A few years ago, my j-o-b  gave up the $1,000 month bill to a streaming video service and we switched strictly to the social media outlets for hosting our videos.  Since YouTube is the biggest and most well known, thought I’d share a few of the YouTube hacks that I’ve learned as video. Plus this way I have them all in one spot for reference.

Embedding a YouTube Clip:

You can scrap most of the code when embedding. Here is the before and after.

Before:

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Autoplaying YouTube Videos:

Add &autoplay=1 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&autoplay=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Removing the Title and Rating Overlay on YouTube Videos:

Add &showinfo=0 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&showinfo=0” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Want to Loop a YouTube Video?

Add &loop=1 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&loop=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Embed High Quality YouTube Videos:

Add &fmt=18 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=18” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Playing YouTube Videos in Word Press Self Hosted Blogs:

There are numerous YouTube video plug-ins now for Word Press. On all of my blogs, I use  Smart YouTube.  It’s SUPER easy to use.

Install the plugin. When you want to place a YouTube video on your page – just copy the URL of the YouTube video into your HTML and place a v in the http.

Playing YouTube Videos on a WordPress.com Blog

Just follow the link – wordpress.tv has a great, easy to follow video on how to embed your YouTube videos into a wordpress.com blog.

How To Download YouTube Videos:

• Find your favorite YouTube video


• Visit: http://videodownloadx.com


• Paste the video URL into their download box and hit download


• You will see a screenshot of your video and  >>Download Covert Record Stream – left-click on the word download and save the flv file

There you have it.

Enjoy!