into leads. The only con might be that it has so many features, that it can feel overwhelming at first.

3. SmartVideo – Video Player and CDN

SmartVideo takes the heavy lifting out of video hosting. It utilizes a global content delivery network (CDN) to ensure your videos load quickly, no matter where your audience is. This plugin optimizes videos in real-time, so they’re always delivered in the best quality possible without buffering. It’s like having a team of tech wizards optimizing your videos around the clock. The downside? Relying on a third-party CDN means you have less control over the technical aspects of your video hosting.

4. FV Flowplayer Video Player

FV Flowplayer is all about giving you control. It supports both self-hosted videos and those from external sources. What sets it apart is its attention to detail. You can customize everything from the player logo to the speed control options. It also offers video protection features to prevent unauthorized downloads. The interface is straightforward, but the level of customization requires a learning curve for beginners.

5. Easy Video Player

As the name suggests, Easy Video Player focuses on simplicity. It’s perfect for beginners or anyone who wants to get videos up and running with minimal fuss. It supports responsive video playback and has basic customization options. While it doesn’t offer as many features as some other plugins on this list, its ease of use is a significant advantage for many users.

6. Envira Gallery

Envira Gallery is primarily a photo gallery plugin but don’t let that fool you. It’s incredibly versatile and supports video galleries as well. With Envira you can create beautiful and responsive video galleries.Video hosted via Enviraintegrate seamlessly with your site. It’s great for showcasing a portfolio or a series of instructional videos. The downside is that if you’re looking for advanced video-specific features, this might not be the best fit.

7. All‑in‑One Video Gallery

This plugin lives up to its name. It’s a comprehensive solution that lets you manage, display, and categorize your videos efficiently. It supports video SEO, which is a huge plus for getting your content seen by more people. The interface is user-friendly, making it easy to get your video gallery up and running. However, the vast array of features might be more than you need if you’re just looking to host a few simple videos.

8. HTML5 Video Player

HTML5 Video Player is all about compatibility. It ensures your videos play smoothly across all devices and browsers. It’s straightforward, with a focus on delivering a seamless viewing experience. You can customize the player to match your site, and it supports both video and audio files. It’s a solid choice if you’re looking for reliability and simplicity.

9. Vimeo

Vimeo’s WordPress plugin allows you to easily embed your Vimeo videos on your site, taking advantage of Vimeo’s high-quality video playback. Vimeo ensures that you don’t have to worry about large videos slowing down your site. The downside is that you’re reliant on Vimeo. If you need features like video protection or detailed analytics, you might need to look at their premium plans.

10. Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth

Jetpack is the jack-of-all-trades in the WordPress world. While it’s known for security, backups, and performance, it also offers robust video hosting capabilities. The premium plans include video hosting features that are super easy to use, and they integrate seamlessly with your site. This means faster loading times and a better experience for your viewers. Plus, Jetpack videos are ad-free. The downside? It’s not the cheapest option if you’re only looking for video hosting.

FAQs

How to upload videos to WordPress without YouTube?

You can either choose to self-host on the web server where the website is deployed or you can pick a video hosting provider as per needs. If you are concerned about video security, VdoCipher provides the best multi-DRM AWS-hosted and transcoded infrastructure for the utmost protection against piracy.

How to upload a large video to WordPress?

By default WordPress installation is set to contain the php.ini file with upload_max_size value as 64MB or 80MB. You can add code strings to your functions.php and add the @ini_set function with parameters such as upload_max_size and post_max_size. Also, there is a cap on max file size even after that and it is from the hosting provider side. It is usually 5TB and if an object exceeds 5TB, it must be divided into maximum chunks of 5TB before uploading.

Can I add a dynamic watermark on videos hosted on WordPress?

Yes, but the only way to do so is by adding the VdoCipher video plugin. Just add dynamic watermark annotation in the plugin field and some PHP line of code in functions.php calling the dynamic fields data.

Vishal Sharma

My expertise focuses on DRM encryption, CDN technologies, and streamlining marketing campaigns to drive engagement and growth. At VdoCipher, I’ve significantly enhanced digital experiences and contributed to in-depth technical discussions in the eLearning, Media, and Security sectors, showcasing a commitment to innovation and excellence in the digital landscape.

The post Best WordPress Video Hosting Plugin & issues with Self Hosting appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

We expect to see more and more subscription-based video-on-demand services, not just from the now market giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney +, and Apple TV, but from others.

What is SVOD – Subscription Video On Demand?

Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) is a service that allows consumers to watch content on-demand. Subscription services are typically offered in the form of monthly subscriptions for unlimited access.

SVOD is a business model for distributing content via the internet. It was first introduced to customers by Netflix and then took over the market with its plans that offer a wide range of movies and TV shows. Customers can choose from a monthly subscription package that offers as many as tens of thousands of TV episodes and movies.

In the Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) model, users get unlimited access to video content for a monthly fees. SVODs are also often cheaper than traditional cable providers too, which make them an attractive option for many households who are looking for an alternative for their viewing needs.”

Netflix is the biggest SVOD platform in the world. Netflix accounts for over 35% of peak internet traffic in North America. What this means is that at any time every third internet user is streaming videos on the VOD platform.

When a single VOD streaming platform offers such variety as Black Mirror, BoJack Horseman and House of Cards, how else would you spend your time?

The Biggest SVOD platforms

SVOD model is best suited for websites that satisfy two criteria:

• Possess a large library of video content
• Have the potential to sustain large number of viewers.

Entertainment SVOD platforms

Top entertainment SVOD platforms offer more video content than any user can possibly watch. The unlimited choice of video content helps build a large audience that wants to “Netflix and chill”.

Netflix’s lead has been followed by many SVOD platforms. Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar and Hulu are amongst the biggest entertainment SVOD platforms in the world.

These SVOD platforms are incredibly good at making money. In 2016 SVOD platforms in the US generated $6.2 Billion revenue. This towers over the $2 Billion generated by Electronic Sell-Through platforms such as iTunes.

Elearning SVOD platforms

The subscription video on demand model works great in the elearning sector as well. Pluralsight and Lynda are most popular SVOD platforms providing professional training content. These platforms offer online training videos for people wishing to upgrade their skills.

MOOC providers Udacity and Coursera have also opted for the Subscription VOD model. The SVOD model enables these platforms to achieve sustained growth in revenue and a stable user base.

There is immense potential for growth in SVOD market. This blog provides a guides on how to create an SVOD platform.

