• What is the size of a video for a certain pixel quality? (Say 1 hour 1080p video)
• What does kbps mean? How much video bandwidth will 1 hour 1000 kbps video consume?
• I want my videos in 1080/720/480/360 p like Youtube. How does VdoCipher enable that?
• How many video quality options I need to have to ensure smooth playback across the world?
• Why does VdoCipher provide video bitrate (kbps) as quality options and not pixels (p)?

Here are some key definitions and concepts to help everybody better understand video quality parameters.

What is Video Quality?

Video quality is how good a video and its individual frame look on your screen. It basically means the level of accuracy of the images and detail that a video displays.

Video quality is influenced by different parameters such as:

Video Pixels: Video pixels define the resolution of a video, telling us how many pixels are in the video both horizontally and vertically. For eg, a Full HD video will have the resolution- 1920×1080, which indicates the pixels present. Higher pixel counts generally mean a clearer and sharper image, as there is more detail present.

Video Bitrate: Bitrate is the amount of data processed in a unit of time, typically measured in kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps). A higher bitrate usually translates to higher video quality, as more data is used to represent each second of video. However, it also means larger file sizes and may require more bandwidth for streaming.

Frame Rate: Measured in frames per second (fps), it determines how many individual frames are displayed per second. A higher video frame rate generally results in smoother motion in the video.

Compression: Video compression reduces file size, which can be crucial for storage and streaming. However, excessive compression can degrade video quality, causing artifacts and loss of detail.

Color Depth: Color Depth is the number of bits used to represent the color of each pixel. Higher color depth allows for a broader range of colors and more detailed color gradation.

Aspect Ratio: The ratio of width to height (e.g., 16:9). It doesn’t directly affect quality but choosing the wrong aspect ratio can result in a stretched or compressed image.

Codec: Video Codecs are used to compress and decompress video files. Different codecs may handle colors, motion, and detail differently, impacting the final quality.

Noise: Unwanted random variations in brightness or color information in images, which can degrade video quality.

Balancing these parameters is crucial to achieving optimal video quality while managing file sizes and streaming requirements.

What are Pixels (p) – 1080 / 720 / 480 / 360 / 240 p

Pixels as a quality index essentially mean the height of the video in the number of pixels. Thus, a video quality of 1080p means – the height of the video is 1080 pixels. Now the next question is what is the width of the video? There is no exact technically right answer but in common convention, the video is 16:9 for online playback. Thus the width of the video becomes 1080*16/9 – 1920 pixels.

So, in common convention 1080p means 1080 pixels as the height of the video and 1920 as the width of the video. Similarly, 480 p will mean 480 pixels in height and 480*16/9 -853 pixels as the width of the video. However this may vary if the aspect ratio of video is different (like 4:3). So, until you know the video aspect ratio, you can’t determine the exact number of pixels in a video.

Does pixel directly correspond to a size? What will be the size of 1 hour,1080 p video?

Surprisingly there is no fixed answer to that. If pixel quality is fixed, then the number of pixels in a video is fixed. E.g a 1080 p will have 1080*1920 = 2073600 pixels. But how much data is captured in the video, is not determined by number of pixels exactly. Thus, Youtube , Vimeo and Vdocipher can provide different size of videos for the same length and same pixel quality. It is even possible that say 1 hour, 1080p video of vdocipher is of lower size than 720 p of Vimeo.

So, the next obvious question is what exactly determines the video size? It is video bitrate (generally represented by kbps like 1500 kbps etc). Please read the next section to understand bitrate as a quality index.

What is Video Bitrate (kbps) – 1500/ 1000/ 600 /300 kbps

Video bitrate is the video data transferred at a particular time. A high video bitrate is one of the most vital factors in the quality of a video. A good looking video consists of a high video bitrate along with a high video resolution and frame rate. So, I hope that answers what is bitrate in the video. For a particular video, you can use constant bitrate or variable bitrate, find out more about CBR vs VBR in the article linked.

How is video bitrate linked to the size of the video?

Bitrate is generally represented by kbps which essentially means kb (kilobits) of data per second. So, the size of a 1hour 1500 kbps video will be – 1500*60*60 -kilobits= 1500*60*60/8000 MBs of data = 675 MB per hour of video data.

Similarly, a 1000 kbps 1 hour video will be 450 MB in size , 600 kbps will be 270 MB in size.

What is the Relation between video pixels(p) and video bitrate (kbps)?

There is no precise technical relation between pixels and bitrate. For the same streaming provider; the higher the pixels, the higher the bitrate, and vice-versa. Though as I already mentioned different service providers can offer different pixels even at the same video bitrate. Pixels define the resolution of the video, while bitrate is average data size for a video file expressed per second of video. There can be high-resolution videos with low bitrate and low resolution videos at very high video bitrate . This imbalance is because of some complicated maths that is used to express what to display on a video with least amount of file size. These maths can force the bitrate for a video at any arbitrary small value while compromising on the quality.

What bitrate/pixels does VdoCipher use for HD streaming?

VdoCipher has a wide range for 1080p HD in terms of video bitrate. It depends on what size the customer uploads and what is type of content – Media, E-learning (In e-learning, if it is screen capture, animation or class recording etc.) Video bitrate for 1080p is at maximum kept at 2000 kbps for video course content , for certain high motion movies video bitrate for 1080p is kept at 2500 to 5000 kbps range. For certain cases, low motion lectures, video bitrate for 1080p can be as low as 600 kbps. You can read more about SD vs HD in this blog.

How does Video Bitrate affect Video quality?

Video quality is directly related to the video bitrate, generally, a higher video bitrate would mean higher quality, and a lower bitrate would mean lower quality. 

Although it might not be the case always, an unreasonable high bitrate can cause buffering issues or glitches, as the user’s computer and data bandwidth might not be able to process the file. This is why it is quite important to find out the optimum bitrate for your videos. 

Even with the same resolution, your optimum bitrate might vary depending on the video frame rate required for the video. For video lectures with about 30fps it can go up to 2000kbps, while with video content with a higher framerate like 60fps or more it can go up to 5000kbps.

Other factors that affect Video Quality

Apart from video bitrate, there are other parameters that affect the quality of the video. Generally, there is a direct correlation between the size and the quality of the video. Video frame rate and video resolution also have a good impact on video quality. 

• Video frame rate is basically the number of different frames or images used to play the video. It is measured in fps or frames per second, which defines how many frames or images there would be in the video. So a 30 fps video would have 30 different frames in a second, as the number of frames increases, you can show much more details in that video. Sports, animation, and gaming videos would generally have a higher frame rate. 
• Video resolution is the number of pixels in the frames of video. A video with more pixels would have better video quality. This is the most common term used in order to define video quality. In most video platforms, you can see the option to choose different resolutions. Mostly used video resolutions are 480p, 720p,1080p, and 4k.

Why does YouTube use pixels as a quality parameter, while VdoCipher uses video bitrate?

There are two primary reasons –

1. Video Bitrate directly corresponds to size and hence bandwidth consumption & costs. 1000 kbps video will consume double bandwidth as compared to 500 kbps video. Pixels don’t have such direct co-relation.
2. VdoCipher can provide higher pixel quality even at low bitrates. So, for many cases , VdoCipher can provide 1080p or 720 p HD even at 500-900 kbps range. Thus, there is no need for a lower pixel parameter.

How many video quality options I need to have to ensure smooth playback across the world?

From VdoCipher experience –

1. For Movies/Serials with a lot of motion – 3 or maximum 4 qualities. We typically do  4000/5000 kbps, 2000 kbps ,800 kbps, 600 kbps
2. For Educational content – 3 in most cases. 2000, 800, 400 kbps Or sometimes – 1500, 800, 300 kbps.

VdoCipher has customers across all 6 continents. (Sorry, we don’t have a customer in Antarctica yet :D) . The bitrate and quality optimizations are made keeping in mind slow connections of Asia & African users. Over the time, they have worked well for all geographical distributions ensuring a great viewing experience.

Video Bitrate and Data usage for HD (720p), FHD (1080p) and UHD (2160p) video streaming

Video bitrate for HD, FHD (Full HD), and UHD (Ultra HD) video content streaming depends on various factors. It includes codec (e.g., H.264, H.265, VP9), frame rate, and compression efficiency. However, the below figures are often cited for video streaming services.

Note: The above figures can vary. For example, H.265 (HEVC) is more efficient than H.264. It can deliver similar video quality at about half the bitrate. Moreover, the actual bitrate can change dynamically based on your network conditions if you use adaptive bitrate streaming.

Video Enhancement: Uplifting the Viewing Experience

Video quality plays a vital role when it comes to the viewing experience. But what to do when the he raw footage isn’t up to par?  This is where video enhancement comes to the rescue. 

Video enhancement means improving and optimizing the quality of video through various means. It can varu from making colors pop to smoothing out shaky footage, enhancement techniques can turn subpar footage into professional-grade content.

Here you’ll find some steps on how you can use video enhancement to improve the quality of video/ Thus ultimately uplifting your users’ video experience.

Video Enhancement Techniques

Several different video enhancement techniques can be employed to enhance video quality:

Upscaling:

Upscaling involves increasing the resolution of a video, making it more clear and detailed. Although it doesn’t add more detail than was in the original video, it does make the video more compatible with higher resolution displays. Major difference you’ll notice before and after upscaling is you can see a low res video on a high res display.

You can Increase your video’s resolution to make it sharper and more detailed using software like Adobe Premiere Pro or PowerDirector. These applications have built-in upscaling features. Remember, while upscaling won’t add more detail than was present in the original footage, it will improve compatibility with higher-resolution displays.

Noise Reduction: 

Digital noise, such as grain or specks that distort the video, can often occur during video recording, particularly in low-light situations. Noise reduction tools can minimize this noise, leading to a smoother, cleaner video. 

In such cases Video is processed frame-by-frame using three video frames (previous, current and next) as input. An enhanced frame is produced via inference using a pre-trained neural network model

You can clean up digital noise such as grain or specks with noise reduction features found in video editing software. For instance, you can do noise reduction in Adobe Premiere Pro, you can find this under the ‘Effects’ tab, labeled as ‘Denoise’.

Stabilization:

Shaky footage can often be an issue with handheld recordings. Stabilization helps to smooth out these shakes, creating a more pleasing and professional-looking video.

Make shaky footage steadier with stabilization options in your editing software. In iMovie, for example, this option is found under the ‘Stabilization’ tab after you’ve selected a clip in your timeline.

You can also user adobe premier pro for stabilization, Warp Stabilizer effect smooths out unwanted camera shake in just a few clicks, with precision fine-tuning so you can get exactly the look and feel you want.

Color Correction: 

This involves adjusting the colors in your video to make them appear more natural or to achieve a specific visual aesthetic. Color correction can make your videos more visually pleasing and engaging.

Adjust the colors in your video for a more natural or aesthetically pleasing look. Tools like Final Cut Pro and PowerDirector have robust color correction features.

Video Enhancement Tools and Software

There are numerous video enhancement software options available, from professional-grade software like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, to more user-friendly options like iMovie or PowerDirector. These tools offer a range of enhancement features, allowing you to adjust various aspects of your video to improve its overall quality.

Impact of Video Enhancement

Improving video quality through enhancement can greatly impact viewer engagement. A high-quality video keeps the audience’s attention, reducing bounce rates and improving overall satisfaction. In an era where viewer expectations are higher than ever, delivering high-quality video content is crucial.

By addressing these facets of video enhancement, you’ll be better equipped to optimize your video content, delivering a viewing experience that resonates with audiences and meets today’s high standards of video quality.

How To Enhance Video Quality?

Enhancing video quality involves several techniques that can improve the visual experience for viewers. Here are some effective methods:

1. Increase Bitrate

• Definition: Bitrate refers to the amount of data processed per unit of time in a video file.
• Implementation: Higher bitrates can lead to better quality because more data is available to create each frame. However, it also results in larger file sizes.
• Recommendation: Aim for a bitrate that balances quality and file size. For example, a 1080p video typically requires a bitrate between 8,000 and 12,000 kbps.

2. Use High-Resolution Source Files

• Definition: Resolution is the number of pixels in each dimension that a video displays.
• Implementation: Start with high-resolution footage, such as 4K or at least 1080p. Higher resolutions provide more detail and clarity.
• Recommendation: Always capture and edit in the highest resolution possible, then downscale if necessary.

3. Optimize Encoding Settings

• Definition: Encoding is the process of converting video files into a digital format.
• Implementation: Use modern codecs like H.264 or H.265, which offer high quality at lower bitrates.
• Recommendation: Adjust settings like profile, level, and compression rate for optimal quality. Tools like HandBrake can help optimize these settings.

4. Apply Filters and Enhancements

• Definition: Filters and enhancements can improve video clarity, brightness, and color accuracy.
• Implementation: Use video editing software to apply sharpening, noise reduction, color correction, and contrast enhancement.
• Recommendation: Tools like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve offer advanced features for video enhancement.

5. Ensure Good Lighting and Equipment

• Definition: Proper lighting and quality equipment significantly affect video quality.
• Implementation: Use adequate lighting to avoid shadows and grainy footage. High-quality cameras and lenses capture better details and colors.
• Recommendation: Invest in good lighting setups and use cameras capable of recording at high resolutions and bitrates.

6. Improve Internet Bandwidth

• Definition: For streaming videos, internet bandwidth affects the quality viewers experience.
• Implementation: Ensure a stable and high-speed internet connection to stream videos at higher resolutions without buffering.
• Recommendation: For HD streaming, a minimum upload speed of 5 Mbps is recommended, while 4K streaming may require 25 Mbps or higher.

How To Change Video Quality?

Changing video quality allows viewers to adjust the resolution and bitrate based on their internet speed and device capabilities. Here’s how to do it:

1. In Video Players

• Implementation: Most video players (like YouTube, VLC, etc.) offer quality settings within their interface.
• Steps:
  1. Click on the settings icon (usually a gear symbol).
  2. Select the ‘Quality’ option.
  3. Choose the desired resolution (e.g., 144p, 360p, 720p, 1080p).
• Recommendation: Allow automatic quality adjustment based on the viewer’s internet speed for the best experience.

2. Through Video Editing Software

• Implementation: Use editing software to export videos at different quality settings.
• Steps:
  1. Import the video into the software (e.g., Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro).
  2. Choose ‘Export’ and select the desired resolution and bitrate.
  3. Save the new file with the adjusted quality.
• Recommendation: Create multiple versions of your video to cater to different audience needs.

3. Using Online Converters

• Implementation: Online tools like HandBrake, Clipchamp, and Online-Convert allow for easy quality adjustments.
• Steps:
  1. Upload the video to the converter.
  2. Select the desired output resolution and bitrate.
  3. Download the converted video.
• Recommendation: Ensure the chosen converter maintains the video’s original aspect ratio and quality as much as possible.

By following these guidelines, you can significantly enhance and manage video quality, providing a better viewing experience for your audience.

Video Quality FAQ Summary 

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post What is Video Bitrate, and How Does it Affect Video Quality? appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

The sample video below contains a dynamic watermark displaying the User name, User IP, and User email. The below video is displayed using our WordPress plugin and the same can be configured using APIs or Moodle plugin as well.

The dynamic watermark can be customized for movement, color, size, transparency and frequency. You can try the watermark feature on your website by signing up for a Free 30 Day Trial on our home page.

Dynamic Watermark Demo

Features of Dynamic Watermark by VdoCipher

1. Add user details like user id, email id, phone number, ip address as an overlay over your videos
2. Add time stamp, and fixed text (e.g company name)
3. Customise size, color, transparency, and frequency of moving watermark. You can make it very light and also change frequency so that it is not always visible, to ensure optimum viewing experience. You can optimize frequency in such a manner, that it is difficult to remove the watermark maintaining user experience.  To show a watermark at a particular position for 5 seconds and then not show it for 20 seconds, you can use the parameters of ‘interval’:5000 and ‘skip ‘: 20000. (1 second = 1000 microsecond).  Other parameters are explained in below tutorial steps below.
4. If you are using a static/fixed text watermark, then it has to be compulsorily set at the top left of the player, it can not reside on other parts.
5. Image watermark is currently not possible with VdoCipher, but you can use your company/brand name as a watermark.
6. Quick 5-minute integration using wordpress plugin or moodle plugin or API. Iframe integration can show ip address and fixed text as watermark but it can not show user id, email id etc. as watermark since it is not a backend integration.

How to Add Dynamic Watermark to your VdoCipher Videos

To generate a watermark or to add text to videos you essentially need a JSON string describing how and what you will overlay on your protected videos. In this blog, we will be detailing how to integrate dynamic or static watermarks to add text to videos.

Step 1 is to create the watermark code. Once you have created the watermark code,
Step 2 you add the watermark to the video. This is done by adding watermark code to the WordPress plugin settings (for WordPress users), or by adding it as part of OTP API call for VdoCipher API users or by adding it to Moodle plugin settings.

Step 1: Create a Watermark Code

We are assuming that you have uploaded your video to your VdoCipher account. You would need to pass a JSON string as annotation code. The JSON string would contain all the information about the watermark. A JSON string is a universal form of representing structured data in a way that machines can understand.

Here is a sample JSON string that adds a moving (dynamic) watermark and a static watermark.

[

{'type':'rtext', 'text':'moving text', 'alpha':'0.8', 'color':'0xFF0000','size':'15','interval':'5000','skip':20000},
{'type':'text', 'text':'static text', 'alpha':'0.5' , 'x':'10', 'y':'100', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'15'}
]

Technically, this is an array of JSON objects, where each object describes a single annotation item.

Each of these items will be described by its parameters. Every item requires a type parameter that defines the type of watermark. The type of watermark can be either a moving text or a static text. The rest of the parameters depend on the type.

Following is a short description of how each parameter affects the display of text.

Moving text

The following code will display a dynamic watermark code, displaying name, IP and email address in a single line. The text color will be red (#ff0000), opacity is 0.8, and font size is 15. The watermark is configured to keep one position for 5 seconds (5000ms) and then hide watermark for 20 seconds (20000 ms) , and then show again at a new position for 5 seconds.

