Pause YouTube iframe embed when playing another

Question

I have multiple YouTube iFrames embedded on a page. If one of the movies is already playing, and a user then decides to start playing a different movie, is it possible to stop playing the first movie so there is only ever one playing at a time?

I have looked at the 'YouTube Player API Reference for iframe Embeds' https://developers.google.com/youtube/iframe_api_reference but if i'm honest I just don't understand it. My developer skills are very limited.... clearly.

Pitiful I know, but this is all I have at the moment (just the iFrames)... http://jsfiddle.net/YGMUJ/

<iframe width="520" height="293" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zXV8GMSc5Vg?version=3&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="520" height="293" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LTy0TzA_4DQ?version=3&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I thought all I needed to do was add '&enablejsapi=1' at the end of the video URLs.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Here is an advanced version of @Matt Koskela's version. It does not require you to create the videos by JavaScript. It works for example if the videos are generated on the PHP side (think Wordpress).

JsFiddle demo here.

<script>
    var tag = document.createElement('script');
    tag.src = "//www.youtube.com/iframe_api";
    var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
    firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag);

    function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
        var $ = jQuery;
        var players = [];
        $('iframe').filter(function(){return this.src.indexOf('http://www.youtube.com/') == 0}).each( function (k, v) {
            if (!this.id) { this.id='embeddedvideoiframe' + k }
            players.push(new YT.Player(this.id, {
                events: {
                    'onStateChange': function(event) {
                        if (event.data == YT.PlayerState.PLAYING) {
                            $.each(players, function(k, v) {
                                if (this.getIframe().id != event.target.getIframe().id) {
                                    this.pauseVideo();
                                }
                            });
                        }
                    }
                }
            }))
        });
    }
</script>

One: 
<iframe frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="1" title="YouTube video player" width="160" height="100" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zXV8GMSc5Vg?enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=http%3A%2F%2Ffiddle.jshell.net"></iframe>
<br/>
Two:
<iframe frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="1" title="YouTube video player" width="160" height="100" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LTy0TzA_4DQ?enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=http%3A%2F%2Ffiddle.jshell.net"></iframe>

Edit: Check out Jennie Sadler's fine-tuned version below if your videos start as thumbnails.

Answer 2

Instead of using iframes, you actually want to use the iFrame Player API. Depending on how many videos you actually wanted to embed, you might want to make this javascript more dynamic, but this working example should give you enough to get started.

Basically what I'm doing here is initializing the two players, and pausing the opposite video when a player state changes to play.

You can play with the following code at http://jsfiddle.net/mattkoskela/Whxjx/

<script>
var tag = document.createElement('script');
tag.src = "//www.youtube.com/iframe_api";
var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag);

var player;
function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
    player1 = new YT.Player('player1', {
        height: '293',
        width: '520',
        videoId: 'zXV8GMSc5Vg',
        events: {
            'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange
        }
    });
    player2 = new YT.Player('player2', {
        height: '293',
        width: '520',
        videoId: 'LTy0TzA_4DQ',
        events: {
            'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange
        }
    });
}

function onPlayerStateChange(event) {
    if (event.data == YT.PlayerState.PLAYING) {
        stopVideo(event.target.a.id);
    }
}

function stopVideo(player_id) {
    if (player_id == "player1") {
        player2.stopVideo();
    } else if (player_id == "player2") {
        player1.stopVideo();
    }
}