Can Video on Demand replace Television

Video on Demand platforms have grown exponentially in size over the last 10 years. Cable television has dominated the living room for quite a while now. This monopoly is now being threatened by all-you-can-watch SVOD platforms.

Consider the figures from a global Nielsen survey on the popularity of video on demand platforms.

Nielsen’s followup to the study however revealed an interesting insight. Even though users express the intent to cancel cable, they rarely go through with cutting the cord.

The sheer variety of content that cable television offers cannot be matched by a single VOD platform. Indeed, SVOD platforms remain highly specialized. Most platforms focus on only a single range of content. This is because SVOD platforms need to excel in their niche to succeed.

YouTube is the biggest video on Demand platform

Viewers on YouTube clock over 1 billion hours of videos viewed, every day. The platform generated $9 billion revenue in 2015. This revenue comprises of the 45% of ad-revenue split from videos watched. 

YouTube’s revenue model is Advertising video on demand (AVOD). In AVOD platforms, subscribers do not pay for access to content. The VOD streaming platform generates revenue from showing ads to users.

This ad revenue is often quite low. Ad revenue generated per user is significantly lower than revenue that can be generated from a user subscribing to an SVOD platform. The upper limit for money made from ads is about $20 per 1000 views.

For effective representation with YouTube, Video creators have to sign up with Multi-channel Networks. This brings their split down to 38 percent. Video creators barely make enough money from Youtube to recoup the investment in video.

Potential for a vast ecosystem of VOD Platforms

Artists are increasingly starting their own video on demand platforms. YouTube personality Casey Neistat stopped vlogging on YouTube to start his own venture with CNN.

Opportunities for better monetization of content are now available for video creators. Video creators have the opportunity to contribute to an ecosystem of VOD platforms that would displace television.

Video on Demand Business Models

• Advertising Video on Demand (YouTube, Hulu)
• Subscription Video on Demand (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, Hotstar)
• Transaction Video on Demand (iTunes, Google Play Movies)
• Premium Video on Demand (PVOD)

Subscription Video on Demand – The Whys and Hows

Why Should You Consider SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand)?

The time is perfect for you as a video creator to start your own Video on Demand Platform. Revenues per subscriber on your own video platform are much much higher than revenue per subscriber to your YouTube channel.

Subscription costs in SVOD tend to be quite low compared to the aggregated costs of cable membership. This means that users can easily opt for multiple subscriptions to VOD platforms, without burning a hole in their pocket. SVOD is a much more sustainable model for VOD platforms, from both customer’s and video creator’s perspective.

Subscription Video on Demand model is ideal when you:

• Are confident about building a loyal audience, and
• Have a sufficiently large library that users can watch when convenient.

Examples of niche video on demand platforms include:

• Indieflix, which is a platform for independent short films
• Noggin, Nickelodeon’s video subscription platform for preschoolers.
• Panna Cooking – Video Recipes from master chefs

Costs of Content licensing in Subscription Video on Demand

If you are a content aggregator, you can choose to acquire different kinds of video content, and offer a combined subscription to your video package. A large library of content that would appeal to your subscribers is ideal for the SVOD model.

On the other hand you can offer a select range of premium content. Transactional video on demand model, used among others by Apple iTunes, makes more sense for premium content. p Examples of premium content would be movies being released through streaming video close to their theatre release. Hollywood studios are actively considering a Premium Video on Demand model, offering films to users at high price points within weeks of theatre release.

Determining the costs and potential revenue from adding video content is a key problem to solve. You would need to assess the value that it adds to your video library. Quantifying this value is the main challenge for video aggregators in the SVOD model.

User Management

User management is the most critical element to a subscription video on demand. It is at this stage you should ask yourself what features you wish to incorporate as part of the subscriber membership experience.

For example, do you want users to have access to all the content on your website at once? The answer depends on how you want your users to experience your SVOD platform.

You can implement Multi-tiered Memberships – Suppose you have somehow bagged the streaming rights to HBO’s Game of Thrones. You can sell a subscription to users who want to watch the show as it is released, and another (pricier) subscription to users who wish to catch-up with episodes of previous seasons.

With your own subscription video on demand platform you can customize user’s experience. You also have flexibility over pricing, meaning that you can effectively monetize from budget customers as well as from customers seeking a superior experience. In this case, don’t forget to integrate a local phone service so that customers can reach out whenever they have questions and get quicker support.

Netflix has a tiered pricing model, starting at $7.99 in the US. By upgrading to the $9.99 subscription users can simultaneously watch Netflix on two screens, and for $11.99 subscription can access it on 4 screens. Most new video on demand platforms implement a variant of a freemium model, with free content available to attract new users, and then tiered pricing options. 

Sell Multiple Memberships

You can also sell multiple memberships for piecemeal video content. Suppose you’ve managed to wrest House of Cards away from Netflix, and want to sell separate subscriptions to both House of Cards and Game of Thrones. You can do so, if it makes sense to sell separate subscriptions. While there is likely to be considerable audience overlap for the two TV series, selling multiple subscriptions makes sense when you believe that different kinds of users require exclusively one kind of content. Online education platforms generally adopt multiple memberships, based on the subject that students wish to learn.

Managing User Access

Ultimately any good user management system succeeds on the basis of how well it manages user access. Adding user restrictions, such as the ability to download videos, watching simultaneously on different screens, and managing total user watch time can be highly important. You may also wish to implement a dripped content strategy, wherein your videos may become accessible to users only after a set period. You can for example release a new episode of a video series for new viewers. This makes eminent sense for online video courses and for newly released television shows.

A detailed comparison and statistical study of SVOD with TVOD is here.

WordPress for Subscription Video on Demand Platform

WordPress, with its fantastic ecosystem of plugins and themes offers a large variety of membership plugins. Popular WordPress membership plugins MemberPress, WooCommerce Memberships and Restrict Content Pro provide most of these user management features that you may wish to incorporate to your website. Each of these plugins has a unique feature set, and whether it is the best for your Subscription video on demand model depends on the feature set you are looking to incorporate to your website. WordPress guru Chris Lema has done a great analysis here of the features you should look for in a membership plugin.

Advantages of SVOD

If you want to be successful with your SVOD business, you’ll want to understand all the benefits of this new business model.

