Is there a way to embed the animated thumbnail from youtube in my website? I am not talking about the static thumbnail but the one that looks like an animated .gif of about 3 seconds.
Videos have to be longer than 30 seconds to be eligible for an animated thumbnail, but YouTube also uses criteria like video topic and content to decide whether to show a preview or not.
It will be used as the preview image in the embedded player. We recommend your custom thumbnails: Have a resolution of 1280x720 (with minimum width of 640 pixels). Be uploaded in image formats such as JPG, GIF, or PNG.
As of June 2019:
1. Getting static thumbnail images is straightforward
2. Youtube's animated thumbnails are supported in a limited number of browsers.
3. Getting animated thumbails for a limited number of videos is relatively easy.
You can, for example, inspect the network activity in your browser dev tools (more details for Chrome).
With the network panel open, visit a page listing that includes the desired video, clear the network activity (you can also select 'Img' to display only activity related to images) and hover the desired video. Then just right click on the desired resource and copy the url.
In case an image helps...
The urls of the animated thumbnails look like the following:
https://i.ytimg.com/an_webp/zdOmNiXvM3w/mqdefault_6s.webp?du=3000&sqp=CPDloOgF&rs=AOn4CLD9rYflZAMK6qBIbYJDoQZLk9UARw
4. As far as I know, it is currently not possible to get the animated thumbnails programmatically (without webscraping)
PS.: Hoping that somebody can prove me wrong on point #4, here are a few examples of those URLs:
https://i.ytimg.com/an_webp/zdOmNiXvM3w/mqdefault_6s.webp?du=3000&sqp=CPDloOgF&rs=AOn4CLD9rYflZAMK6qBIbYJDoQZLk9UARw
https://i.ytimg.com/an_webp/oIIDZq4nZpo/mqdefault_6s.webp?du=3000&sqp=CLyqoegF&rs=AOn4CLD9DyqMoxBTiOPTUX8FQJmUfiu8NA
https://i.ytimg.com/an_webp/X9tU8ybzcFs/mqdefault_6s.webp?du=3000&sqp=CLHroOgF&rs=AOn4CLAX8j6uWUko_54aPJLwkbAe_cUR3w
Changing the video ID or other parameters does not return a valid thumbnail.
I don't know if it will help you
but when you go to search page in youtube you can access the object
window.ytInitialData
Here we have node called:
window.ytInitialData.contents.twoColumnSearchResultsRenderer.primaryContents.sectionListRenderer.contents["0"].itemSectionRenderer.contents[2].videoRenderer.richThumbnail.movingThumbnailRenderer.movingThumbnailDetails.thumbnails["0"].url
maybe you can find a way to retrieve this data
access search page like this and: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=USPwv1zwWV4 What I have tried in console:
let videos = window.ytInitialData.contents.twoColumnSearchResultsRenderer.primaryContents.sectionListRenderer.contents["0"].itemSectionRenderer.contents;
if (!videos.length) { // includes other renderers i.e: "did you mean ..."
console.log('no videos in search');
//return;
}
let video = videos.filter( v => v.videoRenderer && v.videoRenderer.videoId == "USPwv1zwWV4")
if (!video.length) {
console.log('no video by that ID in search');
//return;
}
let thumbs = video[0].videoRenderer.richThumbnail.movingThumbnailRenderer.movingThumbnailDetails.thumbnails;
if (!thumbs.length) {
console.log('no moving thumbs for that video');
//return;
}
console.log(thumbs[0].url);
Gifs.com has a free API for generating water-marked gifs from a media-related URL.
https://gifs.com/dashboard/api
It doesn't explicitly mention it but it does in fact accept Youtube URLs and generates a preview from them.
Here's an example of how to use it with cURL
curl -XPOST -H "Content-type: application/json" -d '{ "source": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74KxwkLjE9E" }' 'https://api.gifs.com/media/import'
It takes about a minute or two to generate so if you store/cache the gifs with a server you could create your own personal preview generator.
