YouTube API — getting video thumbnail

YouTube API — getting video thumbnail

Each YouTube video has 4 generated images. They are predictably formatted as follows:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/0.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/1.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/2.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/3.jpg

The first one in the list is a full size image and others are thumbnail images. The default thumbnail image (ie. one of 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg) is:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg

For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a url similar to this:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/hqdefault.jpg

There is also a medium quality version of the thumbnail, using a url similar to the HQ:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/mqdefault.jpg

For the standard definition version of the thumbnail, use a url similar to this:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/sddefault.jpg

For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a url similar to this:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/maxresdefault.jpg

Thanks a lot, I have tried to find out the size of the these files, here is one of the youtube links tested

0-480x360
1-120x90
2-120x90
3-120x90
mqdefault-320x180
hqdefault-480x360
sddefault-640x480
maxresdefault-1280x720
default-120x90

where hqdefault.jpg is same as 0.jpg by comparing their hash value

If image does not exist, youtube display a not-found image with "..." but actually, it return a 404 to the header.
So you may check the http response in your programming in case you need.

Link

Link

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thank you, this was very helpful

thank you