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.

We cover various methods, technologies & statistics on both video piracy and video protection in this blog.

Introduction to the e-learning video piracy problem

It can be a real downer, creating good quality content and only to realize that it’s been distributed all over by the pirates just after a few days of launch. No content creator would ever choose to be in such a position. 

As the technology progresses so does the means to pirate your content. There are several tools such as  Video Download Helper, IDM which are used extensively to download premium content. These tools are easy to use, users just need to put in the URL of the video to download it or they work as an extension on the browser. So these make digital customer journey better. From here on it is quite easy for your content to pop up in the popular sharing platforms like Telegram or torrent or sometimes even Youtube.

But there are solutions to preventing this too. Major ed-tech companies have adopted technologies such as account restriction and DRM video encryption (DRM – Digital Rights Management) to protect their content. 

In case you are still wondering how to create online courses, feel free to check out these elearning video software to fulfill all your basic requirements to create courses.

So, before I take a deep dive into how you can stop your learning videos from getting pirated, I’ll explore how pirates are getting access to your videos.

How Are Your Elearning Videos Being Pirated?

Edtech companies lose a lot of revenue and paid users due to content piracy. One paid user downloads the content, shares it with their friends or on some online platform. Thus many users often chose not to go for the premium course when the same content is available for free. This is a major issue, if by now you have not put much thought into it; you might want to take actions against it.

Passwords Sharing

A lot of times students share the password to their learning account to their friends. As a result, all of their friends or anyone with the password can view the premium account. You might not have restriction on total watch time and device usage. Using this loophole several students can use a single account to access content for free.

Piracy done by password or credential sharing can be done in a few forms, these are:

Casual – Shared among friends and family. 

Swapping/pooling – Where users(often strangers) share their passwords with each other to benefit from different services they are already subscribed to.

Commercial – When a user sublets an account in exchange of money.

Password Theft –When account credentials are hacked and stolen from the users. These accounts can be further sold by Pirates. In 2019, there were around 5 billion hacked accounts up for sale or use in both open or dark web combined.

Content Downloading

At present, there are several tools available to your users to download your premium content easily. All they have to do is just enter the URL of your video in the tool or use it as browser extension and voila, your premium content is easily downloadable.  Detailed statistical analysis on such popular video downloaders was done by us previously here.

Also, pirates often hack the key used to encrypt the video which allows the video to be decrypted and accessed directly from the CDN/Server. 

Copyright Violation

It is also quite possible that someone who has downloaded your course might edit it slightly, rename and then eventually sell it as their own. There have been several cases like these where someone sold someone else’s copyright content on a different platform. 

Back in 2015, there was a huge outcry against Udemy regarding the selling of copyrighted content. In one such case, the content was taken from Troy Hunt’s channel on plural sight and was uploaded to Udemy without their consent. You can read more about this in the Verge’s article on the Udemy controversy.

Screen Recording 

Another way by which malicious users might pirate is your content is by performing screen recording from their mobile or computer. After that content can be spread all over the internet making it easy for anyone to access the content without paying for it. 

How To Ensure Elearning Video Protection?

Now that you know why and how your content is being pirated let’s further explore what you can do to ensure elearning video protection. Torrent has been a long source for pirate to enjoy free content. Lately, this has changed to an extent. Even though torrent is still being used, modern-day pirates keep finding new ways to loot premium video content. Some of which was completely unheard of before. It’s not just about illegal copying of files, but also unauthorized “access”. 

Block Password Sharing

As discussed before password sharing is one of the major causes of piracy. Students often share passwords of their accounts with each other. This results in several simultaneous logins from an account. This leads to the consumption of the same premium content several times. Which ultimately leads to a loss in revenue that you could have gained from those views

-In WordPress

A simple solution to this is to block password sharing. If your website is based in WordPress, one simple way to do this is by using WordPress plugin to block simultaneous logins.

By using this plugin, you can ensure that at a time users can only login from a single device, ultimately stopping the account from being accessed by multiple users at the same time. 

Another plugin you can use to block simultaneous login is WP bouncer

-For non-WordPress websites

If you’re not a WordPress user, you need not worry about video protection, although for this you’d need to take the help of your developers for this. Without going into technical terms I’d simply explain it to you how you can achieve this. 

