Watermarking solutions can be broadly classified into A/B watermarking and bitstream-based watermarking. Bitstream-based watermarking solutions are becoming increasingly popular because they don’t have any of the drawbacks of A/B watermarking, such as the need for a lot of storage space and expensive preparation and delivery costs. A/B watermarking may cause latency and make it difficult to track down the source of leaks, whereas these are better suited for live content streaming.
It is not necessary to decompress and re-encode the video signal before applying a watermark in bitstream-based video watermarking. After the video file has been analysed to identify candidate blocks, they can be manipulated without affecting the quality of the video. In addition to the content copy, a metadata file containing information on the candidate blocks that were altered is also sent along with the content copy. Because the content file is still stored and distributed by the CDN, each viewer receives a unique watermarked version of the content copy during adaptive bitrate streaming. In comparison to A/B video watermarking, this method is also faster because the insertion rate is several bits per second. To further reduce piracy, the watermark cannot be masked after it is inserted, making it more difficult.
It is possible to achieve a better sound quality in a video because bitstream watermarking occurs after the encoding step, avoiding the quality loss caused by repeated encoding/decoding of audio material (cascaded coding, “tandem coding,” etc).
Using a cloud-based watermark extraction service that works well even with low-quality and recompressed videos, it is possible to verify the owner of the content and track down the source of the piracy. Client-side watermarking, A/B or manifest-level watermarking, and bitstream-based watermarking are three broad categories of watermarking solutions.
An effective video watermarking service must be able to deter piracy, identify the piracy outlets, and take the necessary steps to prevent leakage of the video content. In order to detect piracy, keep an eye out for suspicious activity and compare the digital fingerprints of suspicious files to the production fingerprint. The watermarking software is then able to identify the watermark and extract the information contained therein. Resize and collusion attempts, for example, shouldn’t affect the robustness of the watermark. It should also remain legible even after the content has been altered. It’s also possible to take legal action after discovering the source of a stream that is being illegally downloaded.
A further advantage of bitstream-based watermarking is that it can be applied in the real time as the data is being encoded. Bitstream watermarking results in a compressed form that can be easily distributed, so there is no need for additional encoding. Consequently, compressed data formats are the foundation of today’s content databases. As a result, bitstream watermarking is quickly becoming the most popular method for preventing piracy of DRM protected content on OTT and VoD services. You can use it on any platform or delivery protocol because it is robust, practical, cost-effective, and expandable.
