Automatic video embed

[Marc Peters]

I am considering upgrading from 4 to 5. As my site is video-centric, a major consideration is the way video is embedded. Currently, videos are auto-embedded, and the code defaults to HTML5. This means that the content plays on any device, and the video plays as soon as the user clicks on the video.

this is very different to the default vBulletin 5 functionality. From testing here, users must

• use the video embed code (and even then, it doesn't work if you use a secure link!)
• click on the created thumbnail to activate the video, then click play to play the video (I've added an example below)

Is there an easy way to change this functionality?

https://vimeo.com/120310307

[glennrocksvb]

• You can use the Post link icon (chain icon) to post a video. Posted a sample in your test post at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...93#post4318893
• Your test post here auto-plays the video after clicking the video thumbnail.

[glennrocksvb]

It's not good though that vB uses flash to embed Vimeo videos. So it will not work on some devices. You can modify bbcode_video template to change:

<object class="restrain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="<vb:if condition="isset($width) AND $width > 0">{vb:raw width}<vb:else />640</vb:if>" height="<vb:if condition="$height">{vb:raw height}<vb:else />360</vb:if>" data="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id={vb:raw code}&autoplay=1">

to:

<iframe class="restrain" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/{vb:raw code}?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;badge=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=1" width="<vb:if condition="isset($width) AND $width > 0">{vb:raw width}<vb:else />640</vb:if>" height="<vb:if condition="$height">{vb:raw height}<vb:else />360</vb:if>" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Marc Peters]

Thanks for the replies Glenn. I find it odd that users must click a video twice to play. That, combined with using flash as default seem like odd design decisions.

[glennrocksvb]

Thanks for the replies Glenn. I find it odd that users must click a video twice to play. That, combined with using flash as default seem like odd design decisions.

I don't have to click twice to play the video.

[BirdOPrey5]

Showing a thumbnail instead of the image itself greatly improves page rendering speed especially on a page with multiple videos on the page. On my VB 3.x site with dozens of videos the page is almost unresponsive due to the number of embedded youtube videos.

[Marc Peters]

I don't have to click twice to play the video.

Agreed, my mistake.

Showing a thumbnail instead of the image itself greatly improves page rendering speed

I'm sure you're correct. However, it would be nice to have an option to disable this behaviour - user experience isn't just measured in page load time. The forum I run has a section for video reviews and there's never more than one video in a thread. For me, key aspects of user experience is:

• see the video's native embed functionality; and
• ensure that the video BB code is platform independent.

The out of the box functionality doesn't meet either of these two criteria, so I would need to customise the BB code. I'm not saying it's a disaster (I've done similar on the current vb 4 installation), but the decision would have been a no-brainer otherwise.

[BirdOPrey5]

I totally agree on using the HTML5 players when available and this can easily be changed by updating the embed code in the bbcode_video template. I am less certain about an option to disable the video thumbnails but you are free to open an official request for this feature here: http://tracker.vbulletin.com/secure/...91&issuetype=7