Changing the memory_limit
by ini_set('memory_limit', '-1');
is not a proper solution. Please don't do that.
Your PHP code may have a memory leak somewhere and you are telling the server to just use all the memory that it wants. You wouldn't have fixed the problem at all. If you monitor your server, you will see that it is now probably using up most of the RAM and even swapping to disk.
You should probably try to track down the offending code in your code and fix it.
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.
Best Answer
The following might help someone looking for a similar solution:
Note: Obviously this solution requires the user to have a current session
Good luck.