1. Consistent Revenue: Subscription services provide a more consistent revenue stream. You may charge a fee for video content on a monthly or annual basis. This means you’ll have a regular revenue stream for the specific time period.
2. Price Customization: There are no price restrictions for the monthly subscription fees that have been set up for your video content. You can decide the price on the basis of the content demand and trend.
3. Customer Base: Provide your viewers with valuable and relevant content and they’ll become your committed followers. This customer base will let you grow your business and reach a wider audience
4. Best for large content portfolio: SVOD works best if you have a large content portfolio, and provides better retention, time per user, and trust to content providers that their content reaches the maximum audience. More details on how to make it work are here.

Disadvantages of SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand)

1. The problem with SVOD is that once you have subscribed to a channel you will have to wait until the subscription period is over and renew it if required.
2. SVOD does not inherently directly link operational costs of bandwidth to revenues, it works generally at a larger scale. The cost of delivery reduces at scale.  High pricing or Limitation on content hours can make it work at lower audience numbers.
3. If your platform has more hours of content to present, it’s challenging to know which movies to show and what to recommend. Though at the same time, it is an opportunity to charge money from new content producers for advertisements and promotions on the platform.

Secure Video Hosting with VdoCipher

While TV is a major competitor to VOD platforms, video piracy poses a bigger, existential threat. Our statistical study shows that 1 in 5 of the internet population uses a video downloader tool. Your customers, who should help you bring in new customers through word-of-mouth, can just as well share their user password or download the content directly.

If your users share passwords among themselves, the number of people that they share it with would be the audience lost to your VOD platform. So if every 4th user shares it with 4 other friends, there is 1 lost subscriber to every paying subscriber. By combating piracy you can double your income from your SVOD platform. Losses from online sharing of videos are much higher. 

VdoCipher’s secure video streaming offers a full-stack DRM, helping you battle piracy effectively. Security features include –

• Server side encryption in Amazon S3 making sure your files are secure in the cloud
• Encrypted video streaming ensures that files remain secure throughout the streaming process
• Player authentication using OTP – User’s video player is authenticated at the time of playback, meaning non-authenticated users cannot log in, and the video cannot be shared on any unauthorized website
• Dynamic watermarking – Text/image overlay over the video, deterring pirates from using screen capture software

Find more details about VdoCipher’s DRM infrastructure and our integration of Widevine DRM for Hollywood-grade security, which helps us protect your premium content.

Online businesses also often require features over and beyond video security. VdoCipher fulfills all major requirements for enterprise video hosting. The complete set of features that VdoCipher offers for enterprise video hosting may be found here. 

FAQs

1. What does SVOD stand for?

SVOD stands for Subscription Video on Demand. In the Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) model, users get unlimited access to video content for a monthly fee.

2. What are the advantages of SVOD?

• Viewers can watch all the available content they want as long as they keep the SVOD subscription active.
• Provides consumers with more choice than other streaming services because you can choose from a wider range of content

3. What are some examples of SVOD models?

Some of the examples of SVOD include Netflix, Disney+, Prime video.

Siddhant Jain

CEO, VdoCipher. Writes about video tech, ed tech and media tech.

www.vdocipher.com/

The post SVOD – All You Need To Know About Subscription Video On Demand appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

WordPress is one of the fastest ways to build a working website. WordPress and its themes and plugins are used by developers to create truly awesome websites with minimal effort.

Many users combine our secure video streaming service with their video membership sites built on WordPress. Here we explain how to add the VdoCipher video player to your site using the VdoCipher WordPress plugin. With the VdoCipher WordPress video hosting plugin, you can stream videos on your WordPress site with the best content protection possible.

Our streaming service uses encryption of videos during streaming and OTP-based decryption to provide the highest protection from video piracy. We also provide a highly customizable video player, with a large variety of player themes to choose from. We are improving our plugin gradually and would love to receive inputs from users about any new features they would like us to add.

Integrating VdoCipher’s WordPress Video Hosting Plugin

Installing the VdoCipher WordPress video hosting plugin is pretty straightforward. Here are the steps that you would need to follow.

1. 1. Create account on VdoCipher. Upon sign up, you will find the Client Secret Key in the Config section in the Dashboard. This key is meant to be as confidential as a password, so it is essential that you keep it safe. You will need this key to authorize the plugin to play videos from your VdoCipher account.
   2. On your WordPress dashboard, search for “VdoCipher” on Add plugins page.

3. Click “Install now”. This will install the VdoCipher WordPress video hosting plugin.
4. Click on the link “Activate”. On the top of this page, you will see a message. “Click here to configure VdoCipher”.
5. In the next page, enter the Client secret key from Step 1. On entering the Client Secret Key, you would be shown a status: ready message.
6. You can now upload or import videos to your VdoCipher dashboard. Once the video is added successfully, you would find the video ID as part of the video information.

The following video has been added using the VdoCipher video plugin. The video uses multiple watermarks, details of which we provide below.

Using the VdoCipher WordPress Video Hosting Plugin

Once you have configured the VdoCipher plugin with the Client Secret key, you are ready to start streaming your premium videos through your WordPress website. You can embed your video inside of posts and pages. Depending on the WordPress version that you are using, there are two different kind of editors:

WordPress Classic Editor

The TinyMCE-based WordPress text editor is used by default in WordPress versions less than 5.0. To add videos to your posts and page you can use the following shortcode. You would need to replace the 12345678 with the video id. The plugin parses the shortcode behind the scenes to display the video every time the page is loaded.

[vdo id='12345678']

WordPress Visual (Blocks) Editor

WordPress 5.0 has introduced a paradigm shift to the experience of adding new content to your web pages. A visual editor, comprised of blocks representing different content types, has now become default.

You can now add videos to your site using the VdoCipher block. The VdoCipher block only requires the video ID, so you no longer need to remember the shortcode syntax.

Note that the shortcode is completely supported. To embed using the shortcode you can either use the shortcode block or else use the shortcode inside a paragraph block.

Configuring VdoCipher WordPress video hosting plugin

You can go to the settings menu of the VdoCipher WordPress video hosting plugin to configure video settings.

Watermark your video with text

You can use our watermark feature inside the plugin to add text on your videos.  Adding moving text with viewer information is an extra deterrent to people sharing recorded videos.  You can configure the plugin to add annotation over your videos.

You need to set up “annotation code” in the Settings > VdoCipher page.  Go to plugins > VdoCipher> settings > annotation statement, and put the watermark code there. This code tells us how and what to embed over your videos. A sample watermark code for dynamic text watermark is given here below.

