[video] YouTube embedded video: set different thumbnail

I want to embed a video from YouTube that is not mine (so I can not change it at YouTube). The video has a thumbnail that is not representative for the video (I refer to the initial still that is shown when you embed a video, shown before the user plays it).

Is there a way to set the time of the still, for instance I tried passing ?s=XXX but this does not work. Or another way that comes natively with YouTube?

Using the concept from waldyrious's answer, I've created the following solution that also addresses the issue of the video playing behind the image on tab restore or using the browser's back button to come back to the page with the video.

HTML

<div class="js-video-lead">
  <img class="hide" src="link/to/lead/image.jpg" />
  <iframe frameborder="0" height="240" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/<code here>" width="426"></iframe>
</div>

The "hide" class is from Bootstrap and simply applies display: none; so that the image is not visible on page load if JavaScript is disabled.

JavaScript

function video_lead_play_state(element, active)
{
    var $active = $(element).closest(".js-video-lead").find(".btn-play-active");
    var $default = $(element).closest(".js-video-lead").find(".btn-play-default");

    if (active) {
        $active.show();
        $default.hide();
    } else {
        $active.hide();
        $default.show();
    }
}


$(document).ready(function () {
    // hide the videos and show the images
    var $videos = $(".js-video-lead iframe");
    $videos.hide();
    $(".js-video-lead > img").not(".btn-play").show();

    // position the video holders
    $(".js-video-lead").css("position", "relative");

    // prevent autoplay on load and add the play button
    $videos.each(function (index, video) {
        var $video = $(video);

        // prevent autoplay due to normal navigation
        var url = $video.attr("src");
        if (url.indexOf("&autoplay") > -1) {
            url = url.replace("&autoplay=1", "");
        } else {
            url = url.replace("?autoplay=1", "");
        }
        $video.attr("src", url).removeClass(
            "js-video-lead-autoplay"
        );

        // add and position the play button
        var top = parseInt(parseFloat($video.css("height")) / 2) - 15;
        var left = parseInt(parseFloat($video.css("width")) / 2) - 21;
        var $btn_default = $("<img />").attr("src", "play-default.png").css({
            "position": "absolute",
            "top": top + "px",
            "left": left + "px",
            "z-index": 100
        }).addClass("btn-play btn-play-default");
        var $btn_active = $("<img />").attr("src", "play-active.png").css({
            "display": "none",
            "position": "absolute",
            "top": top + "px",
            "left": left + "px",
            "z-index": 110
        }).addClass("btn-play btn-play-active");
        $(".js-video-lead").append($btn_default).append($btn_active);
    });


    $(".js-video-lead img").on("click", function (event) {
        var $holder = $(this).closest(".js-video-lead");
        var $video = $holder.find("iframe");
        var url = $video.attr("src");
        url += (url.indexOf("?") > -1) ? "&" : "?";
        url += "autoplay=1";
        $video.addClass("js-video-lead-autoplay").attr("src", url);
        $holder.find("img").remove();
        $video.show();
    });

    $(".js-video-lead > img").on("mouseenter", function (event) {
        video_lead_play_state(this, true);
    });

    $(".js-video-lead > img").not(".btn-play").on("mouseleave", function (event) {
        video_lead_play_state(this, false);
    });
});

jQuery is required for this solution and it should work with multiple embedded videos (with different lead images) on the same page.

The code utilizes two images play-default.png and play-active.png which are small (42 x 30) images of the YouTube play button. play-default.png is black with some transparency and is displayed initially. play-active.png is red and is displayed when the user moves the mouse over the image. This mimic's the expected behavior that a normal embedded YouTube video exhibits.

There's a nice workaround for this in the sitepoint forums:

<div onclick="this.nextElementSibling.style.display='block'; this.style.display='none'">
   <img src="my_thumbnail.png" style="cursor:pointer" />
</div>
<div style="display:none">
    <!-- Embed code here -->
</div>

Note: To prevent having to click twice to make the video play, use autoplay=1 in the video embed code. It will start playing when the second div is displayed.

This tool gave me following results which helps me achieve the task as following code.

<div onclick="play();" id="vidwrap" style="height:315px;width:560px;background: black url('http://example.com/image.jpg') no-repeat center;overflow:hidden;cursor:pointer;"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
    function play(){
        document.getElementById('vidwrap').innerHTML = '<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xxxxxxxxx?autoplay=1" frameborder="0"></iframe>';
    }
</script>

Your best bet would be to use the tutorial on http://orangecountycustomwebsitedesign.com/change-the-youtube-embed-image-to-custom-image/#comment-7289. This will ensure there is no double clicking and that YouTube's video doesn't autoplay behind your image prior to clicking it.