• For this, you’ll have to generate a unique ID  login and write that ID to the database for that user. Set that ID as a cookie for the user. When you receive traffic from that user, only consider them logged in if their cookie matches the value in the database.
• When the user logs in to a new device, a new unique ID is generated and sent as a cookie to that new device. The new device’s traffic has a cookie that matches the database and is therefore considered logged in. When the old device visits your application, the login cookie no longer matches the value in the database, so the user is considered logged out.
• When the old device logs in again, a new unique ID is generated in the database and sent as a cookie to that device. They are now logged in, because of their cookie matches. The second device, having its cookie no longer match the database, is logged out.

Using SSO for login

Another way to curb password sharing can be by using Single sign-on for login to the user account. Using SSO a user can log in to the platform using social login such as Google, Facebook etc. 

Even though a user might share their login for the e-learning video platform easily but a Facebook or google password is more personal and the user would refrain from sharing it with their friends. Also, since it’s SSO is user friendly and it saves trouble such as remembering password and login is much simpler with just a click it makes sense to promote this feature to the user.

Restrict Video Watch time to Prevent Misuse or Overuse

Another way to make sure that the account is not shared by the users is to restrict the total watch time for a user. Typically a user won’t watch a lecture twice or thrice, depending on your user’s behavior you can keep a total playback time for a video restricted. 

This way you can ensure that your e-learning video is not being watched multiple times by several users. For a more technical explanation on this, you can refer to the video linked for restrict watch time by vdocipher, also, in case you need code for this you can get it here.

All the above-mentioned methods for e-learning video protection catered to access related piracy, another important way is to prevent video download.

Using Video Encryption

Video encryption technology is used to secure your videos by encrypting or hiding them from anyone you haven’t been given access. Basically, it stops anyone from viewing the video without your permission(the encryption key).

At present there are two major popular and easy-to-use encrypted video streaming protocols:

1. AES 128 Video Encryption (Normal or Sample AES 128 protocol): It is the most common basic encryption technology used by developers to encrypt content and prevent raw video to be seen in the network.
2. HLS Encryption with AES-128: In HLS Encryption, video streaming is done with the help of HLS protocol and the videos are encrypted using the AES-128 algorithm. Here the key exchange is done via the secure HTTPS protocol and it

The flaw in common video encryption technologies – Even though these encryption by themselves are decent strong and cannot be cracked by brute force but they have a major flaw, that is the fact that their keys are exposed and can be accessed by any hacker or a tool/extension with some effort. Hackers can use the key to easily download the video without making an effort on the encryption itself. 

But you need not worry about this, there is a solution to every problem and there’s certainly for this one too. Since the major flaw in common encryption technologies is an open key exchange, it makes sense only to use a technology that can fix this. This is where DRM comes in. 

Using video DRM encryption technology for highest security

DRM(Digital Rights Management) works alongside the DASH & HLS encryption to make the video more secure by making it impossible to find the encryption key. DRM effectively removes any flaws in the video encryption to ensure that the video is not downloadable. 

The two major DRM being used for e-learning video protection are:

1. Google Widevine DRM: Widevine is a DRM licensing and encryption solution by Google to help platforms to secure their premium content on Chrome, Firefox, Edge browsers on Desktop, Android Apps & Android TV. More details on Widevine DRM.
2. Apple Fairplay DRM: FairPlay is a DRM technology by Apple Inc. Until 2009 it was used to protect copyrighted content sold on iTunes. Using Fairplay DRM you can protect content on Safari browsers, iOS, and macOS. More details on Fairplay DRM.

In order to ensure e-learning video protection, DRM is often used along with user-specific Watermarking to track any pirated content.

Using Dynamic Watermarking: User Specific details on video

Watermarking involves embedding digital information in a video signal to identify its source of origin. It aims to identify the redistribution source of illegal streaming services. User ID, Email ID, IP address, timestamp are some common watermarking parameters. Many times, the watermark is kept moving in the video at regular intervals to prevent it from being removed easily using video editing tools. 

Screen Capture block where ever possible

DRM video protection with Mobile apps (Android, IOS Native Apps) also have additional security to completely block any screen capture tools from working. This allows pretty hard security in mobile apps.