[{
'type':'rtext',
'text':'{name}, {ip}, {email}',
'alpha':'0.8',
'color':'0xFF0000',
'size':'15',
'interval':'5000',
'skip':'20000'
}]

Type of text – Moving watermark

Set type parameter as rtext for Dynamic watermark

'type':'rtext',

Set the text to be shown

'text" : 'Enter whatever text you like to be displayed',

You can add user identifiable information, such as user name, user email and user IP.

• ‘text’: ‘{name}’,
• ‘text’: ‘{email}’,
• ‘text’: ‘{ip}’,

'text':'Name: {name}, email: {email}, IP: {ip}

To display the name, email and IP separately, and not in a single line, you can simply create 3 watermark objects, as follows:

[{'type':'rtext','text':'{name}','alpha':'0.8', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'15', 'interval':'5000', 'skip':'2000'},
{'type':'rtext','text':'{ip}','alpha':'0.8', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'15', 'interval':'5000', 'skip':'2000'},
{'type':'rtext','text':'{email}','alpha':'0.8', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'15', 'interval':'5000', 'skip':'2000'}
]

Specify text opacity

This is the opacity of the text. For full opacity keep alpha value 1.

'alpha':'0.8',

Specify text color

This is the hex value of the watermark text color. You can pick your choice of color and its corresponding hex value from the following page on W3schools.

'color':'0xFF0000',

Specify the font size

This is the font size

'size':'15',

Specify the interval over which watermark changes position

The value is the interval in milliseconds when the text changes position

'interval':'5000',

Skip feature for watermark

It is possible to have watermark skip for some time between two overlays. Here is a sample code for it –

'skip':'2000'

Time stamp for watermark. (Only for WordPress)

[[{'type':'text', 'text':'Time: {date.h:i:s A}', 'alpha':'0.30' , 'x':'12', 'y':'130', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'13'}]]

Add Custom Variables as Watermark

The following blog details how you can add text to videos or custom variables as watermark to your videos: Custom Variables as Watermark

Some important things to keep in mind about Watermark

• Note that both the name and the value of these parameters should be in quotes. This rule applies to both text as well as numbers.
• Each parameter is to be separated by a comma. There should not be a comma after the last parameter for the dynamic watermark video settings.

Static text

[{
'type' : 'text',   //This defines the type of annotation item to static watermark
'text' : 'the text you like to be displayed',
'x' : '10',  //the distance from the left border of video.
'y': '50',  //the distance from the top border of video.
'alpha': '0.8', //the opacity of the rendered text, 0 is invisible, 1 is full opaque
'color':'0xFF0000',    //the color of the text specified as hexadecimal or uint
'size':'15' //Height of the text, in pixels.
}]

Step 2: Add Watermark Code to Video Request using API or plugin

If you are using our WordPress or Moodle plugin you can simply add the watermark JSON in the plugin settings page. If you are integrating VdoCipher to your custom-built site, you would need to pass the JSON object as part of the OTP request.

The HTTP POST data containing watermark JSON object has to be sent as Content-Type: application/json. The JSON Object is to be sent as value to the key annotate. The header for the OTP request should include the Authorization using API Secret Key. A sample OTP request including watermark information is as follows.

curl -X POST \
 https://dev.vdocipher.com/api/videos/1234567890/otp \
 -H 'Accept: application/json' \
 -H 'Authorization: Apisecret a1b2c3d4e5' \
 -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
 -d '{
 "annotate":"[{'\''type'\'':'\''rtext'\'', '\''text'\'':'\'' {name}'\'', '\''alpha'\'':'\''0.60'\'', '\''color'\'':'\''0xFF0000'\'','\''size'\'':'\''15'\'','\''interval'\'':'\''5000'\''}]"
}'

The sample videoID is 1234567890 and the API Secret Key is a1b2c3d4e5. This sample code only passes the annotation code as parameter.

This blog: Protect Videos on WordPress provides more details on securing videos using WordPress.

Still having problems to add text to videos or with the dynamic watermark on video code? Send us the code you are using and the output you wish to be shown to support@vdocipher.com

The post Dynamic Watermark Demo: Add User Identifier Text to Videos- User ID, Email ID, Phone No. appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

These are video hosting platforms that are easily integrable into any LMS platform. All you’d have to do is upload your videos to those platforms and embed them on your website. Find out more in the article below.

What Is a Video LMS?

Video LMS is basically a video hosting solution that helps LMS to stream videos online. Recent years have seen a vast number of e-learning platforms ranging from several teachers to individual teachers coming online in order to stream their content. 

With the help of LMS any teacher without prior knowledge can easily stream content online. All you have to do is create your content and the website. The video hosting part can be easily done with the help of an LMS and video hosting. LMS allows you to set up your own website, structure your courses, and set up payment gateway and user login. 

With a video hosting solution, you’ll ensure that your content is hosted securely with added benefits of analytics, a custom video player, and more. 

Why do you need to Host your Videos Separately for your LMS?

As a content creator with an LMS, the first thought that might come to your mind might be to host your video content on the LMS itself. This might sound like a good idea at first but it is quite the opposite. 

Hosting your videos on the LMS might result in a slower website, as every time the page loads, your video will load as well. This can be bad for the user experience as anyone with a slow internet connection might face problems accessing your content which ultimately results in them dropping away from your website. So, the best option in such a scenario would be to go for a good video hosting service. 

Here are a few more reasons why it’s not the best idea for you to host your videos on your LMS system

• No protection from illegal downloads and Unauthorised access. 
• You’ll have to encode your videos manually. 
• Setting up your own video infrastructure may result in higher costs, time, and resources
• You’ll have to ensure that your videos and player are compatible with all devices and browsers
• You might not have access to adaptive bitrate streaming, resulting in a poor user experience for anyone with poor internet connectivity. 
• You won’t have access to any analytics related to your video, thus losing out on any user behavior insights that might help you in the future. 

What to Look for in Video Solution for LMS?

Video hosting players come with a wide range of features that gives you a great user experience. Ensuring that your videos are being streamed seamlessly. It is vital to make sure that your video hosting service has all the right features you might need to give you and your users an optimal experience. 

Here are some of the features you should definitely consider while picking the right video hosting solution for your LMS.

DRM Encrypted Streaming

Multi-DRM Encrypted Streaming is the gold standard of encrypted video streaming right now.  DRM-encrypted streaming means that your content is encrypted and the encrypted keys are hidden by the DRM. Anytime an authorized user wants to access the content a license request is created and validated before they stream the video content. 

Any content streamed through DRM can’t be downloaded, on top of it, screen recording is prevented on most devices. 

This way DRM protects your content from piracy, helping you to boost the revenue you were losing due to piracy. Allowing you to retain ownership of your content and prevent any unauthorized access. 

Dynamic Watermarking

Dynamic Watermarking is another layer of security over DRM. In this case, a text overlay consisting of user’s information is shown on the video, consisting of user id, name, email address or IP. This helps in identifying any source of the leakage of content. Ultimately deterring any screen recording that a user might do. 

Custom Video Player

An easy-to-use player along with custom controls and branding is a must. Your users interact with your content through the custom video player. Thus it is imperative that your users experience is tailored according to the content you provided. These can be chapters to segment your video content more effectively. Caption search in order for users to find specific content. Also, how you can easily change the controls. 

Video APIs, SDKs, and Plugin 

Video APIs help you to automate a lot of tasks, which can be managing your videos with the help of APIs, automating video upload, and generating OTP for video playback. 

SDKs helps you to integrate video playback in android, react native, flutter and more. Make sure that if you want to stream your content in them, your video platform provider does give you an option to integrate with the help of SDK. 

A lot of video hosting solutions provide easy to use plugins for CMS like WordPress, Moodle, and more. These plugins make it very easy for you to stream the content. All you need to do is install the plugin, and upload and embed your videos, without going through much hassle.

Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

Your users might be from the remote corners and some might not have access to good internet. This is where Adaptive bitrate streaming comes in, what it essentially does is change the quality of video automatically according to the user’s network. If the network is great it’ll show better quality and as it scales down, the quality does as well. 

Acess controls based on URL, Geolocation, and Time Expiration

While setting up authorization of a particular video, you can put various access controls over it. You can restrict particular IPs, stream content in a particular geolocation and even set a time expiry date for the videos.

How to Use Videos in Your LMS?

As discussed earlier, the best option to use videos in Learning management system is to upload them to a video hosting platform and then embed it on the website. You can opt for any platform which gives you great secure video hosting with a smooth video playback experience. Just make sure that your platform of choice contains all the features you might need. The best option is if you get plugin support or a simple iframe to embed your videos.

Hosting your videos on another platform and not on your LMS server. It results in lower strain on your own server and a better experience for your users. 

Using a video platform to stream videos in your LMS is quite straightforward. All you need to do is upload the video to the video platform of your choice and then simply embed the video on the page you want. 

Here’s how you can add your videos in HTML

STEP 1: GENERATE EMBED CODE

Go to the video platform you are using and upload the video. When the video is uploaded and processed, you’d get the embed code.

STEP 2: EDIT YOUR HTML

Just go into the edit mode for your landing page where you want to embed your video. Go to the section of the video where you want to embed the video. 