[
{'type':'rtext', 'text':' {ip}', 'alpha':'0.20', 'color':'0x000000','size':'12','interval':'2000'},
{'type':'text', 'text':' {date.h:i:s A}', 'alpha':'0.30' , 'x':'60', 'y':'200', 'color':'0x000000', 'size':'11','interval':'3000'},
{'type':'rtext', 'text':' {email}', 'alpha':'0.20', 'color':'0x000000','size':'12','interval':'2000'},
{'type':'rtext', 'text':' {username}', 'alpha':'0.20', 'color':'0x000000','size':'12','interval':'2000'}]

[ {'type':'rtext', 'text':' [ip]', 'alpha':'0.30', 'color':'0xFF0000','size':'13','interval':'2000','skip':'2000'} ]

For further details on creating your annotation code, read on here: Add watermark over videos

Once set, the annotation code is applied over all VdoCipher videos in WordPress. If you want a particular video not to show the annotation, you need to pass another attribute to the short-code.

[vdo id='12345678' no_annotate=true]

Player Themes

You can choose from a variety of custom player themes to customize your video player. You can go to the player themes page from the options page to select the player theme that you like best.

You can find all currently live player themes at Video Player Themes. If you have any specific requirements you can let us know via mail at support@vdocipher.com.

When the player theme is set from the settings page it applies to all videos. You can also give different themes for different videos. This can be done via the shortcode, by adding the vdo_theme attribute, like so:

[vdo id='123456789' vdo_theme='e2dbde7971d145cd9a3bc0271b75b0a5']

Setting Height and Width

You can set the default height and width in the settings page. You can set any width (in case specified width exceeds the width of the user’s screen or the width of the parent HTML element, the video player will fit into the limiting width). By setting default height to auto you can preserve the aspect ratio of the video. You can also set the height and width using attributes inside the shortcode, as well as inside the video block for WP Visual Editor, like so:

[vdo id='123456789' width='1280' height='auto']

Video Players – Flash and HTML5

While VdoCipher started out with streaming protected content using Flash, our HTML5 player now also provides Hollywood-grade security. The major advantage of HTML5 over Flash is that it delivers a superior streaming experience, and has the highest compatibility across browser. While we continue support Flash for legacy users, we highly recommend that users opt for HTML5 player for their videos.

Player Version

As of our WordPress video plugin version, 1.25 the latest video player version is 1.6.10. The VdoCipher video player is regularly improved to deliver the best user experience and to get the best data for advanced analytics. We request users to regularly update the player version to the latest player when they update the plugin.

Sell videos online

For selling videos online, VdoCipher is an extremely good option to protect your content from being freely distributed. You can set up an e-commerce video platform with WordPress itself.

One option would be to set up a membership site with multiple subscription options. This way your customers can pay a subscription fees and get access to content according to the level of subscription they buy. Such a system can be set up using membership plugin.

Similarly, you can have a pay-per-view option for your platform where your visitors have to pay a one-time charge for watching a video. You can restrict the number of times and for how much duration you want to give access to the content. Such a system can be set up with WooCommerce plugin. You might have to use another plugin Woocommerce pay per post to achieve this. You can further customize the plugin for the restrictions and user flow that you might like to achieve.

Supercharge your WordPress website – blogs to help you build an awesome website

Learning Management Systems and Membership plugins

WP eMember for managing WordPress Memberships
Sensei LMS features
Tutorial to get started with Sensei LMS

Watermark details

Add Text to Videos with Watermark
Custom Variables as Watermark in WordPress

Custom player themes

Video Player Themes – Add Custom Skins and Change Player Controls
Change video player color using custom CSS

If you are looking to create video e-commerce platform online or just want to  protect your online videos on WordPress, go ahead and use our wordpress video hosting plugin. In case you have any feedback, suggestions or bugs, we would be happy to hear from you at support@vdocipher.com

So, try out our WordPress video hosting plugin to embed videos on wordpress. Try the free full version 5 GB trial at www.vdocipher.com for protecting WordPress videos from download. Secure, Smooth and Affordable video streaming solution.

The post WordPress video hosting plugin : Add Secure Videos to your WP site appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Because of this ability to offer a personalized user experience, Video on Demand Platforms retain a phenomenal ability to engage viewers and keep viewers on their platform. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have both been aggressively building a vast content catalogue. It is imperative for these Over-the-top (OTT) platforms to present just the right kind of content for different kinds of viewer preferences.

Index:

1. A Case Study of a Video on Demand Platform – Netflix
2. Identify your niche and create your Video on Demand Platform
3. Why VdoCipher is best for your Video on Demand Platform
4. Select a Tech platform to build your Video on Demand Platform
   • WordPress/ Joomla/ Drupal/ Moodle Content Management Systems
   • Develop your own website using Node.JS, PHP, ASP.Net, Python, Ruby
5. Design your website
6. Monetization model, Pricing and Payment Processing

A Case Study of a Video on Demand Platform – Netflix

Going back 10 years, Netflix was primarily identified as a DVD-by-mail business. The company had introduced its Video on Demand platform in January 2007 as a bonus for DVD subscribers. What began as a tentative step to build a slight advantage over competitors has now become the world’s biggest Video on Demand platform. In this period the company has consistenly worked to improve its technology stack and content catalogue. The company now has close to a 100 million subscribers, with the number only expected to grow.

Identify your niche and Create your Video on Demand Platforms

As internet connectivity across the world improves, demand for video streaming services will continue to grow. In North America Netflix  contributes to over 35% of peak internet traffic. In India broadband connections have become the norm in urban areas, whereas mobile networks led by Reliance Jio are making an aggressive push to enable internet connectivity across the country.

Compared to the costs of creating and distributing videos, revenues are not hard to attain. Setting up a video on demand platform is certainly one of the most attractive proposition for content creators and distributors.

Video on demand means so much more than movies and TV shows. YouTube, which is the world’s biggest VOD platform, enables creators to share videos on niche subjects. Users create videos covering anything from video games, film and music discussion and vlogging to educational videos. To get started you only need to reach out to a small subsection of your potential audience base.

Video content is 40 times more likely to be shared than other forms of content. This means that quality videos can generate an audience with minimal effort in marketing. You need to identify your niche, and offer top-quality content to ensure that your video on demand platform is a success.

Videos are also heavily being used for marketing and for product videos. Four times as many users prefer to to watch a video about a product than read about it.

Video is also revolutionizing E-Learning considerably. Instructors are using video to reach millions of people eager to learn. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) such as EdX, Coursera and MIT OCW have made quality higher learning accessible to anybody with a good internet connection. 

You can setup your own video on demand platform, which would give you complete control over your video streaming application.You can directly communicate with your audience, and can interact with them help improve user experience, helping achieve a greater audience.