Domain Restrictions

Another way to ensure e-learning video protection is to make sure that your videos are domain restriction. This enables you to limit your video embed codes to play and load only on your domain. This prevents copying of embed code and its use by hackers to view the video on their domain.

Choosing A Secure Video Hosting Service

In case you don’t have much idea using the above-mentioned e-learning video protection technology, you can always fall back on a 3rd party secure video hosting service. 

These hosting platforms take care of all the tech parts related to making sure that your video is secure and streams seamlessly on the client-side. All you need to do is upload the video on the platform, and use the embed code on your website. 

But that’s not all a good video hosting platform has a few prerequisites that you need to check while choosing any such service. 

• First and foremost, is the security, if your video hosting platform does not provide DRM and video encryption, chances are that your premium content might be downloaded and pirated.  
• Secondly, a good video API to manage videos, to enable automatic video upload and get OTP for playback. Also, to insert custom HTML in the video player, change the player design, and add interactive features using Player API.
• Another important feature is a top tier global server + CDN to ensure speedy content delivery to the user regardless of their geographic location. Apart from this video analytics, smart video player also comes in handy.

Top 7 Video Hosting Platforms for Online Courses

How VdoCipher Helps In Elearning Video Protection?

At VdoCipher, eLearning video protection is something that we take very seriously, and our constant endeavor is to ensure smooth and secure video hosting to our users. We ensure the highest security for our clients from video piracy by providing Hollywood-grade DRM encryption and our dynamic watermarking technology.

Vdocipher has the privilege of working with over 1500 eLearning companies from 30+ countries, which made us realize that one of the major concerns for them is video security. Organizations often come to us to ensure that their video is not downloadable and to provide video encryption to ensure it is not accessible. 

At present, there are several platforms that provide Elearning video protection, but their offering is limited to video encryption without any DRM technology. This exposes the key, which an informed user can easily identify and use to access the video. A lot of our current customers have faced such issues before finally sticking to our video security solution. 

• Encrypted DRM Video Streaming: With Vdocipher’s Hollywood-grade video DRM technology, no one can download your videos using a plugin or any hacks.
• Dynamic Watermarking: You can watermark Ip address, user id, email id, phone no, logo, text overlay to identify the source of the piracy. You can even customize the watermark in terms of opacity, color, speed and size as well.
• Screen Capture Blocking in Mobile Apps – VdoCipher mobile SDK integration default includes screen capture protection in both Android & IOS Apps. Screen capture protection in common browsers like Chrome, Firefox on desktop is not possible.
• Server To Player Package:  With Vdocipher you not only get video protection but we also provide Amazon AWS for Servers, CDN, Transcoding, Analytics, API, Dashboard, Plugins, and Custom workflows. All these features further add to the security and make it easy to control your videos. 
• Smart Online Video Player: With our smart online video player, you can give access to popular features such as subtitles, speed changes, and forward rewind options to your users. In case you provide an android app, you can also give the option to keep those videos for offline use without worrying about piracy. 

Above mentioned eLearning, and video protection features are our core features, and we provide a wide range of small features to support them. You can check out all of our features on our blog- Vdocipher’s video hosting features.

Also,

Read:57 Video Hosting Features By VdoCipher for Video Website & App

That’s All For Now

Noticing how the demand for e-learning content is on the rise, it’s high time that if you run an ed-tech company, e-learning video protection should be one of the top priorities.  After all, why wouldn’t you since the major source of revenue for any ed-tech company is their content and without proper countermeasures, you might incur a heavy loss even though the quality of your content is of good quality.

You need to make sure that your accounts are protected against password or account sharing, where multiple users are using the same account to access your content. Also, make sure that the content is not easily downloadable with the help of video DRM and video encryption technology. To top it off in case any content might leak, screen capture block in apps and watermarking on the desktop can help you ensure enhanced security. Do leave any comment down below, in case you have any questions regarding video protection.

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 Elearning Video Protection: Ensure Piracy Protection of Your 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.

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.

