Last Updated: 04 Januari 2021. Protecting online course video from being downloaded is not easy. It is almost impossible to protect videos from being downloaded, but with this wordpress plugin, videos embedded in wordpress site can be protected securely. Nobody can download the videos, even using idm, browser video download addon, or any tools.
As an educator, I always want to create tutorial videos. I would like to post my videos in youtube, and I would like to embed it in my own wordpress website. Fortunately, it can be done easily. I have browsed about this topic whether it is possible to protect videos. Most programmers in the discussion said it is almost impossible to protect videos from being downloaded.
for those who are programmers, it may be easy for them to try to code and create video protection, but for me, a non programmer, a shortcut is needed so that I can focus on my work, creating video.
After browsing here and there, I found a wordpress plugin that can protect video uploaded in my own server. here you are: https://preventdirectaccess.com/
and you can see it in action. There is a video in the page that is protected by the plugin. Try to download the video using any video downloader you have. Here is the sample: https://preventdirectaccess.com/protect-wordpress-training-videos/
I tried to download the video. The video was downloadble, but the file was fake, so it could not be played.
So far, I am pretty convinced with that plugin.
so now, I am preparing the content. I am making a lot of videos for my own online course.
I am quite sure that I will make money selling online course without worrying my video from being stolen and than uploaded to youtube.
However, there is still one issue. This plugin cannot prevent from being recorded through screen recording. Nevertheless, I don’t care much about that because I believe it will take longer time and much more effort to steal the video through screen recording.
In the future, the stealer may find another way to hack, break the protection, finally download the protected videos. I believe in that. but, at least, the plugin does the prevention.
What about you? will you use this plugin?
Update 04 January 2021:
Hi.. I have updated this post. Initially, as mentioned above, I recommended using Prevent Direct Access to protect online course video in wordpress.
I have two more suggestions:
First, https://flyplugins.com/s3-media-maestro/
Second, https://s3mediavault.com/
Both of them are recommended by Chrislema
I myself use the first one, the s3 media maestro plugin to protect online video course in my site https://toefl.id
Here is the sample if you want to try: https://toefl.id/courses/toefl-structure-and-written-expression/lessons/skill-1/
I have tried downloading the video using idm (internet download manager), and it failed. Thus, I think it is successful in protecting the wordpress video from download using download manager such as the IDM.
I decided not to use Prevent Direct Access because in order to protect the video, I have to buy two plugins: the Core plugin, that is Prevent Direct Access, and the additional module, that is Protect WordPress Video. I have studied thoroughly about how to use it to protect video. I read it in the documentation. It seems that it takes a lot of steps to do the protection.
Thus,
I decided to use S3 Media Maestro.
Actually, I am also very interested in using S3 Media Vault, but I have purchased S3 Media Maestro, and it’s already good for me.
To have the best prevention to protect your wordpress video, the video must be converted to HLS, and all the three plugins above support HLS video.
After reading the documentation of each plugins, I conclude that the easiest way to have HLS files of our video is using S3 Media Maestro 4.0 or using S3 Media Vault. Both offer automatic conversion using amazon aws feature.
oh..
One more thing..
To use S3 Media Maestro or S3 Media Vault, you have to use S3 Amazon AWS. Don’t worry it’s very cheap. The first 12 month is free as long as you don’t use it over the limit.
in TOEFL.id, I have about 300 students. Whenever it is below the limit, each month is free. However, whenever the so many students accessing the videos again and again, and it is more than the limit, Amazon AWS charges me for the expenses. Surprisingly, it is still cheap. The biggest amount that has been charged to me was $2.68. Very Cheap.
That’s all my update. Thanks for reading.
so… this S3 and AWS stuff relys on third party services and cloud storage? thats not what i understand as CONTROL of my media!
Yes, that is what it is. I can’t do much but to rely on those services.
Hmm… It was very easy to download the video from that sample link… All I had to do was inspect the code and save the file…
Wow.. then may be it needs to be in ffmpg format.
Hey I could download your video, by going to developer tools!
hi.. yes, that is because I set the SPAN time before closing to somewhat 30 minutes. If I set that to 10 seconds, that gate would be closed. I let it be open about 30 minutes because most of my clients have bad internet connection. As a result, when I set it to 10 seconds, their device – with low internet connection- can only download about half of the video, and thus the video can be played back only half and then stopped.
To this very time, the plugin is at version 4, and supports HLS.
Using HLS, it is impossible to download the video completely because the video files are chunked into pieces connected one another. The downloaded part is only the first chunk, while for the rest of the chunks remain safe in the AWS server.
As for me, I don’t want to spend my time changing the video into HLS because I don’t care much of my video being stolen.
So far, my present approach works perfectly, especially for average users who do not know much technically about downloading video.
but,
For big companies, I suggest using HLS.
https://i.imgur.com/MRibsg4.png – not realy worked
Hi.. thanks for your confirmation. I have replied it through the comment to David Salomon’s.
Hi everyone.. i have updated the setting of the expiry time from 30 minutes to 1 minute. Now, please try do download it again. You can use any method to download. Let’s see if you can download it after 1 minute (60 seconds). Please share the results here. thanks, see you..
Hi, I could download your video with IDM.
Yes, as explained by Mr. Ravi Jayagopal
Hi Aliv, I’m the creator of S3MediaVault. I was able to easily download your video above using VideoDownloader. See https://i.imgur.com/mYUzL4d.png. You are using a progressive download video, not streaming video. So it doesn’t matter what you set the expiry time to – it can be easily downloaded. Only S3MediaVault offers AES 128-bit Encrypted Video Streaming that are practically impossible to download. You can check out the streaming demo on our website and see if you’re able to download it using IDM or any other plugin or software.
If you don’t care about your course videos being downloaded, what you have now is probably good enough. But if you are in a niche where there’s a lot of piracy, you need to check out S3MediaVault and use our encrypted video streaming.
Cheers!
Hi .. Mr. Ravi Jayagopal, thanks for visiting.
I actually had a chat with you when I was looking for such a plugin. I did ask you several questions, and you responded all nicely.
To this time, YES! Your plugin offers a better protection.
Hopefully all readers in this post read through the comments.
I highly recommend using your plugin.
As for me, I am not planning to buy more plugins. This one I have is enough for me.
In my case, my customers don’t try to download about 800 videos from my site. The videos are short. They won’t likely spend time downloading them. Besides, the membership price in my site is super cheap, preventing them from stealing and sharing.
In the future, when such a threat comes, I will definitely use your plugin.
Hopefully you make good sales with that.
Thanks again.