Setting up your own VOD platform, you can setup your monetization options, opting for either a subscription model or an advertising video on demand business model, as you see fit. You can make further customizations such as custom encoding to optimize bandwidth usage, and custom player skins to offer a customized viewer experience. 

It would also mean being no longer dependent on video aggregators like Vimeo and YouTube. YouTube for all its advantages offers limited monetization options. It does not leave the users much control over their content and their audience. Throughout playback viewers are completely free to switch to another video, meaning that meaningful engagement is hard to achieve.

Why VdoCipher is ideal for your VOD Platform

Streaming videos involves a large workflow process, which involves:

• Video Upload and Transcoding
  • Upload to secure S3 bucket
  • Transcoding to different file formats, enabling multi-bitrate streaming
• Video management through dashboard
• Secure Video Streaming
  • Amazon Cloudfront and Akamai CDN network for fast delivery
  • Server-side encryption, including HLS encryption
  • Player authentication, through backend private key
  • Dynamic watermarking
  • URL whitelisting
• Smooth video playback
  • Design custom skins and customize video player
  • Thumbnail customization
• Plugins for WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, Moodle, and developer-friendly APIs
• Multi-device compatibility
• VAST ad insertion for Advertising Video on Demand platform
• Access video playback analytics through API and dashboard
• Pay per use model – pay for bandwidth and storage

The entire process of conceptualizing, storyboarding, and video production is extremely time and resource-intensive. To regain the investment that goes into making videos you need to ensure effective monetization from content.

Yet piracy presents a major challenge to monetization. Our statistical study shows that about 25% of the world population uses common video download tools to pirate content. 

VdoCipher’s large user base relies on our secure video streaming solution to ensure that their monetization opportunities are not affected due to piracy losses. VdoCipher video hosting solution provides the complete solution for video on demand platforms. Our full-stack Video DRM enables video content providers to secure their videos effectively, and set up their videos behind a paywall solution. In this blog we discuss why self-hosting is rarely a good idea. Find more details about how we integrate Widevine DRM for Hollywood-grade security, to provide the best protection for premium content.

Using VdoCipher means that you can continue to focus on improving your website experience and your content catalogue, while resting assured that your viewers are getting a smooth video experience. Buffering is the reason a lot of users leave videos – a study revealed that even for videos of length greater than 30 minutes, a delay of 30 seconds can lead to more than 60% of users leaving the video. Viewers have little patience and high expectations when it comes to streaming videos. VdoCipher has developed expertise in delivering high quality videos in locations with spotty internet connectivity. Video playback through the VdoCipher player is smooth and seamless, and time taken for buffering is minimal.

In this blog we discuss how to use VdoCipher to maximum effect to setup your video on demand platform. To learn more about how the VdoCipher feature set works out for different cases check out this blog on VdoCipher for business.

CMS and Programming Languages to Build your Video on Demand Platform

Create Video on Demand Platform with WordPress

With VdoCipher you can build a video CMS in combination with popular CMS such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! and Moodle. WordPress currently powers over 25% of the websites on the internet. Some of the most prominent websites using WordPress because of its easy functionalities are New Yorker magazine and Techcrunch.com

Embed using Shortcodes

• Create an account on VdoCipher. You will be mailed your client secret key.
• Install the VdoCipher wordpress plugin, and enter your client secret key. You are all set to embed VdoCipher videos to your website.
• Right-click on the video in the dashboard that you wish to embed to your website. Copy the video id to the shortcode format, replacing the 123456 in the shortcode below, and using a single parenthesis.  

[vdo id="123456"]

• Add the shortcode to the page in which you wish to embed the video. Its a simple two-step process to embedding your video.

Dynamic Watermarking

To add a dynamic watermark go to the settings panel of the VdoCipher plugin, and add the text that you wish to add to your WordPress website. More details are given in this blog.

Themes for WordPress developers

WordPress supports a fantastic community of developers who create plugins and themes. This makes WordPress extremely useful for beginners looking to buy off-the-shelf solutions for their website. To create your own Video on Demand Platform there is a wide variety of themes and plugins that you can use to embed your videos to your websites.  Some of the best themes that we have found to offer great functionalities and easy monetization options are:

• Vlog

Multi-purpose – can be used for vlogging or for news websites.
Supports Series plugin, which enables you to create playlists of videos
Integration with WooCommerce for monetization options
Enables Advertising Video on Demand by supporting banner ads on pages
$69 one-time purchase

• VideoTube:

$49 cost
Easy integration with membership plugins enabling you to monetize your website as Subscriber Video on Demand

• VideoPlus

$39 cost – includes 1 year of theme updates and 1 year of personal support

• PremiumPress Video Theme

$79 cost
Whereas most video themes are designed to enable monetization from advertising video on demand model. PremiumPress’ Video Theme is designed to enable you to secure videos behind a membership plugin.

• NewsMag Lite

This is free plugin that you can use to create your own newspaper-like or magazine-like website. You can use a combination of texts, images and videos for your site.

Membership Plugins for WordPress

You can manage user access rules using membership plugins. This includes partial protection of content on web pages to restrict content to only paid subscribers. Partial protection is implemented through shortcodes, and means that free subscribers/ non-subscribers can only see part of the page, while the remaining would be protected by a paywall. You can also protect entire sections and pages behind your paywall membership plugins.

WP eMember and Membership Pro 2 are two of the most popular membership plugins. An important feature that WP eMember offers is to prevent simultaneous logins. This stops users from sharing passwords with other people. Another plugin.

Create Video on Demand Platform with Joomla!

Joomla! is one of the most popular PHP-based content management systems. A vibrant community of developers has made Joomla one of the best platforms on which to build your video on demand platform.

VdoCipher’s Joomla video plugin makes all the backend API calls, meaning that all you need to do to embed your videos is add the embed code. The installation procedure to integrate VdoCipher’s video plugin to your Joomla-based video on demand platform is:

1. Dowload the VdoCipher Joomla Extension
2. Upload the VdoCipher Joomla Extension to the Manage Extensions page
3. Click on VdoCipher to open Parameters page
4. Enter your client secret key, which you would have received in the mail on registration, in the given field
5. On saving the settings you are good to go
6. Get your video id directly from the VdoCipher dashboard
7. Enter your video id to the shortcode, in the format (where you replace 123456 with your video id)

[vdo id= 123456]

Note that PHP5-curl needs to be installed on the server for this extension to work. Attributes for the shortcode include the display settings of height and width – for example if you require height = 350 and width = 700, you can add the following attributes to the shortcode

[vdo id=123456 height=350 width=700]

The shortcode is space-sensitive, so any additional space at the end of the shortcode before the brackets can cause an error.

