Each YouTube video has four generated images. They are predictably formatted as follows:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/0.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/1.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/2.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/3.jpg
The first one in the list is a full size image and others are thumbnail images. The default thumbnail image (i.e., one of 1.jpg
, 2.jpg
, 3.jpg
) is:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg
For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/hqdefault.jpg
There is also a medium quality version of the thumbnail, using a URL similar to the HQ:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/mqdefault.jpg
For the standard definition version of the thumbnail, use a URL similar to this:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/sddefault.jpg
For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/maxresdefault.jpg
All of the above URLs are available over HTTP too. Additionally, the slightly shorter hostname i3.ytimg.com
works in place of img.youtube.com
in the example URLs above.
Alternatively, you can use the YouTube Data API (v3) to get thumbnail images.
I hated all these answers because they were too short or relied on other frameworks.
Here is "one" vanilla JS way of doing this, working in Chrome, please test in other browsers:
var video = document.getElementById('video');
var source = document.createElement('source');
source.setAttribute('src', 'http://techslides.com/demos/sample-videos/small.mp4');
source.setAttribute('type', 'video/mp4');
video.appendChild(source);
video.play();
console.log({
src: source.getAttribute('src'),
type: source.getAttribute('type'),
});
setTimeout(function() {
video.pause();
source.setAttribute('src', 'http://techslides.com/demos/sample-videos/small.webm');
source.setAttribute('type', 'video/webm');
video.load();
video.play();
console.log({
src: source.getAttribute('src'),
type: source.getAttribute('type'),
});
}, 3000);
<video id="video" width="320" height="240"></video>
External Link
Best Answer
This answer does not work anymore, but I'm looking for a solution.
As of . 2015 / 02 / 24 . there is a website (youtubeinmp4) that allows you to download youtube videos in
.mp4 format
, you can exploit this (with some JavaScript) to get away with embedding youtube videos in<video>
tags. Here is a demo of this in action.##Pros
##Cons
It obviously depends on the
youtubeinmp4.com
servers and their way of providing a downloading link (which can be passed as a<video>
source), so this answer may not be valid in the future.You can't choose the video quality.
###JavaScript (after
load
)###Usage (Full)
Standard video format.
###Usage (Mini)
A little less common but quite smaller, using the shortened url
youtu.be
as thesrc
attribute directly in the<video>
tag.