Offline Encoder & Converters For Compressing Video Size & Formats

1.  WinFF for Windows

   Please visit this link to donwload the software
   http://winff.org/html_new/

   1-  Add the videos using the tool button.
   2- Choose MPEG-4 in the Convert-to.
   3- Select MPEG-4 1080p as the preset.
   4- Click on options to show more tabs.
   5- Go to video tab.
   6- Enter 4500 as the video bitrate (units is 2500kbps).  This is the bitrate we have experienced high enough to be HD, Users can also try with 2500 or 3500 kbps. It shall also work fine for most of the cases , specially if the movement in the video is quite less.
   7- Tick the checkbox 2 pass below it.
   8- Click on convert tool button.
   9- Wait for the video to complete.
   10- This process might consume high CPU.

2. VLC Media Player for MAC & Windows compression of video

   It is quite unknown fact that even open source VLC media player can be used as an offline encoder to convert and change videos. Here are the steps –

   • Go to Media > Convert/Save >  In file tab add your raw video or audio file.
   • Click on the  “down arrow” mark on the Convert/Save button and Select “Convert”.
   • Now, provide the format in the “Profile” drop down, also provide the destination source.
   • Click on “Start”,  the conversion will start and after the completion, the converted file will be available in the destination source.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

3. Prism Video Converter for Windows & Mac

http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/

It is quite easy to use software to convert and resize videos. There is both a free and commercial version available. The UI is quite clean and it is almost drag and drop.

For online encoding, VdoCipher has also a customized detailed UI + API trans-coding setup for enterprises. All popular video formats (more then 15 ) are supported , video size, bitrates , type of encoding all can be specified. By default VdoCipher converts videos to its own proprietary encrypted format but for large enterprise cases it does custom video transcoding as well. If you want to know more about, what is transcoding, you can visit the blog linked.

VdoCipher Transcoding

Register for a full version 5 GB Free trial at www.vdocipher.com

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post 3 Offline Encoder to Compress Video: MAC & Windows appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post Calculator for Revenue Loss from Video Piracy by VdoCipher appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

A large number of our customers have shifted from other video hosting sites. This is mostly because the feature-set of many other online video platforms does not completely satisfy customers’ requirements. We are committed to ensuring that your transition from another OVP to VdoCipher is smooth and seamless. For this we have set up direct import from online video platforms Wistia and Vimeo Pro. You can also import videos from cloud hosting solutions including Google Drive and Dropbox.

Also here we guide you how to easily import videos from your S3 bucket to your VdoCipher account.

Import Video from Vimeo Pro

1. Go to the VdoCipher dashboard
2. Click on the “Import from …” button. In the drop-down menu click on “Import from Vimeo”
3. Click on the “Connect Vimeo” button in the new page
4. In the next page you can give your VdoCipher account permission to import video from Vimeo
5. The dashboard will then give you the link to import the videos that you have hosted on Vimeo

Import Video from Wistia

1. Go to the Import from Wistia page in VdoCipher dashboard
2. Login to Wistia and go to Account Settings
3. Click on API access in the right panel
4. Click the “New token link”
5. Mark the checkbox “Read all project and video data”
6. Copy the newly generated token
7. Enter the Wistia API token at the top right of the page to import video from Wistia

Import Video from Google Drive

1. Go to the VdoCipher dashboard
2. Click on the “Import” button. In the drop-down menu click on “Add from Google Drive”
3. Give your VdoCipher account access to the contents of your Google Drive
4. Select the video for import.
5. You’re done!

Import Video from Dropbox

1. Go to the VdoCipher dashboard
2. Click on the “Import from …” button. In the drop-down menu click on “Import from Dropbox”
3. Sign in to Dropbox from the Pop-up window
4. Select the videos to be imported to VdoCipher
5. You’re done!

Import Video from Box.Com

We’ve added support for importing videos from Box.com. Check out our step-by-step guide to importing videos from this service.

Please feel free to communicate video hosting requirements to our customer support team.

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post Import Videos From Vimeo Pro, Google Drive and Dropbox appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

The quality and security of videos is the USP for most companies that wish to sell online courses. VdoCipher provides the required necessary offerings so that you may not lose customers to piracy and your students have a great experience.

Installing Sensei as a WordPress course plugin

It is assumed that you have WordPress already installed on your system. Sensei is a paid plugin. To buy the course plugin you would have to buy the course directly from their parent site WooCommerce here. Prices as of October 2016 for the Sensei plugin are $129 for the single site version.