Create Video on Demand Platform with Drupal

VdoCipher module for Drupal uses a shortcode to display videos inside any node, which may include articles and posts, besides custom content types. The shortcode is added to the WYSIWYG text editor, and the module handles the API calls. The client secret key is used for API calls between your Drupal website and the VdoCipher video dashboard. The plugin abstracts away the API calls, meaning that all you need to do get started is:

1. Upload your video to the VdoCipher dashboard
2. Download the VdoCipher module
3. Upload the module file from the “Install New Module” page on your Drupal installation
4. Click on the Configure link on the module page to complete your setup
5. Copy the API Key from VdoCipher Dashboard -> Config -> General
6. Enter your client secret API key.
7. Get your video id directly from the VdoCipher dashboard
8. Enter your video id to the shortcode, in the format

9. Embed the video id to any content_type text field in your website

We are currently working on integrating the VdoCipher plugin with the Drupal media module. You can add dynamic watermarks to your video as well using these annotation code guidelines.

Video on Demand Platform with Server-Side scripting languages and Frameworks

We have also developed our API for use-cases with Python, Ruby, Node.js, ASP.NET and PHP. Together these backend-languages power much of the internet. Using our embed code and the API reference for the respective language, you can host your videos to deliver a truly unique experience for your clients.

Web Frameworks that are most popular currently include:

• Django, Flask and Pyramid frameworks for Python
• Rails framework for Ruby
• CakePHP framework for PHP
• Node.js framework for Javascipt

The utility of frameworks is in enabling developers to use boilerplate code, thereby avoiding having to repeat the same thing multiple times. Frameworks help you manage and enforce your web architecture. Using a framework also enables you to use vast a variety of libraries that are available.

For Web Hosting the most popular website hosting servers are DigitalOcean, Rackspace and AWS.

Create Video on Demand Platform with PHP

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is one of the most popular server-side scripting languages used to build websites. The biggest utility for PHP is its ease-of-use, which has enabled blogging platforms such as WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal to emerge. The world’s largest encyclopedia – Wikipedia is also setup using PHP. Popular e-learning platform Moodle is yet another implementation of PHP. Facebook also uses PHP in its core codebase.

PHP is arguably the easiest language for beginners to make a basic functional website, and for that reason retains its popularity.

In our developer library you can find the embed code for integrating your VdoCipher videos to your website. Using this embed code you would need to add the video id to the embed code, and your client secret key to the API reference, and you would be ready to embed your videos directly to your website.

The developer library also includes sample code for enabling video uploads to your VdoCipher dashboard directly from your website. This would enable your users to directly upload videos without needing to open the dashboard. After the API call is made by your PHP application server, a video upload policy document is returned. You can use standard Javascript libraries to make the process of upload smoother – Angular, JQuery or Dropzone. The video upload should be made within 1 hour of the video upload policy document.

Create Video on Demand Platform with Node.JS

Node.js is currently the most exciting framework for server-side scripting. Its primary utility is its single-thread non-blocking I/O design, which means it is eminently suited for web applications requiring vast scalability. Some of the most popular transaction and event-based web applications currently using Node.js are PayPal, Uber and Netflix

The VdoCipher Node.js module enables you to handle your videos securely on your video hosting platform. VdoCipher’s secure video hosting

Using Node.js for server-side scripting means that both your frontend and backend use Javascript. Most Javascript frameworks are for frontend; Node.js is a singularity in that context. . The Node.js core itself is quite lightweight. There are numerous modules that are made available by an active developer community, adding powerful functionalities to Node.js programming. An active developer community means that for most purposes you could easily find a developer library to achieve a nydesired functionality.  

VdoCipher Node.js API

Class VdoCipher. Create a class instance vdocipher (client_secret_key). Instance method of the VdoCipher API include vdocipher.getOTP, which passes the video ID, and receives OTP. Instance method vdocipher.getSignature returns a signature authenticating the video playback.

For more information about the API reference please look up the API reference. Check out the embed code.

You can find sample code to generate OTP for a video on demand platform on WordPress, to authenticate video playback

The github reference can be found here.

Create Video on Demand Platform with Ruby on Rails

Hulu is a major video on demand platform built using Ruby on Rails. Other web applications built using Ruby on Rails framework are SlideShare, Github and Groupon.

Ruby is one of the most popular server-side scripting language. Popular for its developer-friendly structure, Ruby can be used with the Rails framework (Ruby-on-Rails).

VdoCipher gem for Ruby-on-Rails handles the API reference. Steps for integrating VdoCipher video player to your video on demand platform:

• Add this line to your Gemfile in your rails application

gem 'vdocipher'

• • And in your controller file add these lines

require 'vdocipher'
...

vdo_api = VdoCipher.new(clientSecretKey: "CLIENT_SECRET_KEY");
@embedcode vdo_api.play_code("VIDEO_ID", "style=\"height:400px;width:640px;max-width:100%%;\"");

• • • Now in your view file embed code where you would like to play videos

Create Video on Demand Platform with Python Frameworks (Django, Flask, Pyramid)

Most popular websites using the Django framework with Python are Instagram, Pinterest, Google. The biggest video on demand platform YouTube, although originally built using PHP, now also runs on Python.

You can see a sample file for integrating VdoCipher to your Python website here. You should break this file, which includes the embed code, player OTP call and API reference, according to your MVC architecture.

Design your Website’s User Interface

A great and intuitive user interface goes a long way towards building and retaining your audience. Here we bring tips from observing popular video on demand platforms, that you should implement to make your VOD platform a success.

• • • Clean and Easy Membership system – a popup box can be used to login. You may also enable social login via users Google or Facebook accounts
    • These are the home pages of Twitter and Netflix – the similarity? Both of them give a glimpse of interesting content that you find on the platform. This would improve conversion of site visitors to subscribers.

