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I’ve been working on a video contest project in PHP and it involves user’s submitting their videos from a YouTube link. I needed to show just thumbnails of the videos without having to use a full YouTube embed code. I really didn’t want to get my hands dirty with any kind of YouTube API though. So with a little bit of searching I found that YouTube creates multiple dynamic thumbnails for all of their videos when they’re uploaded.

For example purposes, I will use the incredible, mind-blowing, face-melter music video by DragonForce “Through the Fire and Flames”.

The URLs

In order to properly form a URL for the image, first you’ll need to grab the video’s ID. You get this from the YouTube video’s URL.
This DragonForce’s URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jgrCKhxE1s, so it’s YouTube ID is 0jgrCKhxE1s.

Now here are the URLs you have available …

120×90 image – Choice 1
http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/1.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1s/1.jpg

120×90 image – Choice 2
http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/2.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1s/2.jpg

120×90 image – Choice 3

http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/3.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1sg/3.jpg

120×90 image – Default Choice

http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/default.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1s/default.jpg

480×360 image – High Quality (HQ) Choice
(does not need to be an HQ video to have an HQ image)

http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/hqdefault.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1s/hqdefault.jpg

480×360 image – HQ Choice 1

http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/hq1.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1s/hq1.jpg

480×360 image – HQ Choice 2

http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/hq2.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1s/hq2.jpg

480×360 image – HQ Choice 3

http://img.youtube.com/vi/[YouTube ID]/hq3.jpg

http://img.youtube.com/vi/0jgrCKhxE1s/hq3.jpg

If anyone knows any other tricks, please share! :)

I just finished launching and announcing http://randommoonfruit.info. A site with a little twist! Hopefully it will bring you a few giggles and for ME – a free iPod Touch! So please visit and Tweet about it: http://randommoonfruit.info/ Make sure to use the #moonfruit hash tag to have your own chance to win a MacBook Pro for free!

This idea came around from the Twitter contest Moonfruit (http://www.moonfruit.com) has been having. By using a #moonfruit hash tag in a tweet, Tweeple are being entered for 1 daily draw of a free MacBook Pro (details found here: http://www.moonfruit.com/macbook-pro.html). Moonfruit is also giving away 3 free iPod Touches for the best creative ideas. 2 have already been given away.. I just hope I’m in time for being considered for the third!

I’ll keep you posted on events as they unfold.