STEP 3: COPY YOUR EMBED CODE

Next, copy your embed code. 

STEP 4: PASTE THE EMBED CODE INTO YOUR HTML

Now just paste your embed code into the part of your page where you want the video to appear.

This is one of the several methods that you can use video on LMS. Further in this blog, you’ll explore how you can embed video on different LMS. 

How Vdocipher helps you to Stream Video in your LMS?

VdoCipher is the one-stop solution for all your video streaming needs. With our end-to-end solution, you don’t have to worry about anything, as we work our magic to ensure your users get the best video experience. Whether it is hosting, CDN, DRM, Watermarking, or analytics, VdoCipher has all the bases covered. 

All you have to do is upload your video to our platform and then embed it on our website. We make sure that your streaming is seamless, and your user can watch it on any device or any network without any issues. Here are some of the major features which VdoCipher provides. 

DRM Protection: Any content streamed through us is DRM protected, we ensure that with Widevine and FairPlayer DRM, all the major devices are protected from any sort of piracy.

Watermarking: We provide dynamic watermarking to deter piracy and find out the source of leakage whenever required. 

Custom Player: You can customize your player with easy toggle buttons, change the color of your player to match your branding, choose what controls you want to show your users, segment your video further into chapters, and a lot more features.

Dashboard: You get access to easy to use Dashboard, with which you can easily manage your videos. 

Video Analytics: You can keep track of how your users are interacting with your content and gain further insights into your user’s behavior. 

Major LMS and how it works with VdoCipher?

Here you’ll see how major LMS works with VdoCipher, these are the major LMS I’ll cover in this article. 

1. LifterLMS
2. WpCourseLMS
3. LearnPress
4. TutorLMS
5. LearnDash

Before adding your videos to your website, the first thing you must do is add VdoCipher’s WordPress plugin. You can refer to this blog on installing WordPress plugins to know more about installing WordPress plugins and more information on the plugin. Here’s the link to VdoCIpher’s WordPress plugin.

LifterLMS Video: How to Add Video With VdoCipher?

LifterLMS is a popular WordPress LMS, it is widely used to create e-learning websites, which can create, manage and sell courses online. 

It is easy to use drag and drop course builder, with multiple options to sell your premium courses, which can be a one-time payment or a recurring one.

It has interesting features like content restriction, content dripping, group memberships, and more.

Here’s how you can use LifterLMS along with VdoCipher:

Step 1: Start with installing the LifterLMS plugin on your WordPress site. After you’ve done with the installation, just head over to the LifterLMS tab in the left panel, here you’ll see an option “import”. Here you can import any of the available templates for the course or you can even upload any custom course. 

Step 2: Once the template is imported, you’ll receive a notification. Simply click on it to get started with your course. 

Step 3:  Here you’ll see the drag-and-drop builder, you can add a block easily by clicking on the “+” sign. Here, look for the shortcode option in the left panel, and drag it to the part you want your video to be.

Step 4: Now you’ll get the option to enter the shortcode. All you have to do now is enter the “vdo id” of the video you want to embed, you’ll get this from VdoCipher’s Dashboard when you click on the ‘embed button’ for the video. 

Step 5: When you are done with pasting the vdo id, update the page and click on the preview button. Here you’ll see your video embedded on the page, ready to be viewed by your users. 

WPCoursesLMS Video: How to Add Video With VdoCipher?

WPCoursesLMS as the name suggests is an LMS plugin on WordPress. It is widely used to create courses on WordPress with its intuitive interfaces using drag and drop course builder. You can use the platform to create any type of course, organize lessons into modules, monetize content, and more. 

Here’s how you can add video hosted through VdoCipher along with the WPCourses Plugin. 

Step 1: After you’re done with installing the plugin, chose it from the plugin from the left panel. In the plugin, the screen goes to manage courses in the courses dropdown.

Step 2: Now you’ll reach the courses section. Select “add new” and start creating your course.

Step 3: Now you’ll reach the edit post page. Here you can enter the iFrame embed code in the course details section on the right panel.

Step 4: Click on the preview tab and now you can see your video in the new tab.

LearnPress LMS Video: How to Add Video With VdoCipher?

LearnPress is WordPress LMS Plugin, which you can use to create and sell courses online. With its simple user interface, you can easily create a course curriculum along with videos and quizzes. 

LearnPress is a free plugin and they claim that it will always be one. Making it great for individual creators with not much budget to start with. They can utilize this plugin to create their courses on the website and sell videos online. 

Step 1: Ins “LearnPress” plugin is installed, open the plugin from the left panel and you will land on the screen shown in the screenshot below. Click on the “Add New” option to get started with creating your new course.

Step 2(a): Select the code tags <> and place your iFrame code between them as shown below. Once done, save and preview your video. 

Step 2(b): Select the code tags <> and place your shortcode i.e. Required argument id for embedded video not found. between them as shown below. Once done, save and preview your video.

Step 3: Much like creating courses, you can also create lessons as shown in the below screenshot. Click “Lessons” under LearnPress from the left panel. Once done, you can start creating lessons by clicking on the “Add New” button.

Step 4: Your video will appear with all the settings that you’ve selected for your video.

TutorLMS Video: How to Add Video With VdoCipher?

Tutor LMS is another WordPress LMS plugin, which allows you to create manage and sell courses online! It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop course builder along with a certificate builder.

Even though the core plugin is free you get premium features with its paid plugin. These features Course Previews, Multi-Instructor, Content Drip, and more. Apart from this, you get integrations with Google Classroom, Zoom, and elementor

Here’s how you can add Videos to your Tutor LMS website along with VdoCIpher

Step 1: After the “TutorLMS” plugin is installed, open the plugin from the left panel and you will land on the screen shown in the screenshot below. Click on the “Add New” option to get started with creating your new course.

Step 2(a): Select the code tags <> and place your iFrame code between them as shown below. Once done, save and preview your video.

Step 2(b): Select the code tags <> and place your shortcode i.e. Required argument id for embedded video not found. between them as shown below. Once done, save and preview your video.

Step 3: Your video will appear with all the settings that you’ve selected for your video.

LearnDash LMS Video: How to Add Video With VdoCipher?

LearnDash is one of the most widely used WordPress LMS plugins. It has a great set of features and impressive course designs. Its pricing starts at $159 for a year for one website support. With Learndash you get an option to create multi-tier courses where you can further break up the course into multiple courses.

Step 1: After the “LearnDash LMS” plugin is installed and activated, Click “Import” under Learndash LMS from the left panel. Once done, you will land on the screen below. Click on “Add New” button and get started with creating your course.

Step 2: You will land on a new edit post page. Click on “+” sign to add a new block & search for the shortcode option in the left panel. Drag & drop it to your main screen on the right or wherever you want to embed the video.

Step 3: Once done, you’ll get the option to enter the shortcode. Just enter the “vdo id” of the video you wish to embed as you get the vdo id of every video you upload on the VdoCipher dashboard. Click on “preview in new tab” option.

Step 4: Much like creating courses, you can also create lessons as shown in the below screenshot. Click “Lessons” under LearnDash LMS from the left panel. Once done, you can start creating lessons by clicking on the “Add your first Lesson” button.

Step 5: Your video will appear in the new tab with all the settings that you’ve selected for your video.

All in All

Using video in LMS is fairly easy with the help of a video platform. All you have to do is upload and embed your video . Everything related to video infrastructure is taken care of by the video platform itself. This includes video transcoding, encryption, DRM integration, Adaptive Bitrate Streaming, custom player, and a lot more,

There are a lot of other blogs in the LMS series, if you liked this article do have a go at them as well.

We’ve written several other blogs on LMS, feel free to check them out if it piques your interest

• Video LMS
• Enterprise LMS
• Corporate LMS
• Top LMS Platform
• LMS Systems
• Learning Management Systems

The Definitive Guide to Free LMS Plugins for WordPress

VdoCipher Embed in Kajabi LMS using Script

https://www.vdocipher.com/blog/2021/05/video-embedding/

Rahul Rana

Head of Digital Marketing at Vdocipher. I love the art of connecting the right product to their users. When i’m not doing that i love getting lost in books.

www.vdocipher.com/

The post Video LMS: All You Need To Know To Add Videos To Your LMS appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Watermark on videos adds extra security for the video from screen capture by adding variables such as email, IP or date information to the videos. Custom variables are now supported in plugin 1.6

Default WordPress fields that can be added

Our plugin has been configured to replace the following strings in the annotation code by default:

• {name} – Current User display name
• {email} – Current User email
• {username} – Current User Login
• {id} – Current User ID

Till version 1.5 of our WordPress video hosting plugin, watermark on videos could only have a limited number of dynamic variables. With version 1.6, we have now added filter hooks on the annotation code to enable other plugins or themes to change the annotation code.

