Smart Youtube is a WordPress Video plugin that allows you to easily insert 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.
Smart Youtube is one of the most popular WordPress plugins, with more than 1,000,000 downloads.
From version 4.0 Smart Youtube changed the name to Smart Youtube PRO and now also supports playback of Youtube, Vimeo, Metacafe, Liveleak and Facebook high quality videos, works on iPhone&iPad, produces xHTML valid code (unlike YouTube embed code), allows you to view videos in fullscreen, has robust widget support and much more.
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
- Easily embeds YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, Liveleak and Facebook videos (normal/HD mode)
- Works on iPhone, iPad and iPod
- Embed YouTube playlist (normal/HD)
- Supports latest high quality video protocols (360p and HD quality 720p)
- Allows full YouTube customization (colors, border, size, full screen...)
- Supports video deep linking (starting at desired point with &start=time parameter)
- Supports migrated blogs from WordPress.com
- Supports migration from other Youtube plugins such as wp-youtube
- Extract video thumbnails in your archive/category posts
- 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 to post a high/HD (DVD quality, 720p) quality video you would use httpvh:// ('vh' for video high resolution)
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.
Vimeo
httpv://vimeo.com/27287078
Metacafe
httpvh://vww.metacafe.com/watch/7815470/harry_potter_and_the_deathly_hallows_dvd_interview/
Liveleak
httpv://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cad_1322822486
Changelog
= 4.0 =
* Major release
* Added support for Vimeo, Metacafe, Liveleak and Facebook videos
* Now parses http:// and httpv:// videos jsut the same
* Option to autoplay only the first video on the page
* Exctract Video thumbnails
* Show video is Colorbox
* New much better, sidebar Widget support
= 3.9.1 =
Support for WiziApp.
= 3.8 =
* Support for new IFRAME embed code
* Support for HD playlists (httpvhp)
* Support for new play formats (1280x745 & 960x745)
v3.5
- Changes to Iphone video embed
Extra
- Visit my other interesting WordPress Plugins.
- Looking for a WordPress Expert ?
1021 Comments
Thanks a lot. This is a great plugin and it's filling a much needed gap.
It can be some other plugin but it isn't akismet since I also use it together with some 20-30 other plugins. It is something else.
Can anyone post a link to a post which was working well before but does not work anymore with latest smart youtube?
You should check out all your plugins, deactivate them one by one if necessary. I think my akismet plugin was interfering with the smart you tube... I deactivated it and the youtube videos played just fine.
Hi! I'm having the same problems issued before. I have my blog loaded with youtube videos and I embeded them with the 'v' and now they won't appear! It's really annoying! Can someone please send me a link with the previous version?
problem solved for me:
was a conflict with the plugin ImageScaler Modded 1.0
deactivate this and SY 1.2 work perfectly !
Same for me version 1.2 didn't work.
installed plugins:
Audio player 1.2.3
ImageScaler Modded 1.0
New Tag Cloud 0.3
PhotoXhibit 2.0.10
Smart Youtube 1.2
StatPress 1.2.9
Sticky Post
Waiting for the fix where I can find the previous version?
thanx
Hi guys
The link should be pasted to your post directly (visual editor). This is the proper format of the link
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRjaZsVRtgc
I'm having the same problem. Nothing happens when I paste the youtube link (with the V) into the page. I don't have very many plugins in wordpress... stats, akismet, all in one seo, seo friendly images, and smart youtube. And as far as I know, I don't have any firefox plug ins, as I've never downloaded any.
And, to make sure that I have the basic idea: when you say "paste into the page" do you mean using the "insert/edit image" helper box or pasting the code directly into the non-wysiwyg page? Or both?
Thanks!
Tolwyn, what happens with your embed tags? Is there another way of embedding the clips that you use?
Same problem as Tolwyn and David Hennigham here, it doesn't work and just shows the text (httpv://www.youube....) on the page.
Having the same problem as David Hennigham.
I either get text httpv://www.youtube... (etc) or nothing at all.
embed tags of course work as expected.
Understood. Well at least now I know I haven't made a basic error. I'll see what I can do.
It may be a conflict with some of your existing wordpress plugins, or your browser and/or it's plugins. It's really hard to tell from this standpoint.
yes, that's what i did but it didn't work. Any ideas as to why? It just left a blank space, no window.
Thats the correct way to do it. Just paste it like that in the post.
So I was doing the right thing by adding the 'v' to the URL I got but still it doesn't show up, just white space. This is what I put in the post:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEUOnNLlB8U
Thanks! I just downgraded to the previous version, and it works again, so it's a lot less of an emergency now. I can't figure out what the problem is exactly, but with the newest version installed and activated, the youtube windows just disappear from the blog, even though the links are still in the post code, unchanged. Something's conflicting, not sure what.
Hey, can you discern what is not working? The plugin is used all over my blog and seems to be fine.
Hi! Incredible work. But: I just updated to the latest version, and now video links which worked with the older version are not showing up. I'm using WP 2.3.3. Should I backtrack to the older version? Thanks!!
Could you please write down an exact example of how it's gonna be written?
Usually in a WP blog we use the mode [youtube=http://youtube.com/w/?v=_dIya1aJJKA]
Now, I've tried the form
httpv://youtube.com/w/?v=_dIya1aJJKA
but tothing happens ... :-(
And I've correctly installed on my blog your plug-in.
Where am I making errors?
You should literally add 'v' to the youtube link you get.
Thanks for the new plugin. It's just what we need, but I uploaded your plugin to my plugin folder and activated it and I can't get it to work yet. I'm not sure what I need to do to my RSS feed options, and also I'm not sure what to do with the 'v'. Am I pasting in the 'embed' or the 'URL' from youtube? Do I literally add a 'v' to the link I'm given? Or am I looking for a link with httpv:// already in it?
Released v1.2 today with validation fix and also added video width and height in the options menu.
Thanks for the plugin. I have one request for future releases. Could you put the tag's width and height in double quotes? (v1.1, line 143 of smartyoutube.php). That would help remove a couple XHTML validation errors. I made this modification to my site and it now validates for XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
thx, this is awesome !