Scaling independent technique for watermarking images with recorder shut-off

A method to provide watermarked video, comprising:

• a) providing a video stream;
• b) providing a watermark;
• c) in a first time period, embedding the watermark, with a watermark embedder, having a first scale in the video stream;
• d) in a second subsequent time period, embedding the watermark, with the watermark embedder, having another second scale in the video stream without scaling the video stream by the second scale;
• e) in a third subsequent time period, embedding the watermark, with the watermark embedder, having another third scale in the video stream without scaling the video stream by the third scale;
• and
• f) repeating steps (c), (d), and (e) a predetermined number of times;
• whereby upon playback of the video stream with the embedded watermarks, a scaling of the video stream results in at least one of the embedded watermarks being restored to a predetermined size and location in the video stream;
• whereby at the predetermined size and location the watermark is detectable by a typical watermark detector at least the predetermined number of times.

A method of embedding a plurality of watermarks in a video signal, comprising:

• a) embedding a watermark, with a watermark embedder, having a first scale selected from a range of scales in the video signal for a first time period;
• b) during or at the end of the first time period, embedding a watermark, with the watermark embedder, having another scale selected from the range of scales in the video signal for a second time period;
• c) repeating step (b) using a different scale until a predetermined number of scales is reached;
• and
• d) repeating steps (a), (b) and (c) a predetermined number of times.