What you will do
In this tutorial you see DoveRunner Forensic Watermarking work from start to finish, without setting up anything of your own. You play a watermarked stream in the Lab Playground, record it the way a pirate would, and ask DoveRunner to find the watermark in your recording. At the end, the detection result shows the session data that was hidden in the video you watched.
Plan for about 15 minutes, including a 5-minute recording. You need a DoveRunner Console account to request detection; trial accounts can request it up to two times.
1. Choose a watermark string
Open the Forensic watermarking demo in the Playground. In Watermark string, enter something you will recognize later, for example my-first-watermark. Letters, numbers, - and _ are allowed, under 200 characters. You can also leave it empty.
2. Play the watermarked video
Press Play watermarked. The Lab requests a watermark session for you, and Session data fills in with browser_type, ip_address, timestamp and forensic_mark (your string). This is the information embedded in the stream you are watching. Take a screenshot of it: you will compare it with the detection result.
The timeline next to the player shows the session URL request and response first, then the DRM license events.
3. Compare it with the original
Press Play original to play the same video without a watermark. Watch the two side by side: you can't see the watermark.
4. Record the watermarked video
Record the watermarked player with a screen recording application, or film the screen with a camera on a tripod. For detection to work, the recording needs:
- at least 5 minutes of continuous playback, without buffering, freezing or repeated sections
- at least 480p at 1 Mbps; 720p or higher is recommended
- a steady picture: a handheld phone recording usually can't be detected
If your screen recording comes out black, the browser is protecting the DRM video from capture. Film the screen with a camera instead.
5. Request detection
- Make the recording available as a file, or as a direct download link that needs no login and no confirmation page. A standard Google Drive share link doesn't work.
- In DoveRunner Console, go to Forensic Watermarking > Detection Service and click + Request. The Request watermark detection button on the demo page opens the same screen.
- Choose File to upload the recording or URL to enter the link, enter a content title, check Video captured from DoveRunner DEMO Page, and click Register.
6. Check the result
The request appears in the Detection Service list with its status. When it shows Completed, open it. The detected data should match the session data from step 2: your watermark string, browser, IP address and timestamp. This is how a leaked copy is traced back to the session that played it.
What you've done
- Played a stream with an invisible, per-session watermark
- Recorded it like a leaked copy
- Traced the copy back to your session
What's next
- To set up watermarking for your own content, take the course Getting started with DoveRunner Forensic Watermarking: preprocessing, embedding and detection.
- For detection statuses, the detail page and the evidence report, see the Watermark Detection Service guide in DoveRunner Docs. To request detection from your own system, see the Watermark Detection API.