Custom filter addition to the WordPress hook

You can now add a custom filter to the hook `vdocipher_annotate_preprocess` . Example code for adding custom filter is:

function customfunc($vdo_annotate_code){
 $customVariable = "Hello world";
 $vdo_annotate_code = str_replace('{var1}', $customVariable, $vdo_annotate_code);
 return $vdo_annotate_code;
}

add_filter('vdocipher_annotate_preprocess', 'customfunc');

Display WordPress Default field like User Fullname

An example code to display the full name is as follows:

function customvdofunc($vdo_annotate_code){
    $fullname = "";
    if (is_user_logged_in()) {
        $current_user = wp_get_current_user();
        $firstname = $current_user->user_firstname;
        $lastname = $current_user->user_lastname;
        $fullname = $firstname . " " . $lastname;
     }
     $vdo_annotate_code = str_replace('{fullname}', $fullname, $vdo_annotate_code);
     return $vdo_annotate_code;
}
add_filter('vdocipher_annotate_preprocess', 'customvdofunc');

This would replace the string ‘{fullname}’ in the watermark code to the fullname of the logged in user.

JSON Code addition to the VdoCipher WordPress Plugin

The above code enables you to replace the token {var1} with the value of $customVariable. You can then use an annotation code like:

[
{'type':'rtext', 'text':'Your IP : {ip}', 'alpha':'0.8', 'color':'0xFF0000','size':'12','interval':'5000'},
{'type':'text', 'text':'{var1}', 'alpha':'0.5' , 'x':'150', 'y':'100', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'12'}
]

This code on going through the above filter will become

[
{'type':'rtext', 'text':'Your IP : {ip}', 'alpha':'0.8', 'color':'0xFF0000','size':'12','interval':'5000'},
{'type':'text', 'text':'Hello world', 'alpha':'0.5' , 'x':'150', 'y':'100', 'color':'0xFF0000', 'size':'12'}
]

This function can be placed in the functions.php file in your theme. It is recommended to create a child theme before making such edits.

Example Steps to configure custom field “Phone number” as a watermark

You can configure user-specific details like “phone numbers” as a watermark using the VdoCipher WordPress video plugin annotation field and add_filter function in the functions file. shortcode embedded in WordPress.

Note: This phone number is a Custom Field created for illustration using a  plugin named “Advanced Custom Fields” and the name for this custom field is phone_number. You might not need to configure such custom fields, your membership plugin that you might be using would already have such custom field addition functionality. The phone number addition of a user on their profile needs to be managed and taken care of from your WordPress setup side. Your WordPress developers can check and implement it. For this example, the sample WordPress viewer playing the video has the phone number  887788778877 on his profile.

Below is a code demonstrating the usage of a sample function for displaying the saved phone number as a watermark and plugin setup.

Additions in functions.php WordPress file

1. Login to your WordPress account having theme editor access.
2. Open functions.php through Appearance>Theme File Editor or Tools>Theme File Editor
3. Add given below custom PHP function in the functions.php file and save the file.

function customvdofunc($vdo_annotate_code){
   $Phonenumber = "";
   if (is_user_logged_in()) {
       $current_user = wp_get_current_user();
       $PNO = $current_user->phone_number;
          }
    $vdo_annotate_code = str_replace('{Phonenumber}', $PNO, $vdo_annotate_code);
    return $vdo_annotate_code;
}
add_filter('vdocipher_annotate_preprocess', 'customvdofunc');

Adding JSON to the VdoCipher WordPress Plugin field

You need to add the following JSON code in the plugin settings to call the custom function and display the viewer’s phone number as a watermark.

[{"type":"rtext", "text":"{Phonenumber}", "alpha":"0.90","color":"#FFFF00","size":"12","interval":"5000","skip":5000}]

On playback of the videos, the watermark will show the phone number of the viewer playing the video. Similarly, you can call other custom or WordPress data fields via functions.php and display the same by adding more lines of JSON code in the VdoCipher plugin field.

The post Custom variables as watermark on WordPress videos 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.

Security features for video hosting

1. Google Widevine DRM Encryption– Protect video downloads with Netflix like security in Desktop and Android via Widevine DRM encryption. Vdocipher video hosting is actually encrypted video playback , raw file is never exposed in the network; thus full proofing it secure from downloaders and hackers. IDM, Video Download Helper, other such tools wont be able to download video. Widevine DRM demo at homepage video
2. Apple Fairplay DRM Encryption – Protect video downloads with Netflix like security in IOS via Fairplay DRM encryption. Vdocipher video hosting is actually DRM encrypted video playback, raw file is never exposed in the network; thus full proofing it secure from downloaders and hackers. IDM, Video Download Helper, other such tools wont be able to download the video. Available for only paid plans. More Details.
3. Domain Restriction – VdoCipher provides domain restriction to ensure that video url can not be shared outside your video hosting website. Multiple websites can be integrated from same account.
4. User Specific Watermark – To discourage screen capture in Desktop and Android, viewer details like IP address, email id, user id, phone number can be watermarked over the video. Proprietary technology to ensure highest secure video hosting. Demo watermark
5. Fixed Text Watermark – Have your company/personal text on video as a watermark. Brand your videos with your Copyright.
6. Change watermark display parameters & speed –The most attractive feature about our watermark is that it is super easy to customise the colour, speed of movement, frequency of visibility, transparency, size of the watermark. This is used by our video hosting customers to ensure that viewer experience is not deteriorated while using watermark as a security barrier. More Details.
7. Country Restriction/Geo-Blocking- We provide Geo-Blocking in terms of country restriction to allow you blacklist or whitelist certain countries. Most popular amongst our movie/media content video hosting clients. More Details.
8. Screen Capture Block in Android Native App – Our Native SDK integration with Android App ensure highest security from download and screen capture. Screen capture is blocked at hardware level and no tool will be able to grab app videos even via screen capture. Very popular feature amongst our Indian Test Prep video hosting clients who value security the utmost and want hard block against screen capture. Android App integration details.
9. Screen Capture Block in IOS Native App – Our Native SDK integration with Apple Fairplay DRM in IOS app ensures hard core security from download and screen capture block. Android App integration details.
10. Proprietary Encryption as Android/IOS fallback – There are certain Android devices (some Redmi ones particularly or some very old Android devices) which do not support Widevine DRM. Thus, there is an optional alternate encrypted video playback for such cases to improve compatibility.
11. Emulator Playback Prevention in Mobile Apps – We provide emulator playback protection for our customers to ensure that videos only play in real mobile phones. This is done via our integrated Google SafetyNet implementation for our video hosting customers. Available for our latest SDK integrations, explained here in SDK document (at last section).
12. Dynamic URLs via APIs – If you integrate via our APIs, then we do not provide static embed code for videos, there is dynamic url generated for each playback session to ensure highest url security for VdoCipher video hosting. VdoCipher API page

Video Player Features

1. Smart HTML5 Video Player – Custom HTML5 Video player with multi-device compatibility along with standard features like youtube’s video hosting. Player feature overview
2. Adaptive Video Quality – VdoCipher provides multiple quality options on player and the player is adaptive in nature; which means that it can switch quality based on internet connection of user. A distinct feature of our quality variation is that we mark it by bitrate and optimize it for low sizes. More details are mentioned in our one of most popular blogs here on video quality.
3. Speed Change in player – User can increase or decrease speed of video to consume and understand content according to their own needs. Player feature overview
4. 15s forward/rewind – A quick forward/rewind feature on player for users to revise the content or skip ahead for saving time.
5. Multi-lingual subtitles – You can upload subtitles in multiple languages in vtt format and our player will display them. Tutorial
6. Low bitrate quality optimization –Particularly built for our e-learning video hosting customers from across the world, we provide good quality even at low bitrates. This ensures quality experience at slow internet and at same time saves bandwidth for you. This is inbuilt in default accounts, for further size reduction, contact our team and they can try to even further reduce the sizes based on your content type.
7. Buttons/Form over video via Script code –We have ready to use sample codes available for you to embed buttons/forms over the video.  Some samples are shown here.
8. Player events and Callbacks – One of most used features by developers, allows them to track and save viewer events like start, pause, end, seek, playback time, etc. and build their own detailed video analytics or show custom CTAs.  More details.
9. Playback Time Calculation via Code – Again one of our most popular developer features particularly used by LMS and large education clients. This allows you to calculate exact time played per video session by each user. You can sum it up to restrict the users based on total time player. It also allows you to have completion rate of your videos/courses and better produce lecture content for future. More details.
10. Remove Player timeline for Live like playback – Demand of providing a secure live player peaked post start of Covid-19 pandemic. While we do not have a video hosting infrastructure for live content; we do provide a player experience where timeline controls, speed change, forward/rewind are removed for a live like experience. This ensures that your users can not skip any content. This has to be custom set up for your paid account and you can contact us for integrating this for your account. Sample Themes for Live kind experience.
11. Remove fullscreen from player – Some customers demand a certain experience where they want the viewer to watch the hosted videos on their site in a website frame along with some other things on their page.  We allow you to remove full screen button removed from the player. This has to be custom set up for your paid account and you can contact us for integrating this for your account.
12. Chapter Segmentation via Script code – Particularly useful for lecture creators who want to segment their long lectures into different segments. Via our sample script code, you can specify various segments on your webpage and clicking on any can directly take to a particular part of the video. Also possible for video hosting in-app via our SDK integrations. More Details.
13. Chromecast , Android Casting, Android TV Support – VdoCipher DRM playback is supported in these environments and Android App also has an optional casting feature. Android SDK casting document.

