YouTube embedded video: set different thumbnail

Question

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

Answer 1

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

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 = $("").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 = $("").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.