Read more at http://www.idude.net/index.php/how-to-watermark-a-video-using-ffmpeg/#xxcAHcDB234K1ic2.99 This article explains how to add a watermark image to a video file using FFmpeg (www.ffmpeg.org). Typically a watermark is used to protect ownership/credit of the video and for Marketing/Branding the video with a Logo. One of the most common areas where watermarks appear is the bottom right hand corner of a video. I’m going to cover all four corners for you, since these are generally the ideal placements for watermarks. Plus, if you want to get really creative I’ll let you in on an alternative. FFmpeg is a free software / open source project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia such as video. Many of it developers also are part of the MPlayer project. Primarily this project is geared towards Linux OS, however, much of it has been ported over to work with Windows 32bit and 64bit. FFmpeg is being utilized in a number of software applications; including web applications such as PHPmotion (www.phpmotion.com). Not only does it provide handy tools, it also provided extremely useful features and functionality that can be added to a variety of software applications.

If you want to use FFpmeg on Windows, I recommend checking out the FFmpeg Windows builds at Zeranoe (http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/) for compiled binaries, executables and source code. Everything you need to get FFmpeg working on Windows is there. If you’re looking for a handy Windows GUI command line tool, check out WinFF www.winff.org. You can configure WinFF to work with whatever builds of FFmpeg you have installed on windows. You can also customize you’re own presets (stored command lines) to work with FFpmeg.

Perhaps one of the best ways to get familiar with using FFmpeg on windows is to create a .bat script file that you can modify and experiment with. Retyping command lines over again from scratch becomes a tedious process, especially when working with an command line tool you’re trying to become more familiar with. If you’re on Linux you’ll be working with shell scripts instead of .bat files. Please keep in mind that FFmpeg has been, and still is, a rather experimental project. Working with FFmpeg’s Command Line Interface (CLI) is not easy at first and will take some time getting familiar with it. You need to be familiar with the basics of opening a video file, converting it, and saving the output to a new video file. I strongly recommend creating and working with FFmpeg in shell/bat scripting files while learning the functionality of it’s Command Line Interface.

Please note that the functionality of “-vhook” (video hook) in older versions of FFmpeg has been replaced with “-vf” (video filters) libavfilter . You’ll need to use –vf instead of –vhook in the command line. This applies to both Linux and Windows builds.

In a nutshell; We’re going to load a .png image as a Video Source “Movie” and use the Overlay filter to position it. While it might seem a little absurd to load an image file as a Video Source “Movie” to overlay, this is the way it’s done. (i.e. movie=watermarklogo.png) What’s awesome about working with png (portable network graphics) files is that they support background transparency and are excellent to use in overlaying on top of videos and other images.

This filter is used to overlay one video on top of another. It accepts the parameters x:y. Where x and y is the top left position of overlayed video on the main video. In this case, the top left position of the watermark graphic on the main video. To position the watermark 10 pixels to the right and 10 pixels down from the top left corner of the main video, we would use “overlay=10:10”

The following expression variables represent the size properties of the Main and overlay videos. main_w (main video width) main_h (main video height) overlay_w (overlay video width) overlay_h (overlay video hieght) For example if the; main video is 640×360 and the overlay video is 120×60 then main_w = 640 main_h = 360 overlay_w = 120 overlay_h = 60 We can get the actual size (width and height in pixels) of both the watermark and the video file, and use this information to calculate the desired positioning of things. These properties are extremely handy for building expressions to programmatically set the x:y position of the overlay on top of the main video. (see examples below)

The following 4 video filter (-vf) examples embed an image named “watermarklogo.png” into one of the four corners of the video file, the image is placed 10 pixels away from the sides (offset for desired padding/margin).

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

ffmpeg –i inputvideo.avi -vf “movie=watermarklogo.png [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=main_w-overlay_w-10:10 [out]” outputvideo.flv

ffmpeg –i inputvideo.avi -vf “movie=watermarklogo.png [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=10:main_h-overlay_h-10 [out]” outputvideo.flv

ffmpeg –i inputvideo.avi -vf “movie=watermarklogo.png [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=main_w-overlay_w-10:main_h-overlay_h-10 [out]” outputvideo.flv These examples use something known as Filter Chains. The pad names for streams used in the filter chain are contained in square brackets [watermark],[in] and [out]. The ones labeled [in] and [out] are specific to video input and output. The one labeled [watermark] is a custom name given to the stream for the video overlay. You can change [watermark] to another name if you like. We are taking the output of the [watermark] and merging it into the input [in] stream for final output [out].

A padding filter is available to add padding to a video overlay (watermark), however it’s a little complicated and confusing to work with. In the examples above I used an offset value of 10 pixels in the expressions for x and y. For instance, when calculating the x position for placing the watermark overlay to right side of the video, 10 pixels away from the edge. x=main_w-overlay_x-10 <strong>or rather</strong> x=¹⁾ Another Watermark positioning Technique Is to create a .png with same size as the converted video (ie. 640×360). Set it’s background to being transparent and place your watermark/logo where you desire it to appear over top of the video. This what’s known as a “full overlay”. You can actually get rather creative with your watermark design and branding using this technique. ffmpeg –i inputvideo.avi -vf “movie=watermarklogo.png [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=0:0 [out]” outputvideo.flv

This is a more realistic example of what a a full FFmpeg command line looks like with various switches enabled. The examples in this article are extremely minified so you could get the basic idea.

ffmpeg -i test.mts -vcodec flv -f flv -r 29.97 -aspect 16:9 -b 300k -g 160 -cmp dct -subcmp dct -mbd 2 -flags +aic+cbp+mv0+mv4 -trellis 1 -ac 1 -ar 22050 -ab 56k -s 640x360 -vf "movie=dv_sml.png [wm]; [in][wm] overlay=main_w-overlay_w-10:main_h-overlay_h-10 [out]" test.flv

On the Windows OS the file paths used in video filters, such as “C:\graphics\watermarklogo.png” should be modified to be “/graphics/watermarklogo.png”. I myself experienced errors being thrown while using the Windows Builds of FFmpeg. This behavior may or may not change in the future. Please keep in mind that FFmeg is a Linux based project that has been ported over to work on Windows.

You can get some really great ideas for watermarking and branding by simply watching TV or videos online. One thing that many people tend to over look is including their website address in the watermark. Simply displaying it at the end or start of the video is not as effective. So some important elements would be a Logo, perhaps even a phone number or email address. The goal is to give people some piece of useful information for contacting or follow you. If you display it as part of your watermark, they have plenty of time to make note of your website URL, phone number or email address. A well designed logo is effective as well. The more professional looking your logo is, the more professional you come off as being to your audience. If you are running a video portal service, and wish to brand the videos in conjunction/addition to watermark branding being done by your users. It’s wise to pick a corner such as the top right or top left to display your watermark. Perhaps go for far to give them an option of specifying which corner to display your watermark in, so it does not conflict with their own branding. I thought this was worth wild to mention since FFmpeg is used in web applications such as PHPmotion. If you’re working with “full overlays” you can get pretty creative. You can get some really amazing ideas from watching the Major News networks on TV. Even the Home shopping networks such as QVC. These are just a few ideas for creative sources to watch and pull ideas from.

I’ve tried to make this article somewhat useful, however it’s by no means all encompassing. If there is any interest, I have examples of how to chain a Text Draw Filter to display text along with a Watermark overlay. Even how to incorporate a video fade-in filter. Working with filter chains can prove to be rather challenging at times. Please feel free to post any comments and questions.

Read more at http://www.idude.net/index.php/how-to-watermark-a-video-using-ffmpeg/#xxcAHcDB234K1ic2.99