Smart Youtube is a WordPress Youtube plugin that allows you to easily insert Youtube videos/playlists into your post, comments and in your RSS feed. The plugin is designed to be small and fast and not use any external resources.
From version 2.0 Smart youtube also supports playback of high quality videos, works on iPhone, produces xHTML valid code (unlike YouTube embed code), allows you to view videos in fullscreen and most recently has support for YouTube playlists.
The videos will be embedded in your RSS feed as well, and if this is not support by the reader you can choose to have video link and/or video preview screenshot displayed instead.
Main Features
- Embed YouTube videos with ease
- Embed YouTube playlists
- Supports latest high quality video protocols (360p and HD quality 720p)
- Allows full YouTube customization (colors, border, full screen...)
- Supports video deep linking (starting at desired point with &start=time parameter, use &start=num parameter)
- Works on iPod and iPhone
- Provides a sidebar widget for videos as well
- Produces xHTML valid code
- Very fast and light, no extra scripts needed
Example
You can discuss all plugin related issues in the wordpress plugin forums.
Screenshot
Download
Installation & Usage
- Upload the whole plugin folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
- Go to the Plugins page and activate the plugin.
- Use the Options page to change RSS feed options
- When you want to display Youtube video in your post, paste the video link with httpv:// (notice the 'v')
Example: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00000000
0000000 part is your video REF#
The video will be automatically embedded to your post in the proper way.
If you want want to display a high quality video then just use httpvh:// instead.
If you want to post a HD (DVD quality, 720p) quality video you would use httpvhd:// ('vhd' for video high definition)
To embed a playlist use extension 'vp' (eg. httpvp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=528026B4F7B34094)
To use video deep linking just add &start=time parameter at the end of url. For example httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWfksMD4PAg&start=30 will start the video 30 seconds in.
Additionally, you can set how do you want the video to be displayed in your RSS feed. Smart Youtube can show the preview image of the video (automatically grabbed from Youtube), the link to the video, or both. I recommend enabling only the preview image.
Changelog
v3.2
- Added title to widget, fixed HTML code issue with widget
v3.1.1
- param closed properly for HTML validation (thanks Jan Eberl)
v3.1
- wmode transparent parameter updated to better handle transparancy
V3.0
- Added video template, option to set sidebar video size, fixed sidebar widget code, fixed video syntax issue
v2.8
- Supports Playlists
v2.7
- Added support for sidebar widget videos
v2.6:
- Added option to disable search box
v2.5:
- Support for 720p HD (DVD quality) YouTube videos. Use httpvhd://
v2.4:
- Supports video deep linking. Just add &start=time parameter at the end of url. For example httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWfksMD4PAg&start=30 will start the video 30 seconds in
v2.3:
- xHTML valid code is now an option because it breaks videos in some browsers and feeds
v2.1:
- Smart Youtube videos are compatible with iPhone.
- Fullscreen enabled
v2.0:
Suport for high quality videos from youtube
v1.91:
Rewritten old parts of plugin and general tweaks.
v1.9:
Added video autoplay option.
v1.8:
Solved problem with HTML validation, added full video in RSS feed.
v1.6:
Solved problem with WordPress handling special characters.
Extra
- Visit my other interesting Wordpress Plugins.
- Looking for a WordPress Expert ?
Hi! My name is Vladimir Prelovac. I am a computer engineer by profession and an adventurer by state of mind.
503 Comments
Hi Vladimir
thanks for the plugin.
Is it possible to display a thumbnail on my posts of the videos?
thanks
Eamonn
Love the plugin! One question on the admin side. How can I relocate the position of the plugin "stuff" on the add post and add page screens. I have other plugins and I would like to move this as close to the content as I can. Thanks!
I love this plugin as well. I also use one of your themes, modified slightly. One problem I have with this plugin is it works great in the sidebars, but using the instructions for adding it to posts it does not work. No clue why.
Love this plugin, thank you!
I mention it in a case-study of a recent project on my blog: http://blog.estherswhite.net/2009/07/one-big-wordpress-site-a-case-study/
Love it! Thanks for your work.
Hi,
Great plugin and blog - as well as your other plugins!
Is there any way to auto play a specific video. If I have more then one video in a post/page and I want one to auto play and all the rest not to auto play, how do I do that?
Thanks,
Daniel
Hi, awesome plugin. But after upgrading to 2.8.x occurs an error: the long line (–) will be replaced with -- in the whole content (if a embedded video exists in the post or not) ...
Hi there
I simply love your plugin and it's used widely on my website in all my review posts. It's also in my sidebar widget and as another poster had requested, can we have several instances of this as widgets in same or another sidebar? As you can see from my site I'm actually using different video widgets due to single instance restrictions. I understand it's simple to code in the multi-instances but I'm not a coder.
Can this be considered for a revision? I'll donate if that can be done as I just want to use your plugin in all my sites.
Klasse Plugin, hab es gerade auf meiner Homepage eingebaut. So stellt man sich als Nicht-Programmierer eine Arbeitserleichterung vor: Einrichten, und es funktioniert super.
Hi love the plugin. Any chance of a Smart YouTube/Vimeo version in the future?
Thanks for a great plugin and all the work that goes into creating and maintaining it! Much appreciated.
Hi -- I set up this plugin for a client and it's great. One question: Is it possible to use the sidebar widget on more than one sidebar? I have a sidebar1 for my home page and post pages, and sidebar2 that i use on some special pages. But the sidebar widget is not available to add to the 2nd sidebar, now that i've used it on sidebar1. THANKS!
Why do my visitors get redirected to youtube when they click on one particular video I posted?
The other videos are shown standardly but by this one http://www.franzbrandtner.com/songs/johann-pachelbel-kanon-in-d-dur/ my visitors are taken to youtube and are shown the video directly on youtube.
Why is that so? I of course don't want that at all.
Shiraz is right, it works only on IE however it does not work for me on opera, safari, firefox. I tried to break up the hyperlinks but it disapeared the video frame and put a mistaken link. Where is the mistake on the address?
Any ideas?
Thanks!!
@Omar Salgado & @shiraz - I had the same problem. Break the hyperlink so it reads as a non-underlined link. That should fix it.
@ Omar Salgado - You obviously put in the wrong URL.
@ shiraz - Just checked your site using Mozilla, worked fine for me.
Happy Trails. . .
The plugin is good i realize that when using IE and safari it work find but when using Mozilla when play the video it jump to Youtube website.
Thanks in advance
Hi:
I am using the pluging but I noticed recently that when I click play on video instead of playing the videos on my webpage it loads the video in youtube web page, what is it wrong?
The latest version of the plugin doesn't work. it double-posts videos and leaves extra coding clutter!
http://i41.tinypic.com/eal3xd.png
Please fix this. The plugin worked great beforehand!
Upgraded to WP 2.8 a couple days ago and have not had a problem with this plugin, works great as always. Thanks, Vlad
Using this on all my blogs. Very good plugin. Thank you a lot.
Great plugin. Only thing I can't figure out is how to embed a playlist AND have it be high quality. Seems like you can do one or the other, but not both. Suggestions?
I have add "&hd=1" to vhd parameters, for activate HD-button.
(case 'vhd': $high="&ap=%2526fmt%3D22"; break;)
greez
Hey Vlad,
Just wondering if you're aware of any issues with WordPress 2.8? If I have Smart YouTube enabled then it causes issues with the Dashboard when I log in - stops some of the windows appearing and disables the popup menus.
I'm just trying to find out if this is just me!
hi,
i would like to know if your plugin can add the latest video post on my homepage?