- Markdown style
[![Watch the video](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nTQUwghvy5Q/default.jpg)](https://youtu.be/nTQUwghvy5Q)
- HTML style
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nTQUwghvy5Q" target="_blank">
<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/nTQUwghvy5Q/mqdefault.jpg" alt="Watch the video" width="240" height="180" border="10" />
</a>
- embed thumbnail
![alt text][image]
[image]: /full/path/to/image/file.jpg "alt_txt"
- resize thumbnail
<img src="/full/path/to/image/file.jpg" alt="alt_text" width="200">
Each YouTube video has 4 generated images. The first one in the list is a full size image and others are thumbnail images. They are predictably formatted as follows:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/0.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/1.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/2.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/3.jpg
The default thumbnail image (ie. one of 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg) is:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg
Other than the default.jpg, the following thumbnail formats are also available:
- hqdefault.jpg <- high quality
- mqdefault.jpg <- medium quality
- sddefault.jpg <- standard definition
- maxresdefault.jpg <- maximum resolution
NB: sddefault.jpg and maxresdefault.jpg are not always available.
All of the above urls are available over http too. Additionally, the slightly shorter hostname i3.ytimg.com
works in place of img.youtube.com
in the example urls above.