AWS Global CDN Hosting features for video

1. AWS CDN and server -VdoCipher uses Global AWS Cloud Infrastructure that consists of 3 primary components of Storage on AWS S3, Transcoding via VdoCipher algorithms on EC2, Streaming of content via Cloudfront CDN. AWS has over 100+ server pops across the world, thus helping us to ensure smooth delivery of content. Apart from these, there are over 10 other AWS services that are built into our video hosting infrastructure.
   More detailed explanation is here.
2. AWS backed Transcoding – Whenever you upload a video, VdoCipher does 2 jobs with it – First is transcoding it to multiple sizes and changing video format as apt for VdoCipher playback. Second, we encrypt it with our DRM licenses for highest security. These 2 bulk heavy operations essential for our video hosting are made scalable and globally reliable via the use of AWS EC2 (CPU instances).

Dashboard, Integration, API, SDK features for video hosting

1. Dashboard to manage videos – A dashboard to allow you upload videos, edit video settings, generate embed code, view usage. Some of our customers manage 10,000+ videos on VdoCipher. Upload Embed tutorial
2. API to embed videos – APIs to automate your embed process and ensure highest security via DRM encryption and watermarking. Tutorial
3. API to upload videos – You may want to have your partners/users upload videos from your website/app without interacting directly with VdoCipher. Other use cases including automating upload/import from url or server (E.g AWS S3). Tutorial
4. WordPress Plugin – Our most popular integration which allows quick 15 minute integration of highest secure video hosting with your wordpress website. Option to customise player theme and watermark.  Tutorial here.
5. Moodle Plugin – For educators to ensure easy integration of VdoCipher video hosting in Moodle sites. Customizable watermark option in plugin. Tutorial here.
6. Iframe Embed –The quickest way to embed in your site or some 3rd party site. Domain restriction and time expiry feature along with iframe. Plugin or APIs integration is better customisable, but if not possible Iframe is the way to go. IFrame Embed tutorial.
7. Script Embed – With and without APIs, you can try script method to embed in your site.
8. Android App SDK – Google Widevine DRM encryption + AWS video hosting packaged for your Andrvoid App. Video player, screen capture block default built into SDK.  Android SDK
9. IOS App SDK – Apple Fairplay DRM encryption + AWS video hosting packaged for your IOS App. Screen capture block default built into SDK. IOS SDK
10. Flutter Android Plugin- With the Flutter Android plugin, you can stream your content securely and prevent piracy on the supported app. Flutter Android Plugin Documentation
11. iOS native SDK-iOS native SDK helps you to stream your Fairplay-protected videos through your iOS app. iOS native SDK documentation
12. Offline download in iOS app- By using VdoCipher iOS native SDK, you can allow your users to download videos on the device. Video remains secure and can’t be taken out or screen captured as well. You can even specify the time duration a particular offline video will be available for download. iOS SDK offline documentation
13. Offline download in Android App – Provide your users an option to download videos inside your android app, but it stays secure and cant be screen capture or taken out. Also provides you an option to set time validity of the downloaded video. Android SDK.  Overall API page.
14. Folder Segmentation of Videos – VdoCipher enables folder and subfolder in the dashboard for easy categorization of videos. Please note that content is not directly uploaded into a folder, first it has to be uploaded and then can be transferred to any folder. Folder management tutorial.
15. Import Videos from Vimeo Pro – You do not need to re-upload content if you were earlier using Vimeo Pro or higher accounts. We have Vimeo Import feature to directly transfer content from Vimeo to VdoCipher. Tutorial.
16. Import Videos from Google Drive –  Direct option in dashboard under “Import” section.
17. Import Videos from Dropbox – Direct option in dashboard under “Import” section.
18. Import Videos from AWS S3/Server – Possible both via Dashboard and API. Direct option in dashboard under “Import” section. API server upload– 
19. Multi-user access to dashboard – Add multiple users to your dashboard and allow them different permission levels. These permissions can be viewer, uploader, editor, and OTP creator. Available in “config” section of dashboard.
20. Multiple accounts from same mail ID – You can create multiple accounts from same mail id ,each account has different payment settings and configuration. Available once you have express or higher plan.
21. Daily bandwidth reports – Available in Analytics section of the dashboard. Downloadable data per video per day also available.
22. SafetyNet for Highest App-based Security-With VdoCipher’s Android SDK you can integrate Google’s Safetynet for additional protection on videos. SafetyNet ensures that playback is blocked on emulated and on most rooted devices. It is one of the highest protection available against tampering through rooted devices. It ensures protection against any application tampering and replays attacks. It ensures playback is only allowed on the app published by you and not any other tampered and modified app, thus blocking playback on any duplicate apps.SafetyNet Documentation
23. Daily storage data – Available in Analytics section
24. Iframe integration with teachable – VdoCipher video hosting DRM encryption, domain whitelist, IP address watermark feature can be integrated with teachable videos via our iframe integration. Tutorial here.
25. Iframe integration with 3rd party LMS – Most 3rd party LMSes support iframe embed , where VdoCipher iframe can be embedded for highest security. Tutorial for Iframe embed.
26. Plugin integration with WordPress LMS –Since VdoCipher integrates at wordpress backend, most of wordpress LMSes are compatible with VdoCipher video hosting plugin. Many of our customers use our plugin and LMSes together.
    Tutorial for wordpress embed and sample integration with LifterLMS.
27. Tag Videos via API and dashboard – VdoCipher provides tagging option for hosted videos. You can tag one video with one or multiple tags and later search via tags. Folder system is different from tags. Tag via API tutorial.  Tagging in dashboard.
28. DRM only APIs for Enterprise users – About 99% of customers use our packaged offering where video hosting on AWS server, DRM encryption, watermarking, smart player, dashboard, APIs is packaged together. Some enterprise users might want only DRM encryption while they manage other things at their end. This is possible but quite difficult. It requires lot of coding for specific streaming protocols, CDN setups,  integration of DRM APIs and is only recommended if you have a large development team at your side. Also, the pricing of such an offering starts from $5000/year.
    To check if it is understandable and integrable by you, you can check this technical document here.
29. Custom Poster Image/thumbnail – You can change video thumbnail according to your choice from video settings option in dashboard. Tutorial here.
30. Per video bandwidth data via dashboard/API – Available in Analytics Section of dashboard. API data access
31. Webhooks to manage API upload – If you use upload APIs to upload videos, then webhooks are essential to get video related data automatically. Webhooks in dashboard link
32. No branding/whitelisted solution – VdoCipher does not label its name/logo anywhere on the player.
33. Optional Disable Mobile playback on account level  – Available on request as per account basis.
34. Replace Videos without changing embed code – This is an important feature for video hosting users in case you want to update your lecture content or a movie edit without having to change anything on app/web side. Tutorial here. All support doc and tutorials.

Important FAQs Around Video Hosting Features

What is the importance of DRM in video hosting?

DRM is crucial because it secures video content through encryption, making it accessible only to authorized users. This technology deters piracy and unauthorized sharing, ensuring that creators and publishers retain control over their content distribution and monetization.

How does adaptive video quality enhance viewer experience?

Adaptive streaming adjusts the video quality in real-time based on the viewer’s internet speed, providing a seamless viewing experience. This technology prevents buffering and ensures that the video plays smoothly, which is vital for maintaining viewer engagement and satisfaction.

What role does API integration play in video hosting?

API integration is essential for automating the video hosting process, including uploading, embedding, and managing videos. This allows for a more efficient management of video content on platforms, enabling customization and enhancing user experiences without manual intervention.

Why is screen capture blocking significant for video content?

Blocking screen capture is a feature aimed at combating piracy by preventing viewers from recording videos directly off the screen. This helps protect the content creator’s intellectual property and revenue, ensuring that the video remains exclusive to the hosting platform and its authorized users.

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post 57 Video Hosting Features for Video Platform appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Here you can find our tutorial videos on upload/import and various other features in detail.

Detailed tutorial videos are included below –

• Upload/Import + Embed overview

Dashboard features & video setting details

• Multi-User addition to account & permission levels
• Adding more accounts/projects to same dashboard
• Get all videos data in csv (title, id, status, time added)
• Generating video page url to share directly to user (not embedding)
• Video settings overview (Thumbnail, title, tags, subtitles, replace video)
• Thumbnail & title change: Tutorial
• Subtitle addition (Multiple Language supported)
• Replace/Swap/Update Videos
• Video Files & Thumbnails Generated data & total storage for a video
• Api key generation (Client Secret key for your account)
• Webhooks to fetch video status via API

We have developed several features as part of our dashboard and as part of our API so that users can manage their videos. This blog covers all stages of a video-based workflow, from uploading video to using advanced analytics to assess video performance.

Upload

It is vital for our users the the time between video upload and when video being ready is minimized. Optimizing the time to encode and encrypt videos is an engineering challenge that remains top priority for our developer team.

The green Upload button can be used to directly upload videos from your device. You may alternatively import videos from URLs of MP4 or FLV files, from either HTTP or FTP.You can also import video files frmo Cloud Service Providers such as Dropbox and Google Drive, and from video service providers Wistia and Vimeo. If you require to bulk import videos from other sources please communicate to us at support@vdocipher.com.

Directly importing videos from URLs saves your device’s bandwidth usage and allows video file transfers to happen completely behind the scenes. There is a progress bar that shows the relative completeness of upload process. Once the video is uploaded, it shows in dashboard with any of the following status, which reflects the status of the video upload process:

You can check the video status by making an API call as well. If the video you uploaded is in Queued status for a long time, drop us a message at site chat or support@vdocipher.com, Generally a 15 min video should be encoded in 20 minutes time and be ready for release. However if you have uploaded multiple videos at once – say 50 or more then video upload may take more time.

Many of our enterprise customers have their customers or partners actually providing videos to them. In such cases, it becomes quite useful if the video transferred by them to your website or app directly reaches your account on Vdocipher. VdoCipher enables this functionality through upload APIs. To automate your upload process you can visit the following blog on Video Upload Using API.

We have optimized our encoding configurations to generate best quality videos at lowest bitrates. If you have any particular request with regard to resolution/ bitrates please let us know at support@vdocipher.com.

Integration into site or app

There are mainly three means of integrating VdoCipher to your website:

• Plugins – WordPress, Joomla!, Moodle, Drupal
• Player Embed Code with Dynamic OTP Generation
• Quick Embed via iFrame

To see the embed options videos please click on the Embed button for the respective video in the Dashboard.

Plugins – WordPress, Joomla!, Moodle, Drupal

The simplest way to embed secure videos through your CMS-based website is by using our plugin. The plugins for WordPress, Joomla!, Moodle and Drupal generate dynamic OTPs in the backend and send them to the front-end. The OTP generation and authentication happens completely under the hood of the plugin, and to embed the video you only require to add a shortcode, having the following format:

[vdo id= '1234567890']

Please visit Protect Videos on WordPress for more details on using our WordPress plugin. While WordPress remains the most popular Content Management System, our plugins for Joomla!, Moodle and Drupal continue to be very popular with content creators looking to protect their premium videos. Plugins for Joomla!, Moodle and Drupal have the same means of embedding video through the shortcode.

The following blogs give details on using VdoCipher plugin for the respective CMS:

• Protect Videos on WordPress
• VdoCipher plugin on WordPress directory
• Moodle Video Embed and Upload Solution
• Secure Videos in Joomla with VdoCipher plugin
• VdoCipher Joomla Extension

Player Embed Code with OTP Generation at Backend

VdoCipher’s secure video streaming requires backend authentication via unique tokens. For this your site backend has to make an HTTP request to VdoCipher API, which returns an OTP to authenticate playback session. This OTP is to be then appended to the player embed code on the site front-end.

The embed code would require the API Secret Key (also called API Key), which you can get from the Config section of the Dashboard.

Please note that the OTP call should always be made from the site backend (controller in MVC architecture). The received OTP (and playbackInfo) are then appended to the player embed code in the frontend (view in MVC architecture). This division across site backend and frontend is critical for ensuring maximum security. We have deliberately blocked OTP requests from site front-end, as this would expose your API Secret key to site visitors.

You can consult the following resources for website integration in different web scripting langugages

• VdoCipher API Page
• Protect Videos using Watermark
• Sample VdoCipher API Implementation for PHP
• Sample VdoCipher API Implementation for ASP.NET
• Sample VdoCipher API Implementation for Node.js

Quick Embed via iFrame

The Quick Embed option via iFrame is the fastest way to embed videos to your site. This is the best option when you are using ready-made website builder platforms such as Wix, Weebly or Squarespace. The following blog provides details on VdoCipher integration with ready-to-build site platforms

The quick embed code can be customized, with three features:

• You can set the embed code to expire for a period of time. By default the embed code expiry is set to 30 years.
• IP and Geo – You can limit access to certain IP addresses and to certain geographical locations only.
• URL Whitelisting – Video will play only if the video player is embedded to the main website. This ensures that piracy through URL sharing is avoided

Note that public embed code & URL whitelisting are less secure than integration through APIs or plugins. Also watermarking is not possible in that case. However even then the stream is fully encrypted and therefore piracy is still prevented from downloaders. Overall our security offerings are much more complete than our competition.

Please make sure that you only embed videos after you have edited all the required settings. We highly recommend that you opt for security through plugin or API, but if not possible we have simplified the process of Public embed code and URL whitelisting option.

Video detail management

You can manage video details, including title, description, tags, poster image and subtitles by clicking the Edit button for each video.

Add Tags

We have enabled a tag-based video management system, which makes it easier for users to categorize and manage their videos. You can easily add/ remove tags from the Edit menu.

Alternatively you may use the tagging API to update tags in your videos.

Thumbnail

By default, a random frame in the video is set as thumbnail. You can customize the poster image to capture your viewer’s attention and enhance click-through rates for your video. To set any other image, you can upload the image in the Edit section.

You may alternatively use the Poster image API to upload the new poster image.

Add captions to Videos

You can upload subtitles for any language that is part of the ISO 639-1 system, as a VTT file. Subtitles are really useful to reach out to newer audiences, as well as to help native speakers follow the video content better.

Filter and Search

Specific videos can be searched using ID, Title or associated tags using the Filter and Search option available in the dashboard. The complete details (id, title, status) of all videos can be downloaded at one go by selecting the Download CSV option.

You can alternatively use the Search API to search for videos based on tags, video ID or title.

Analytics – Usage details

You can see your account bandwidth and storage usage on a daily basis in the Analytics section of the Dashboard.

This data is received from CDN endpoints that accurately reflect the daily bandwidth usage. You can export this bandwidth data as a .csv file for any date range.

We also provide advanced video analytics about how viewers watch your videos. These analytics collect anonymized information about the most popular videos on your platform. These analytics are designed to provide you information about the relative performance of your videos, so you can see how best to improve your library of video content.

Please note that the measurement of video analytics is different from measurement of bandwidth usage, and may not track 100% of user sessions.

Testing for Secure Streaming

Once your video is ready you test secure video playback on any device. You can log into the Dashboard and simply click the play button to start video playback. You are welcome to test out downloader plugins or any hack your best developer can think of to try and download our videos.

Normally our video encoding settings have been optimized to stream highest quality videos at lowest possible bitrates. Indeed we often delight our users by streaming HD videos at 400kbps bitrates.

However if you find any issues with video streaming, it may be for either of the following reasons:

• For the first time of playback, the video is not cached in nearest CDN servers, and the streaming is therefore a little slow. Once video is cached to the server, after second playback video quality and streaming improves quite a lot.
• It is possible that the available video bitrates are high when compared to your network connections. While adaptive streaming ensures that the best resolution is displayed for user’s network conditions, in such a case you may require custom encoding settings. Please communicate your issue to us at support@vdocipher.com, and we’ll ensure that optimized encoding settings are applied for your videos.

We have implemented many optimizations in our encoding settings to ensure the best user experience. These optimizations have enabled our customers to reach users across the world, including in corners of India and the African continent where internet connectivity is comparatively poor.

– Blogs & Site chat – There is lot of documentation on how to use, and what are the benefits and standards for various technologies at our blog. (vdocipher.com/blog), Search the blog for your required keyword to see related articles.

We ensure availability of our support team at the live site chat (bottom right of the vdocipher site). Please feel free to ping us to have a detailed conversation. Our support team would help you through most of your queries and problems.

For a full version 5 GB free trial of vdocipher secure video hosting & streaming , register at www.vdocipher.com

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post Video Management details on VdoCipher Dashboard appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

The Upload API workflow and overview can be found here.

Please find below a sample code for enabling video upload from your PHP website’s users. Note that this is sample code and you will need to configure it according to the controller-view structure in your application. It is not a recommended to put Controller logic and HTML output in a single file.

https://gist.github.com/vibhavsinha/71d394132a98c049f8aa

<?php
function send($action, $params, $posts = false){
    $curl = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,true);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
    $getData = http_build_query($params);
	$postData = ['clientSecretKey'=>'CLIENT_SECRET_KEY'];            ////Replace the caps CLIENT_SECRET_KEY with your video id.
    if ($posts) {
		$postData = http_build_query(array_merge($postData, $posts));
	}
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true); 
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postData);
    $url = "http://api.vdocipher.com/v2/$action/?$getData";
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
    $html = curl_exec($curl);
    curl_close($curl);
    return $html;
}

$upload_data = json_decode(send('uploadPolicy', [], ['title'=>'NEW_TITLE']), true);
if (is_null($upload_data)) {
	throw new Exception('Exception: ' . $upload_data);
}
?>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
  </head>
  <body>

  <form action="<?= $upload_data['upload_link_secure'] ?>" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    Key to upload: 
	<input type="hidden"  name="key" value="<?= $upload_data['key'] ?>" /><br />
	<input type="hidden" name="success_action_status" value="201" />
	<input type="hidden" name="success_action_redirect" value="https://www.vdocipher.com" />

	<input type="hidden"   name="X-Amz-Credential" value="<?= $upload_data['x-amz-credential'] ?>" />
	<input type="hidden"   name="X-Amz-Algorithm" value="<?= $upload_data['x-amz-algorithm'] ?>" />
	<input type="hidden"   name="X-Amz-Date" value="<?= $upload_data['x-amz-date'] ?>" />

	<input type="hidden" name="Policy" value='<?= $upload_data['policy'] ?>' />
	<input type="hidden" name="X-Amz-Signature" value="<?= $upload_data['x-amz-signature'] ?>" />
    File: 
    <input type="file"   name="file" /> <br />
    <!-- The elements after this will be ignored -->
    <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Upload to Amazon S3" />
  </form>
</html>

When setting up your front-end, you will like to enable better interface with AJAX upload such that your user’s can have a seamless experience. For this it is recommended to use one of the available libraries(angularjs, jquery or standalone, etc.) . Note that all these can be modified to be used in this set up. You can also see a sample implementation of the angular’s ng-file-upload library in your vdocipher dashboard itself.

