[gonZo]

We're discussing methods to create direct links to YouTube videos that don't include the "related links" thumbnails that sometimes display content prohibited by the Forum Rules. I started by suggesting this overly complicated method...


On the YouTube page…

• click the "Share" button
• click the "Embed" button
• copy the automatically-selected text

Then in the Forum posting form…

• paste the copied text
• select and delete all pasted text before http
• select and delete all pasted text after rel=0

What's left is a working link directly to the video, instead of its YouTube page.

[Palomine]

Alternate method (provides a safe link but no image stamp):

Right-mouse click in the video window and select 'Pop out' and the video will appear by itself in a new window.
Copy the URL from the new pop-out window and paste that into your forum post.

[Liam]

Another way is take a regular youtube url, remove "watch?" and "=" and replace the latter with a forward slash.  So the url looks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/v/QxQgLOu_C9w

[gonZo]

Well, those're a bit simpler...  

Pal adds: advance kudos to whomever posts concise instructions for this that also put an image stamp in the forum post so users will know what they're getting before clicking the link!

[gonZo]

This is an almost streamlined way to do a thumbnailed YouTube link. I don't have a PC to work with, so these are Mac instructions...



Drag/drop or paste the following template string for badged YouTube links (which you have previously saved somewhere) into the forum's posting form:

Code: [Select]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO][img]THUMB[/img][/url]

On YouTube, right-click (or control-click) on the desired video's thumbnail and copy the thumbnail's URL, which will look like this:

Code: [Select]

http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/fCC_errtFFY/default.jpg

Back in the forum, select the word THUMB in the template string, and paste the thumbnail's URL in its place:

Code: [Select]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO][img]http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/fCC_errtFFY/default.jpg[/img][/url]

Then copy the video's ID from the thumb's URL -- it's the fCC_errtFFY part between the slashes in this example -- then select the word VIDEO in the template string and paste the video's ID in its place:

Code: [Select]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/v/fCC_errtFFY][img]http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/fCC_errtFFY/default.jpg[/img][/url]

...which produces a badged link like this:

[DruulEmpire]

Thank you for the JLH.

[Liam]

Here are the links to a video's thumbnails and default image.     

Thumbnails.  There are 3 different ones.  "default" and "2" are the same:   

Code: [Select]

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/1.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/2.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/3.jpg


Default image.  "0" and "hqdefault" are the same:

Code: [Select]

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/0.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/mqdefault.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/hqdefault.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/maxresdefault.jpg

However, hotlinking any of those using the img tag still produces a small thumbnail and not the bigger image.  But this gives you some alternatives to work with.

*****

But anyway, for a basic thumbnailed YouTube link, this template works I think.  All you have to do is insert the video id in 2 places:

Code: [Select]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/v/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>][img]http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg[/img][/url]


[gonZo]

Here's Liam's string with double-clickable insertion points. Just replace both occurrences of VIDEOID with the YouTube ID:

Code: [Select]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEOID][img]http://img.youtube.com/vi/VIDEOID/default.jpg[/img][/url]

[rtpoe]

Mind if I try?

[gonZo]

(Note: careful if you need to re-edit your post containing a badged link, because the forum software will sometimes add width and height parameters to the image tag when you resave your post, which breaks the thumbnail.)

[Liam]

For dailymotion, take the regular video url and add "embed/" right before "video":

Code: [Select]

http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/VIDEOID
To get the video's large thumbnail, add "thumbnail/" right before "video":

Code: [Select]

http://www.dailymotion.com/thumbnail/video/VIDEOID
  

[gonZo]

Thank you Liam!

(later: removed a note here about a forum software modification that failed)
_
gonZo

[taccount]

Alternate method (provides a safe link but no image stamp):

Right-mouse click in the video window and select 'Pop out' and the video will appear by itself in a new window.
Copy the URL from the new pop-out window and paste that into your forum post.

Use this method if embedding is disabled.  Thanks, Palomine.

[Soflobro]

I am now book marking this page for future use. Btw, how would this work for videos at daily motion?

Pal replies: IDR if the same exact steps work at DM, but in GENERAL, you try to get the 'video-window-only' URL for the video and use THAT instead of the URL for the whole page. That way, you avoid the peripheral stuff. SO: many video sites will have buttons/links for you to obtain embed links or ways to 'pop out' the video to it's own window by itself, which will have it's own URL too.

At DailyMotion (like at Youtube) there's more than one way to do it. An easy way is to right-mouse-menu click the 'copy embed code' from inside video window... this will put a long string of text into your clipboard. Paste this into your post... but EDIT it since you ONLY NEED the first URL in the string, not the rest. I.e.: here's the FULL TEXT from right-mouse-menu 'copy embed code':

<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="271" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xycu40"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xycu40_padma-lakshmi-susan-sarandon-and-debbie-harry-go-to-the-blossom-ball-hollywood-tv_people" target="_blank">Padma Lakshmi, Susan Sarandon and Debbie Harry...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/hollywoodtv" target="_blank">hollywoodtv</a></i>

...but the only part you need is that first URL:

http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xycu40

...there are other/fancier methods (that provide image stamps, make the stamps into links, etc...) but that's a basic method that works at DM. Again, something similar can be done at most video sites.  It takes some experimentation and of course, users should TEST the link they come up with to make sure it works as they expect it to.

[fattyjack]

thanks.......