     

      
    • Personalized Recommendations based on ratings that you give movies and your watch history.  Netflix implements a Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down rating system – it aggregates user behaviour across different patterns of ratings. Using your viewership data Netflix recommends content that you are likely to watch.
    • Easy grouping of content helps viewers decide what to watch. This includes content based on your recent watch history, and content grouped according to genres such as Action & Adventure and Romantic Films.
    • Get your movie descriptions right – help users understand exactly what they are signing up to watch. Your users will appreciate it.
    • Multi-Device synchronization – For viewers constrained by time, it may be possible only to consume long-form content in small chunks. By providing synchronization across devices you enable your viewers to start from the last-watched locations, and stop in the knowledge they can resume when they want to on whichever device they wish to. This is one of the most important features to get right. Your video player should be able to synchronize your last played location on the video. VdoCipher gets this right by automatically saving the pointer to the last viewed location on the video, meaning that you can easily play back videos.
    • Get the balance between high quality and streaming on low bandwidth networks – It is important to provide a great experience for viewers with high-speed connections as well as for viewers with low-internet bandwidth. This is critical for VOD platforms in developing countries, where internet connectivity in rural areas is poor. Encoding optimizations can help viewers stream reasonably good videos even on 2G-speed internet connections.

Monetization Models, Pricing, and Payment Gateway

SVOD – Subscriber Video on Demand

Subscription Video on Demand is definitely the most popular monetization model used by most video on demand platforms. A recurring subscription gives users access to unlimited content on the VOD platform.

To target different kinds of users you can implement a tiered pricing model, wherein subscribers to the basic plan get the core content offering. Subscribers to higher payment plans can get access to additional content that supplements the core video offering. For example Netflix gives unlimited access to its complete library for its basic plan. However if you wish to watch Netflix simultaneously on multiple screens (share a subscription), you are encouraged to buy a multi-screen subscription at a higher price point.

AVOD – Advertiser Video on Demand

As a monetization model, this is the strategy that YouTube offers. Through this YouTube can share revenue with its content creators. In this case, content creators do not have a direct relationship with the video on-demand platform, and therefore advertiser Video on Demand in YouTube’s case enables revenue sharing. AVOD is the optimal strategy when you are expecting a lot of users to tune in to your website.

The only caveat to basing your business model exclusively on advertising is that it is viable only when you have a large audience. Revenue from a single ad is often very low – you need to have a large enough audience to be able to generate meaningful revenue. For videos on subjects of broad interest, the inherent virality of content is extremely critical. In such a case YouTube is often the ideal platform for building and connecting with their audience. If you are looking to build your website with the target of earning revenue from advertising, you should at least target million plus page views per month to build a video platform like youtube.

TVOD – Transactional Video on Demand – Pay per view or buy the content

You can make specific content accessible for users on payment of a fees. This is for one-time content created which you want to monetize. Most online tutorials fall into this category. You can package your videos individually, or as part of a bigger package. The difference between subscription and pay-per-view content is that users pay for access to specific content only. TVOD is ideal when you have differentiated content offerings which have value by themselves.

Payments Gateway and Processing

You need to setup a payment gateway solution so that you can receive payments from across the globe.

Instamojo, PayU and CCAvenue are some of the most popular payment gateways in India. Internationally PayPal and Stripe are both widely trusted payment processors.

Comparison of International Payment Gateways – PayPal and Stripe comparison

Comparison of Indian Payment Gateways

All Indian payment gateways – Instamojo, PayU and CCAvenue offer integrations with WooCommerce Platform for WordPress. By using any of the free plugins offered by these payment gateways you can get your Video on Demand platform to accept payments within minutes of setting up.

The onboarding process of tying up with the Payment Gateway can take some time though. Most of the payment gateways require scanned copies of documents.

Setting up Payment Gateway for Video on Demand Platform

• Install WooCommerce and the free plugin for the Payment Gateway –
• WooCommerce Settings Page -> Checkout -> Payment Gateways
• Click on the Payment Gateway of your choice after downloading and installing the plugin
• Rename the payment gateway Credit Card/ Debit Card/ Internet Banking
• Configure your payment gateway by adding your merchant ID and Merchant Key
• You can finally select a redirect URL – the page on your website where customers will be taken after the transaction

Individual process for these payment gateways vary. If you opt for any of the payment gateways for your WordPress website it would be a good idea to first integrate it with your WordPress installation to make sure that the plugin is compatible with your WP themes.

If you have more queries on VOD platform, please give us a shout at info@vdocipher.com. A free trial to secure stream videos for your video on demand platform is available at vdocipher.com

Popular FAQs Around VOD Platforms

How can I identify my niche and create a successful Video on Demand platform?

Recognizing your audience and delivering high-quality, targeted content are crucial steps. Video content’s shareability significantly aids audience growth with minimal marketing effort.

Why is VdoCipher considered ideal for VOD platforms?

VdoCipher offers a comprehensive suite of services for secure video streaming, including multi-bitrate streaming, secure S3 bucket upload, transcoding, DRM protection, dynamic watermarking, and detailed analytics.

What are the main monetization models for VOD platforms?

Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), Advertiser Video on Demand (AVOD), and Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) are key models, each catering to different content access and payment strategies.

How can I set up payment processing for my VOD service?

Integrating a reliable payment gateway that supports global transactions is essential. Options include PayPal, Stripe, and regional gateways like Instamojo and CCAvenue, depending on your audience’s location.

Siddhant Jain

CEO, VdoCipher. Writes about video tech, ed tech and media tech.

www.vdocipher.com/

The post Video on Demand Platform for Media & E-learning Businesses appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Using this WordPress membership plugin would help you in deciding what content to provide to which category of learner. Control of access to content eventually determines that you are able to monetize your content. We discuss how to implement Per user restriction on login time and preventing unauthorized access so that one paid member has maximum restrictions from sharing their access credentials.  We have given the links to plugins at the end.

The biggest utility of membership plugins is to protect content in a Learning Management system. For suggestions on free LMS plugins to use in WordPress check this blog on Free WordPress LMS.

Specific case of protection for video membership site is also written in brief at end. Overall aim of the article is to ensure that maximum revenues from your content reaches you while you are able to continuously grow your subscriber base. 

WordPress Membership plugin is one of the most popular free membership plugins. This is the wizard page in the plugin, and guides you about how to set up your eLearning site.

WP eMember

WordPress eMember is a plugin that helps you manage memberships to your content. eMember offers various customizations – including integration with WordPress so that any account created for eMember would automatically make a corresponding WordPress account. You may make multiple membership levels depending on the level of access decided for the user. For example for a basic trial access to the site you may give users free access to a certain amount of content, or for a limited period of time. For this a free membership may be created. 

