Description
A normal YouTube embed shows one video. Then it sends the viewer to YouTube and attention leaves your site.
TV Player for YouTube Channels turns your channels into a full-screen TV on your site. A swipe or arrow key moves to the next video or the next channel, and the same plugin also does galleries, lists and carousels.
Built for creators, publishers and media sites that already publish on YouTube and want viewers to stay on their own site. It is free and needs no API key.
YOUR CHANNELS AS A TV, ON YOUR OWN SITE
One video fills the screen and scrolling stops. Each swipe, wheel turn or arrow key moves exactly one video. Up and down or J and K go to the next or previous video. Left and right change channel with the channel name in the middle. M mutes. A tap plays or pauses. When a video ends the next one starts.
You can show channels as buttons along the top, as a guide down the left side, as a guide that also shows each channel’s next three videos where you can click one to play it, or as video only. On phones the guide opens from a Channels button so the video keeps the full width.
SEVEN WAYS TO SHOW YOUR VIDEOS
- TV: One video fills the screen and a swipe or arrow key brings the next.
- Theater: A big player with the channel’s videos listed beside it. The next video plays when one ends.
- Gallery: A grid of the latest videos in 1 to 6 columns. Videos play in place or in a lightbox.
- List: Thumbnail, title, views, date and description in one video per row.
- Shorts: The channel’s Shorts as vertical cards, played in a vertical lightbox.
- Latest video: Always the newest upload and it updates itself.
- Carousel: A sideways row of videos you can scroll or swipe.
KEEP VIEWERS ON YOUR SITE
- Continue reading: A slim ticker under the TV scrolls your latest articles or one category so viewers keep reading.
- Sponsor bar: A strip along the bottom of the TV keeps sponsors in view. You can rotate them one at a time, show two side by side, or keep one. Logos come from the media library and every link is marked sponsored.
FAST, FREE, NO API KEY
A video loads a YouTube player only when it plays and until then it is a thumbnail. Videos come from YouTube’s public feed so there is no Google API key to set up and no quota to run out of.
Also free are channels and playlists as sources, a channel header with a Subscribe button, a search box and a Load more button, the option to show, hide or isolate YouTube Shorts, VideoObject structured data, and YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player (youtube-nocookie.com).
SHORTCODES
Place the TV with the TV Player for YouTube Channels block or the [youtube_tv] shortcode.
[youtube_tv]full screen TV[youtube_tv fullscreen="no"]the TV inside the page[youtube_tv tv_style="guide"]with a channel guide (guide_gridadds each channel’s next three videos,soloshows only the video)[youtube_tv layout="theater"][youtube_tv layout="gallery" columns="3"][youtube_tv layout="list"][youtube_tv layout="carousel"][youtube_tv layout="shorts"][youtube_tv layout="latest"]
From the team behind YouTube to Article, which turns your videos into posts.
External services
This plugin connects to these services:
- YouTube (Google): channel pages on youtube.com are read once, when you add a channel, to find its channel id. The public feed at https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml is read to list the channel’s videos (cached for an hour). Thumbnails load from i.ytimg.com and videos play through the privacy-enhanced player at youtube-nocookie.com, in your visitors’ browsers. Terms: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Screenshots
Blocks
This plugin provides 1 block.
- TV Player for YouTube Channels
Installation
- Install and activate the plugin.
- Open TV Player for YouTube Channels in the admin menu and paste your channel link or @handle.
- Add the “TV Player for YouTube Channels” block, or the
[youtube_tv]shortcode, to any page.
FAQ
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Do I need a YouTube API key?
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No. Videos come from YouTube’s public feed, so there is no Google API key to set up and no quota to run out of.
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Will it slow down my page?
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Only the video that is playing loads a YouTube player. Every other video stays a thumbnail until it plays.
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Can I show more than one channel?
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Yes. Add as many channels as you like. On the TV, left and right switch channel and the channel guide lists them all.
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Can I use a playlist instead of a channel?
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Yes. Playlists work as sources, the same as channels.
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What about YouTube Shorts?
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The Shorts layout displays the channel’s Shorts as vertical cards and opens them in a vertical lightbox. In the other layouts you can show, hide or isolate YouTube Shorts as you prefer.
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Does it work with my theme or page builder?
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Yes. The [youtube_tv] shortcode works in any editor or page builder that accepts shortcodes. The block works in the block editor.
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What does it load from YouTube, and when?
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Videos play through youtube-nocookie.com, which is YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player for embeds on your site. Until a viewer presses play only a thumbnail from i.ytimg.com loads, so no YouTube player runs on the page.
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Is there a paid version?
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No. Every layout and every channel is free, with no paid tier and no account to create.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“TV Player for YouTube Channels” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “TV Player for YouTube Channels” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- First release: TV, gallery and carousel layouts, a block and a shortcode, swipe and keyboard controls.
- Full screen TV by default: one video in view, the page does not scroll, one video per swipe or wheel turn, with a parallax slide. fullscreen=”no” keeps it inside the page.
- TV styles: channel bar, channel guide on the left, guide with each channel’s next three videos, or video only. Set a site default under TV style, or per block and shortcode (tv_style). On phones the guide is a drawer behind a Channels button.
- Seven views: TV, theater, gallery, list, carousel, Shorts and latest video. Lightbox player, channel header with Subscribe, search, Load more, Shorts filter, playlists as sources, VideoObject structured data.
- Bottom bar under the TV: a Continue reading ticker of your articles, and a sponsor bar (rotate, two side by side, or one).