Do not plug in the YouTube embed code as YT(YouTube) gives it (you can try, but it will be ganky)...instead just replace the source from the embed code of your vid UP TO "&autoplay=1" (leave this on the end as it is).

eg.)

Original code YT gives:

`<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/5mEymdGuEJk?hl=en_US&amp;version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/5mEymdGuEJkhl=en_US&amp;version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>`

Code used in tutorial with same YT src:

`<object width="420" height="315" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess"value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5mEymdGuEJk?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;autoplay=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed width="420" height="315" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5mEymdGuEJk?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;autoplay=1" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" /></object>`

Other than that, just replace the img source and path with your own, and voilà!

This solution will play the video upon clicking. You'll need to edit your picture to add a button image yourself.

You're going to need the URL of your picture and the YouTube video ID. The YouTube video id is the part of the URL after the v= parameter, so for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DODLEX4zzLQ the ID would be DODLEX4zzLQ.

<div width="560px" height="315px" style="position: static; clear: both; width: 560px; height: 315px;">&nbsp;<div style="position: relative"><img id="vidimg" width="560px" height="315px" src="URL_TO_PICTURE" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; cursor: pointer; pointer-events: none; z-index: 2;" /><iframe id="unlocked-video" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; z-index: 1;" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YOUTUBE_VIDEO_ID" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div></div>
<script type="application/javascript">
  // Adapted from https://stackoverflow.com/a/32138108
  var monitor = setInterval(function(){
    var elem = document.activeElement;
    if(elem && elem.id == 'unlocked-video'){
      document.getElementById('vidimg').style.display='none';
      clearInterval(monitor);
    }
  }, 100);
</script>

Be sure to replace URL_TO_PICTURE and YOUTUBE_VIDEO_ID in the above snippet.

To clarify what's going on here, this displays the image on top of the video, but allows clicks to pass through the image. The script monitors for clicks in the video iframe, and then hides the image if a click occurs. You may not need the float: clear.

I haven't compared this to the other answers here, but this is what I have used.

Just copy and paste the code in HTML file. and enjoy the happy coding. Using Youtube api to manage the thumbnail of youtube embedded video.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.8.3.min.js"></script>
    <script>
        var tag = document.createElement('script');

        tag.src = "https://www.youtube.com/iframe_api";
        var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
        firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag);

        var player;
        function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
            player = new YT.Player('player', {
                height: '390',
                width: '640',
                videoId: 'M7lc1UVf-VE',
                events: {
                    'onReady': onPlayerReady,
                }
            });
        }

        function onPlayerReady(event) {
            $('#play_vid').click(function() {
                event.target.playVideo();
            });
        }

        $(document).ready(function() {
            $('#player').hide();
            $('#play_vid').click(function() {
                $('#player').show();
                $('#play_vid').hide();
            });
        });
    </script>

    <div id="player"></div>
    <img id="play_vid" src="YOUR_IMAGE_PATH" />
</body>
</html>

It's possible using jQuery it depends on your site load time you can adjust your timeout. It can be your custom image or you can use youtube image maxres1.jpg, maxres2.jpg or maxres3.jpg

var newImage = 'http://i.ytimg.com/vi/[Video_ID]/maxres1.jpg';
window.setTimeout(function() {
jQuery('div > div.video-container-thumb > div > a > img').attr('src',newImage );
}, 300);

This solution is HTML and CSS based using z-index and hover, which works if JS is disabled or the video isn't yours (since you can add a thumbnail in YouTube).

<style>
.videoWrapper {
  position: relative;
  padding-bottom: 56.25%;
}
.videoWrapper .video-modal-poster img {
  position: absolute;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  z-index: 10;
}
.videoWrapper .video-modal-poster:hover img {
  z-index:0;
}
.videoWrapper iframe {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  z-index: 1;
}
</style>
<div class="videoWrapper">
  <a href="#" class="video-modal-poster">
    <img alt="" src="" width="353" height="199" />
    <iframe width="353" height="199" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
  </a>
</div>

The answers did not work for me. Maybe they were outdated.

Anyway, found this website, which does all the job for you, and even prevent you from needing to read the unclear-as-usual google documentation: http://www.classynemesis.com/projects/ytembed/

I was having trouble with the autoplay from waldir's solution... using autoplay, the video was playing when the page loaded, not when the div got displayed.

This solution worked for me except I replaced

<a class="introVid" href="#video">Watch the video</a></p>

with

<a class="introVid" href="#video"><img src="images/NEWTHUMB.jpg" style="cursor:pointer" /></a>

so that it would use my thumbnail in place of the text link.