How to protect (watermark?) my HD camera footage

[Mark97213]

This requires a tad bit of explanation but please bear with me. I was hired by a trainer to shoot HD video for a sports event and make a Blu-ray video available to the trainer. Which I did. I was never paid. The trainer has been limited in Blu-ray player availability so the trainer asked me to make her a SD DVD which I've also done. Still haven't been paid. This trainer has come to me now months later now because she's having problems making a copy of the DL DVD I made (she doesn't know why she can't make a copy of a 8.5gig DVD onto her blank 4.7gig DVD) and has asked again, asking me to compress my work even further by putting it on a 4.7gig DVD so the trainer can make a single copy of it for one of the other trainers. Or so she says but I think she's just trying to sell my work.

Normally I would have told someone like this to pound sand but, (I'll spare you with the lengthy details) I need to keep this trainer on my good side unfortunately.

So, I'm going to create a 4.7gig DVD of my work but, as annoying as it will be, I want to put a watermark in the video or perhaps some simple text in a hard encoded footer or maybe just some text that flashes randomly but I'm pretty naïve to this. Can I get some advice on some software that's fairly easy to re-encode the video with something like this? Thank you for any advice.

[johns0]

Don't make a video until you get paid,even if you watermark they won't pay you cause they sound like cheapskates.

[smrpix]

Or just tell her to visit this forum where she can learn to re compress the DVD herself.

[jman98]

Putting a watermark on the video won't stop copying. It just makes you look like a jerk, but we have guides you can find if you can be bothered to actually look.

By the way, it's not YOUR video. You were hired to do a job. If you don't like the fact that the person who hired you can make a million copies and you can do nothing about it, you need to stop doing this kind of thing. I really get tired of people here who point a video camera at an event and act like filming some local sporting event that almost nobody gives a crap about entitles them a lifetime of endless income. Make the trainer pay you before you do anything else. If you are so dependent on one bad customer that you can't risk losing them, maybe you need to find another line of work.

[Budman1]

Sounds to me like she KNOWS you have to keep her on your good side, which is why she isn't paying you and, as jman98 pointed out, putting a watermark on the DVD is just going to tick her off and put YOU on HER bad side.

[racer-x]

I've been shooting kids sports for years and never charged for my work. I'm quite sure my works is a lot better than yours, otherwise you wouldn't be asking dumb questions like "how do I watermark my video". My advice is to upload your clips to youtube and give here and other parents links. It won't cost you anything and you may gain some friends because of it.

Kids sports are all about volunteering. The coaches volunteer and so should the parents................

[bigass]

If you want to be treated like a professional, treat yourself like a professional. Do professional work and don't allow your customers to treat you like a volunteer. If you were hired and terms were agreed upon, it's entirely reasonable to withhold further work until you're paid. It doesn't have to be adversarial - no one needs to tell anyone to 'pound sand.' But there's nothing wrong with saying "I can get to work right away on that next DVD for you, as soon as payment clears on the work I've already done. How will you be paying today?"

[Mark97213]

Bigass, thank you for the advice. As far as the previous "comments," what's wrong with you! Especially the one from Racer-x stating "I'm quite sure my works is a lot better than yours" when you have absolutely no idea what my work quality even is, is... audaciously ridiculous and the rest of your comments are... non responsive.

She already has a HD Blu-ray and a SD DVD of a two hour training class that I shot so I don't really care how she feels about the third copy. The point of putting a watermark or some hardcoded text at the bottom of the screen is to get her to appreciate the work that was actually done for her and stop using our relationship as a means to get something for nothing without being too combative.

It appears this thread became more of an ethical opinion sound off instead of its intended objective.

[Budman1]

For what you wish... Just create a subtitle that flashes off and on and embed it permanently. Most DVD creators or converters allow subtitles to be burned in. Make it say "Property of XXXXX" that should do what you want. You might even use SSA subtitles that scroll across the screen. Those always make it not worth copying.

[sum_guy]

The correct thing to do is add your credits to the end of the video. Don't watermark it or flash text that's just crass. If someone else see's it and like it's you could generate future revenue that way.

[racer-x]

The point of putting a watermark or some hardcoded text at the bottom of the screen is to get her to appreciate the work that was actually done for her and stop using our relationship as a means to get something for nothing without being too combative.

Then why not just create a first play logo that comes up before the tittle menu? That way she'll see it every time she plays the disk and it's a quick and easy fix...........

[filmboss80]

It appears this thread became more of an ethical opinion sound off instead of its intended objective.

What you toss off as worthless "ethical opinion" is actually pretty sound business advice. There are 2 ways to add a watermark. You can either use a subtitle program and encoder to hardsub it, or you can use a titler in your video editing program of choice. Regardless of what you do, it will require even more of your time and labor to create, place, and time the watermark at a preferred transparency level; then reencode the video; then author and burn it to a new DVD disc. And after all of such toiling, do you really believe there is a chance she will finally pay you? If she respected you at all, you would already have the check in the bank. She does not fear any reprisal from you, since you hem and haw and look for ways to avoid confrontation. She sees you as her bitch and she will take full advantage of you. If you ever want to get paid for your work, you will need to nut up and stop being such a sap.

Strictly business advice.

[Mark97213]

filmboss80: Yes indeed, you are correct, she definitely see's me as her bitch. However, I do not discount ANY advice but I do give little heed to non responsive rhetoric such as those stating 'their work is better than mine'... huh?

I do not now expect to get paid and that's not my objective at this point either. My objective was what I asked for.

[racer-x]

You shouldn't take it so personal, people with far greater talent then I give their work away on occasions. The Good Book tells us it's better to give than to receive. That sounds like good advice for your situation.

Good luck on your quest.........."How to protect (watermark?) my HD camera footage"

[Brainiac]

Racer-x, I agree wholeheartedly. On occasion I will give away free copies of an event that I record and edit. Not only does that bring joy to the recipient(s), but it also will, in a sense, advertise my business.

Mark97213 here is something else to consider for future projects. Ask your clients for a percentage of the fee up front.

Brainiac

[Budman1]

Anyone reading this thread and wishing some information on watermark/logo can use ffmpeg and enter:
ffmpeg -i 1.mp4 -i a.jpg -filter_complex "overlay=main_w/2-overlay_w/2:main_h/2-overlay_h/2" outputvideo.mp4

for a centered Logo such as :


UPDATE: The example above fails to work many time with the logo being NOT transparent even though the original PNG has transparent background.

This following method, using a simple filter instead of the complex, does work but be sure you use enough ../../../ to get from you program to the base directory and then omit the base folder 'C:'. And notice the slash '/' is opposite of the DOS/CMD one '\'. This is only necessary if all files (FFMPEG, Video, PNG/BMP) are NOT in one folder.:

ffmpeg -i inputvideo.avi -vf "movie=../../../../../path/pathe/watermarklogo.png [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=10:10 [out]" outputvideo.flv

Better method is Double quotes for video names and -vf section and Single quotes for movie section with extra \\ to escape special characters:
ffmpeg -i "inputvideo.avi" -vf "movie='c\:\\path\\path\\watermarklogo.png' [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=10:10 [out]" "outputvideo.flv"