The post Redirected: PHP sample video upload from browser to VdoCipher appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

We see that in many cases, the first idea that comes to the video creator is to self-host videos. This means having an in-house team to handle video streaming & hosting technology. However, handling the video hosting on their own end is often not technically and economically feasible. A lot of businesses realize this only after spending valuable time and resources into developing an inefficient video hosting infrastructure. Many IT service companies that do not have video as a primary offering also come to this realization at some point.

Here we list the primary reasons as to why you should not self host videos.  Most of these recommendations apply to both high-budget and economy users, as both the service offerings and price points of premium online video platforms (OVPs) deliver better returns on investment than could be obtained from self-hosting videos.

What is Self Hosted Video?

In the context of video distribution, self-hosting video is the process of uploading and storing video files to your website or some other rented webspace.

Also, there are different ways to host videos on your website or blog. The most popular method is to use a video hosting service like YouTube or VdoCipher. These video hosting platforms allow you to upload your videos and embed them directly on your site. 

Self hosting videos is another way to host the videos on your own server. But it requires more technical work on your part but also gives you more control over the videos. You can choose how the videos are displayed. Finally, to host your videos, you can also use services like Amazon S3. It is a more expensive option but offers more flexibility and control.

Reasons Why Self Hosted Videos are Not a Good Choice

There are several reasons why self-hosted videos are not a good idea.

• One of the biggest reasons is that they are not as reliable as hosted videos on a trustworthy video hosting provider. If your video hosting goes down, so do your videos. This can be a major problem if you rely on your videos for your business and marketing.
• Another issue with self-hosted videos is that they can be costly. Hosting videos can be expensive, and if you’re not careful, you may spend more than you would on a professional video hosting provider. When you are self hosting video content, you will have to pay for the bandwidth (data transfer), which could be significant.
• Finally, self-hosted videos are prone to security risks. If your video is hacked, it could be illegally downloaded or may be used to spread malware or viruses. It could hamper your reputation and revenue generation and lead to low customer retention.

Server and CDN setup, Scaling, Automation for streaming

When hosting videos on static web pages, each time the webpage loads the video is loaded as well. Handling 100s of users loading your video player each minute would require multiple cores of servers and Content Delivery Network implementation. The video hosting infrastructure should have the capacity to serve users at peak times, when there are maximum users on the page.
It is a lot different doing these for static sites & video stuff. Handling multiple cores of servers, implementing CDN, ensuring it goes well during peaks and scales well, is a tough job. Here is an example to explain better.

Consider a webpage that hosts a 5-minute video, getting 100 pageviews in a minute. These 100 users who came within a minute on the web page were in real time loading the page and requesting objects from server. These server requests were being generated at different milliseconds – there were never 100 simultaneous users, they had loaded the page at different milliseconds. While all the other page elements are loaded at different times within the one minute window, in the case of video every user is simultaneously fetching content. For a 5 minute video all the users will be fetching content at same millisecond level from servers, overloading the server hosting your website. This can therefore overload the server, and lead to your website crashing. For this reason optimization of hosting infrastructure requires that your video hosting and website hosting be on separate servers. Setting up a separate server for handling videos would again require a whole new server setup process, adding to your responsibilities considerably.

Protecting Videos from Download and Piracy

If you choose to self host videos , you would most likely be providing a direct video video URL from your video hosting server to the site. This can make your video vulnerably to download from a lot of free downloaders and plugins such as IDM and Download Helper. These plugins are widely available on the web, which leads to loss of revenue from content owing to video piracy. Secure Online Video Platforms would safeguard your content from online video piracy.

Encoding for multiple devices & Bitrates

Currently the video codecs segment is highly fragmented. Apart from Chrome, which supports almost all the popularly used codecs (H.264, WebM, Ogg), none of the web browsers supports all the major codecs. For instance, Safari and Internet Explorer support only H.264 encoding and not WebM or Ogg, whereas Firefox, the next most popular browser after Chrome, does not support H.264 codecs. When self-hosting videos, you would need to transcode specifically in each of the codecs. Encoding is again a server + CPU intensive process. A different file is needed when viewing a video on a phone and when viewing the video on your PC or HD television. You would need to transcode videos for desktop, iOS and android separately. Also encoding is required for different bitrates, so that your viewers can watch your videos across all devices smoothly and seamlessly.

Video Player – Controls, Adaptive, Customization

Video.js is a JavaScript and CSS library that is used as an HTML5 video player. Using the Video.js library requires a great level of coding. For this reason it is recommended that you opt for a secure online video platform (OVP) over coding from scratch. Apart from the initial setup, additional customizations required are adding desired colors, themes, bitrates, sizes and adaptation to aspect ratio. This customization is required to allow video playback across multiple devices and browsers.

Costs of Large development team & Time to launch Video business

If you are willing to setup your own video infrastructure in-house, it is important that you look at the bottomline of costs and time of development. This includes spending on the development team, at which point you would need to understand salary costs of developers. Besides, in-house development would take months to launch, in which period you would need to bring together a team for setting up the video infrastructure and understanding the hosting requirements. Besides the one-time setup costs, you would need a dedicated team to troubleshoot problems. VdoCipher online video platform has the necessary video infrastructure, and our support ensures that your videos faces minimal downtime. You can get started with using VdoCipher in just about 10 minutes, and can integrate your website with our hosting service in 3 days, with full support from our customer experience team. VdoCipher uses AWS & Akamai at backend to ensure great cloud availability.

Still not convinced? Shawn Hesketh at WP101 has written a comprehensive post on why you should never host your own videos.

For a full version 30-day free trial of our secure and reliable streaming solution, register for a free demo at www.vdocipher.com

FAQs

What is the difference between self-video hosting and professional video hosting services?

Professional video hosting services usually offer more storage space and bandwidth, as well as better security and video player with added functionalities. They may also offer more advanced features, such as the ability to stream live videos or directly embed videos on your website.

On what factors does a video’s bandwidth consumption depend?

For a specific video, calculating the bandwidth usage mainly depends on the video’s resolution, bitrate, and length.

Why are self-hosted videos insecure compared to videos hosted on commercial hosting platforms?

Self-hosted videos may be more susceptible to unauthorized access and malware attacks, as they are often not as well-protected as those hosted by a third-party provider. They are highly prone to video piracy or illegal distribution as they are not securely encrypted. In case of the hosting server crashes, the self hosted videos are likely to be deleted or lost.

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post Why Not to Host Your Own Videos? Challenges in Self-hosting videos appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

A video’s poster image changes how the user engages with the video. The poster image is the image that is displayed right before the video. The user has to click on this poster image or a play button over it to start playing the video. It is usually the first thing viewer will notice on the page or the screen and will affect their engagement. A good poster image shows ample information about the content of the video while arousing the viewer’s curiosity to click and start watching the video.

Some important considerations when making a Poster Image

There are a few important things to keep in mind when creating a Poster Image:

• Make sure the Poster Image is of reasonable size. It should be large enough to be understandable but not so large that it takes up too much space on the page.
• Using short and attractive text on the Poster Image will help users know what they’ll see when they will watch the video.
• Choose an image that is representative of the content it links to. Don’t use a random image just to fill space.
• Try to include a call to action in the poster image like “Click to learn more”). If you have made the CTA clickable, ensure it links to the appropriate page. There’s nothing worse than clicking on an image only to be taken to a completely unrelated page.

Uploading New Image via VdoCipher Dashboard

In the VdoCipher Dashboard, click on the Edit button (marked by pencil). This is where you can also edit the video’s title and description or add tags to the video.

At the bottom-most, you shall see an option to upload a new image. Once uploaded, the new poster will be enabled(shown as a bright blue border around the image). Using a poster image of the same dimension as your video is recommended. Note that the video and the poster image will be letterboxed ( If the aspect ratio does not match, black bars will be added to best fit the image).

If the new images do not look quite good, you can always click and select from the list of uploaded poster images.

A more detailed guide to the VdoCipher dashboard is available here Video Management through Dashboard. You can update the Poster Image using the API as detailed in the blog on API v3.

FAQs

Is there a size limit for poster images?

No, there is no limit but it is advised to keep it of reasonable size. This means that it should not be blurred, but it must not be so large that it takes up too much loading time on the page.

Are Video thumbnails always available?

No, it depends on the feature list of where you plan to host your videos. Some video hosting platforms may have specific requirements for thumbnail images, so be sure to check with them before creating your thumbnail.

The post Change video poster image in your VdoCipher’s secure video appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.