Here's the archived link to the documentation https://web.archive.org/web/20190408212718/http://docs.gifs.com/docs/authentication-key
You can use FRAMES thumbnails to create short animated thumbnail:
frame1: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/1.jpg
frame2: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/2.jpg
frame3: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/3.jpg
I typed a FFmpeg script. To get many variants of uncompressed YouTube moving thumbnail, you need to
Manually edit my script:
Run my script.
Easy to read:
ffmpeg -i sar.mp4 -vf "crop=in_w:in_w/16*9" -c:a copy video.mp4
rem // If to obtain a 16: 9 aspect ratio, you need to crop the thumbnail from above and below.
ffmpeg -i sar.mp4 -vf "crop=in_h/9*16:in_h" -c:a copy video.mp4
rem // If to obtain a 16: 9 aspect ratio, you need to crop the thumbnail on the sides.
ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor0.mp4
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4 -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 maxresdefault_6s.webp
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4 -vf "scale=640:480:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=640:480:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 sddefault_6s.webp
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=480:360:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=480:360:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 hqdefault_6s.webp
copy hqdefault_6s.webp 0_6s.webp
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=320:180:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=320:180:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 mqdefault_6s.webp
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 default_6s.webp
ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor1.mp4
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor1.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor1.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor1.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 1_6s.webp
ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor2.mp4
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor2.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor2.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor2.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 2_6s.webp
ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor3.mp4
ffmpeg -i CuttedFor3.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor3.mp4
ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor3.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 3_6s.webp
Ready to execute:
Compressed for SAR (crop thumbnail from above and below):
ffmpeg -i sar.mp4 -vf "crop=in_w:in_w/16*9" -c:a copy video.mp4 && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor0.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4 -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 maxresdefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4 -vf "scale=640:480:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=640:480:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 sddefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=480:360:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=480:360:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 hqdefault_6s.webp && copy hqdefault_6s.webp 0_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=320:180:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=320:180:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 mqdefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 default_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor1.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor1.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor1.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor1.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 1_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor2.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor2.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor2.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor2.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 2_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor3.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor3.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor3.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor3.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 3_6s.webp
Compressed for SAR (crop thumbnail on the sides):
ffmpeg -i sar.mp4 -vf "crop=in_h/9*16:in_h" -c:a copy video.mp4 && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor0.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4 -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 maxresdefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4 -vf "scale=640:480:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=640:480:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 sddefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=480:360:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=480:360:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 hqdefault_6s.webp && copy hqdefault_6s.webp 0_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=320:180:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=320:180:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 mqdefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 default_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor1.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor1.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor1.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor1.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 1_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor2.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor2.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor2.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor2.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 2_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor3.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor3.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor3.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor3.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 3_6s.webp
Compressed for 16:9 ('video'):
ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor0.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormaxresdefault.mp4 -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 maxresdefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForsddefault.mp4 -vf "scale=640:480:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=640:480:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 sddefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedForhqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=480:360:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=480:360:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 hqdefault_6s.webp && copy hqdefault_6s.webp 0_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFormqdefault.mp4 -vf "scale=320:180:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=320:180:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 mqdefault_6s.webp && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor0.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFordefault.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 default_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor1.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor1.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor1.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor1.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 1_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor2.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor2.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor2.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor2.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 2_6s.webp && ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i video.mp4 -c copy -t 6 CuttedFor3.mp4 && ffmpeg -i CuttedFor3.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=1*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" SpeedChangedFor3.mp4 && ffmpeg -i SpeedChangedFor3.mp4 -vf "scale=120:90:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=120:90:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" -vcodec libwebp -lossless 1 -loop 0 -an -vsync 0 3_6s.webp
To get many variants of compressed YouTube moving thumbnail, you need to rewrite my script so that it creates webp with a specified number of frames and, therefore, FPS (you can find it out in the original mqdefault_6s.webp), duration exactly 3000 ms, the last frame passes with its own time stamp, compressed images (or something similar, which creates the effect of sharpness or loss of colors, as in the picture below).
Frame extracted from the original webp: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Iow4N.png.
Frame extracted from the homemade webp: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Q3loy.png.
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