Modern Video Player can play video from several sources. The free edition plays Moodle-hosted uploads; Premium adds direct URLs, providers, and cloud storage. Each source has different tracking and protection capabilities, summarised below.
| Source | Edition | Signed URL | Watermark | Seek enforcement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moodle upload | Free | Premium | Premium | ✅ |
| Direct MP4/WebM URL | Premium | — | Premium | ✅ |
| YouTube / Vimeo | Premium | n/a | limited | provider-limited |
| S3-compatible | Premium | ✅ | Premium | ✅ |
| Azure Blob | Premium | ✅ | Premium | ✅ |
Upload an MP4/WebM directly into the activity. This is the most fully-featured source: full server-side tracking, and with Premium you can serve it through signed URLs and overlay a learner watermark.
Point the activity at a direct MP4/WebM link hosted outside Moodle. Useful when your video already lives on a CDN or file host. Tracking works the same as uploads; protection depends on whether the host supports the controls.
Enabled by the admin setting Allow external sources.
Paste a YouTube or Vimeo link and the player embeds and tracks it through the provider's API where the provider allows it. Provider sources are clearly labelled with their tracking/enforcement limits — for example, some enforcement controls that work on native video can't be guaranteed inside a provider player.
Enabled by the admin setting Allow provider sources.
Stream large libraries from object storage without exposing credentials to learners. At playback the plugin generates a short-lived signed URL (S3) or read-only SAS URL (Azure), so links can't be shared or reused after they expire.
S3-compatible providers supported: AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, Backblaze B2, MinIO, and other S3-compatible stores.
Configure under Cloud storage in the admin settings:
See the full field list in the Admin Settings Reference.
When a teacher picks a source that can't support a particular control, the activity form warns them rather than silently dropping the control. This keeps expectations honest: native Moodle-hosted video supports the strongest enforcement, while some provider sources are inherently more limited.