How to get thumbnail image from Youtube video
The information about getting such thumbnail image seems to be sparse and scattered. Actually, Google has posted its Youtube Data API, which indirectly hinted some information about image locations, but looks incomplete; while others seems to reckon different URLs for those thumbnail images. So here it is:
http://$host/vi/$vid/$choice
$host
$host can be one of the host names below:
- i.ytimg.com
- i1.ytimg.com
- i2.ytimg.com
- i3.ytimg.com
- i4.ytimg.com
- img.youtube.com
Actually all host names point to the same IP address.
$vid
$vid is the ID of video. The value can be found in youtube URLs. Take the video of Youtube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall as example. The full URL of video page is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueJcRmfweSM
Then the video ID is the last part of URL, ueJcRmfweSM.
$choice
$choice indicates which thumbnail image shall be retrieved; it accepts certain limited values only.
0.jpg |
about 320 × 240, snapshot of about middle (?) of the whole video |
|---|---|
1.jpg |
about 128 × 96, snapshot of about first 1/4 (?) of the whole video |
2.jpg |
about 128 × 96, a smaller version of 0.jpg |
3.jpg |
about 128 × 96, snapshot of about 3/4 (?) of the whole video |
default.jpg |
same as 2.jpg |
Getting the pieces together
Let’s use previous Youtube Symphony Orchestra video as example again. The following URLs are identical, corresponding to small version of default thumbnail image:
http://img.youtube.com/vi/ueJcRmfweSM/2.jpg
http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/ueJcRmfweSM/2.jpg
http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/ueJcRmfweSM/default.jpg
This one is the larger version:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ueJcRmfweSM/0.jpg