Selective content protection and access

To protect content you can use two methods

• Enabling custom protection and access through dashboard
• Using shortcodes

Custom Protection

• To enable general protection, go to the “WP eMember” button on the WordPress sidebar, and in the drop down menu go to “Membership Level” button.
• From here go to the “Manage Content Protection” tab. Click on “Custom Posts” to see all the posts that make up your content. To protect some or all of these posts, select them and click on the “General Protection” option in the drop down menu at the top of the page. General Protection restricts access to all the posts that you select (you can select all posts or pick specific posts for protection). 
• After access restriction, the next step is to grant access according to the membership levels. For this go to the same drop down menu as the General Protection option, and select each membership levels. The resulting files will be files that are restricted from access.
• You can select the files for which you want to grant access , and after selecting, click the “Grant Access” button. You can make various membership levels, each differentiated by the number of pages that access is granted to.

Using shortcodes

Alternatively, partial content protection may be implemented using this wordpress membership plugin. For this you can make use of shortcodes to grant partial access to pages. Suppose you have two membership levels, Membership Regular and Membership Lite. You might wish to grant access to only the Membership Regular users, having level id 4. For this you can use the shortcode:

“[emember_protected for=4]”

“[/emember_protected]”

Suppose that level id 3 corresponds to Membership Lite. You can grant access to a section to both Membership Regular and Lite users. To do that you can enclose it in this shortcode:

“[emember_protected for=3-4]”

Note that membership levels to which access is to be granted are added using the dashes. Without specifying the membership ids, ie “[emember_protected]” – content is limited to logged in users only, including free registered users.

General eMember settings

WP eMember offers multiple options using which you can customize membership experience of users. These include the option to:

• Decide if you wish to grant free memberships
• Offer attractive login page – so that a popup appears rather than redirecting to a login page

Limited muliple logins To Your WordPress Membership Plugin

• Limiting number of IPs used from a membership per day, so as to discourage password sharing
• Disabling simultaneous login, again to discourage password sharing

Encouraging Membership Renewals

eMember also has features that encourage memberships renewals upon expiry. These include

• Triggering auto expiry email notifications shortly before account expiry date
• Allowing expired memberships to move to free membership status, to protect continuity
• Generating special renewal membership links.

Besides this, eMember offers options for integration into wordpress, so that logging in to eMember would automatically log you into wordpress. The very large number of customization options that WP eMember offers makes it one of the most useful WordPress membership plugin.

Drip Content

You can structure access to your learners so that the release of course material is done periodically. This method of releasing course material, called drip content management, limits the amount of information accessible at once to the user. This prevents your learners from being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the course. The auto-upgrade feature in this WordPress membership plugin allows for dripped content management, although this entails making multiple courses.

Auto-upgrade feature

According to this feature, using WP eMember you may upgrade a member taking Module 1 of your course to Module 2 automatically after a thirty day period (or a 7-day period, according to how you wish to structure your course). So, if there are say 5 modules to one course, each module to be accessed 30 days from the previous module, you may time the auto upgrade feature so that

Module 1 -> 2: 30 days from start of course
Module 2 -> 3: 60 days from start of course
Module 3 -> 4: 90 days from start of course
Module 4 -> 5: 120 days from start of course

Pros and Cons of Drip Content Management

There is a debate regarding the merits of drip content management policy – a negative of this approach is that it dictates that learners follow the particular pace with which you have structured the course. The other side of the coin is that you are ensuring that you do not overwhelm your learners with too much information.

Prevent Concurrent Login plugin with WordPress Membership Plugin

A major concern for eLearning site managers is the possibility that their content may be shared by multiple users using a single login. Password sharing is a problem that eMember does address, through the previously mentioned settings of limiting number of IPs and the option to disable concurrent login.

In case the WordPress membership plugin that you use does not have the option to prevent simultaneous logins, a plugin that that specifically prevents concurrent login is the “Prevent Concurrent Login” plugin. This is a plugin that you only need to activate, and store in the Must Use category of plugins, for it to run silently in the background. It then by default prevent access to your membership system from multiple systems at the same time. You may use this plugin with any wordpress membership plugin, including the widely used WordPress Membership 2 plugin, and Wishlist Member, both of which rival WP eMember in popularity.

Video Membership site with eMember

For many premium video businesses like elearning & media , the necessity to protect video content from piracy by so many free downloaders, plugins , hacks is a must. Most of video streaming providers like youtube, vimeo, or self hosting doesnot allow for any protection. To restrict the access of your video content to only only your subscribers on wordpress, VdoCipher has come up with a secure video streaming solution based on encryption and watermarking.

The plugin enables you to use a custom short code. You can use the plugin and the shortcode with any wordpress membership plugin. Also as explained in the eMember section protection code, you can design your course to allow free registered access to trial learners and paid membership for the video. For this you only need to place the VdoCipher shortcode inside the sectional protection shortcode.

Links:

WordPress page for the e-member plugin

Prevent concurrent Login plugin

VdoCipher secure video streaming account signup, 5 GB Free Trial

Siddhant Jain

CEO, VdoCipher. Writes about video tech, ed tech and media tech.

www.vdocipher.com/

The post WP eMember as WordPress Membership Plugin: User Management Tutorial appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

You can download the WordPress plugin from the WP Plugin Directory

While adding videos watermark or annotation code on vdocipher videos using the WordPress plugin, you can configure the text to fetch dynamic user variables. These variables can be user name, email or date in custom format. Here is the complete list of variables which can be used in the annotation code.

{name} : This shows the display name of the user who is viewing the video. This calls the function: wp_get_current_user()->display_name

{email} : wp_get_current_user()->user_email

{username} : wp_get_current_user()->user_login

{id} : wp_get_current_user()->ID

{ip} : $_SERVER[‘REMOTE_ADDR’]

{date} : This function allows you to configure the video to show date in custom format. You can use the predefined PHP date constants to display date. The format is {date.pattern}, where pattern will be the input of PHP’s date function.

preg_replace_callback('/\{date\.([^\}]+)\}/', function($matches)
{
   return date($matches[1]);
} , $vdo_annotate_code);

An example code using the above variable tokens:

[
{'type':'rtext', 'text':'Your IP : {ip}', 'alpha':'0.8', 'color':'0xFF0000','size':'12','interval':'5000'},
{'type':'text', 'text':'Time: {date.h:i:s A}', 'alpha':'0.5' , 'x':'150', 'y':'100', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'12'}
]

Check example video for the above code here: https://www.vdocipher.com/blog/2014/12/add-text-to-videos-with-watermark/

Currently, the WordPress plugin supports a single annotation parameter across the website. If you must have a video without the annotation, you need to add a no_annotate parameter [vdo id='12345678' no_annotate=true]

The post Watermark user/time specific dynamic variables on WordPress videos appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.