On buying the Sensei WordPress course plugin you could download the plugin file in zip format. To activate the plugin you would need to copy the license key that you will find in your Woothemes account to the wordpress interface for activation. After activation you will get this:

Using Sensei – Courses, Modules and Lessons

Sensei allows for a layered structuring for courses – each course can be divided into multiple modules, which can contain the relevant lessons. A module can itself be divided into sub-modules, and therefore this LMS allows for considerable flexibility in how you might wish to structure and present your course.

The first step is to therefore create a course. After creating your course, you can create a module, and select the relevant course in which the module is to be integrated. Lessons can then be created within the modules, and you can easily integrate videos within lessons using the steps given below.

As shown above, the interface to create a lesson is quite straightforward in Sensei. The ease with which a multi-layered course can be built using Sensei is why we recommend that you use this LMS to sell online courses.

For managing learners, Sensei has tabs for Analysis, Grading and Learner Management. Using Sensei you can track the updates to the course through the Data Updates tab. The simplicity of these options mean that teachers and site administrators can easily manage learners taking their courses. Because of this as a site administrator you can improve your site more effectively using learner feedback.

Quiz implementation in Sensei

Quizzes for grading learners can be added onto the end of the respective lessons. Using Sensei’s interface you can make multiple questions, decide whether passing the quiz is necessary to complete the course and the passing criteria. You may add questions directly to the lesson or add questions from a question bank. Questions may also be presented in a random manner.

Customization offered by Sensei to sell online courses

Sensei offers an additional WordPress course plugin – the Sensei Course Progress plugin – free of cost for monitoring course progress by lessons within a course (or within a module)

Sensei offers you control over who to allow to access the course. Access can be limited to registered users through their WordPress accounts, otherwise if you are using another plugin such as eMember or eShop to control access the feature to restrict access directly on Sensei may be left unused. We recommend using eMember to control membership access because of it allows you to create multiple membership levels depending on level of access.

Further customization allows for private messages between learners and teachers – enabling this functionality may depend upon the targeted size of learners and the ability of teachers to participate.

Sensei offers JavaScript functionality in terms of a dynamic bar providing information about percentage of course completed, while My Courses tab also uses JavaScript. These functionalities may also be disabled.

Have a look at the following screenshots to learn about additional customization offered by Sensei.

Sensei Shortcodes

Sensei offers a number of shortcodes by which you can remind learners of all available courses, accessible by categories such as teachers. You may also add shortcodes for courses being taken by the learner, additional courses that the learner may take, and user messages.

All available courses [sensei_courses]

Courses per user [sensei_user_courses] (the previous shortcode [usercourses] is no longer supported)

Course page [sensei_course_page id = “123”]

Unpurchased courses [sensei_unpurchased_courses]

Secure Video Streaming in Sensei

To prevent illegal video download , sharing and provide best streaming experience to your viewers, we at VdoCipher provide ready to use video WordPress course plugin. The plugin runs at backend and allows encrypted streaming + viewer watermark player embed on your site. It is compatible with any other plugins you use in your WordPress. VdoCipher has education customers all across 6 continents using us. To install VdoCipher plugin on your WordPress account, you first need to create an account at VdoCipher.com. A trial account at VdoCipher can be made for free. You can upload & stream upto 5GB worth of content for secure video streaming. With each video that you would have uploaded you would have a corresponding video id.

The video can then be embedded onto the lesson by applying the following code: [vdo id="id_of_video"] For example: [vdo id="123abc4d56e7fg89shi12"]

User Registration, Analytics, Themes, Grading with Sensei

Sensei is a complete e-learning suite and involves easy to use management features to do the above implementation.

A note on WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an ecommerce WordPress plugin and necessarily works at backend of Sensei. So, first installation of WooCommerce is needed and then sensei. It is free and is compatible with all major plugins including ours.

Important eLearning blogs from VdoCipher

Why not to self host videos for your course website?

How to make money from education videos: Some models & key considerations?

Encrypted Video Streaming: How VdoCipher is far ahead of Others in Security?

Watermark user/time specific dynamic variables on WordPress videos

For a free full version 5 GB  free trial at VdoCipher, Register.

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post WordPress course plugin to make course website – Sensei tutorial appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Siddhant Jain

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

www.vdocipher.com/

The post VdoCipher package workflow and demo: Upload & Embed tutorial appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.