Watermark feature

Suggestions & Feature Request Hub
1

Hi,

Is there any plans on adding a watermark feature since this is common in most of the video platforms?

Thanks!

1 Like
2

Hi Mohamed,

We currently do not plan to add a watermarking feature.

If we were to implement this feature, which would you prefer?

  • Watermark “burned” into video
  • Watermark added as image overlay by the video player

0 voters

Thanks!
Doug

4

Hi Doug,

Since this post is 6 months old I want to ask you again if you are considering adding the watermark feature.

Best regards,
Mohamed

6

@mohamed,

We are actually grooming this feature for early next year (I sorry I still don’t have a solid date for you).

The way our Sandbox overlays text looks like this:

image
image2396Ă—1530 254 KB

Would this sort of overlay suit?

Doug

8

Hi Doug,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, an overlay in the same way as the sandbox would work. We just need to be able to customize the text. An preferably be able to have a different overlay for different users. For instance, when requesting a token defining the overlay text.

9

@mohamed,

Thanks for the feedback. While it seems like an easy feature to add, there is a lot of nuance in the task. For example - the sandbox “burns” the text into the video (it appears in both the VOD and the mp4 version). This will ensure that the watermark appears on all versions of the video (and it is slightly ahead in the poll above).

If you were to desire unique text for users - that would require a 1:1 encode:video. You’d have multiple videoIds - one per watermark, and you’d have to juggle the various videoIds to ensure the appropriate delivery. Does that seem reasonable to you?

Doug

10

For the 44% (in the current state of the poll) who would want just an overlay from the player, there will still be vectors that users could get the unwatermarked video. Two steps that tighten up that more would be to:

  1. Disable the mp4Support for the video (download button will disappear)
  2. Make the video private - allowing just one play per url.

These steps will not bulletproof your video with watermark, but it does get you a long way there. You can do a similar overlay with CSS:

<html>
<head>
<style>
	.container { position:relative; }
	.container video {
	    position:relative;
	    z-index:0;
	}
	.overlay {
	    position:absolute;
		color: orange;
		font-size:100;
		opacity: 0.8;
		height: 100%;
		top:0;
		bottom: 25%;
	    left:5%;
	    z-index:1;
		pointer-events:none;
		overflow: hidden;
	}

	
	</style>
</head>

<body>

<div class="container">
    <iframe id= "video"src="https://embed.api.video/vod/vi2nVamC6JpFFNXEJrV5kI1J" width="100%" height="50%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
    <div class="overlay">
        <p>Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark. Hey! It's a watermark.</p>
    </div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

image
image3554Ă—1506 763 KB

Advantages:
Really easy to create custom overlay text per user.
Just one video to deal with

Disadvantage:
It is possible to get the watermark off - if the user is technically saavy.

image
image3538Ă—1444 629 KB

11

Hi @anon89371750 ,

For live streaming on facebook, for adding the overlay on the live video, is it fall under the “burned into video” or a CSS overlay?

Thanks.

13

@glive.solutions

I’d have a look at the Facebook API for how to add an overlay to Facebook Live streams. This is not really our expertise. A quick search found this:

14

Hi - I’ve created a tutorial with code examples on how to add watermarking to a video:

15

We are about to release a watermark feature where the watermark is burned into the video. Stay tuned!

16

Happy to announce that watermark support by api.video is now officially released: see details in this thread. :rocket: