What Is the YouTube Wrapper Module in uStudio's Video Platform Hub and How Do I Use It? – uStudio

The YouTube wrapper module enables uStudio players to stream YouTube-hosted VOD content.

With uStudio's YouTube wrapper module, customers can stream YouTube-hosted video on demand (VOD) content through a uStudio HTML5 player, effectively overlaying a custom uStudio player on top of a YouTube player.

There are several reasons why you might want to wrap a YouTube-hosted video with a uStudio player:

If your content is already public on YouTube, you can cut streaming bandwidth costs by using YouTube's content distribution for free.
When you embed a YouTube player on your website and drive additional views to your video there, all this viewing data goes directly to Google and can improve your video's placement for SEO purposes.
Combined with a custom-branded uStudio player, you can have all the benefits above without compromising on your video player's unique look or feel, as well as add custom interactivity.
Moreover, all playback stats (including any custom viewer interactions) can still be captured via uStudio's analytics (in our UI and/or our APIs).

If you'd like to use uStudio's YouTube wrapper module, follow these steps:

1. Contact support@ustudio.com to have the YouTube wrapper module provisioned in your studio.

2. Also request (or create via POST call to our Studio APIs) a video metadata field to store the unique video ID generated by YouTube:

{
"uid": "youtube_id",      
"searchable": false,      
"label": "YouTube Video ID",      
"help": "Enter YouTube video ID here",
"default_value": null,
"type_uid": "text",      
"public": true,
"hidden": false, 
"options": {}
}

3. Add the YouTube wrapper module to any player via the Playground Player Builder, so the player will know to reference the YouTube video ID to stream from YouTube.
4. You will need to upload a "placeholder" video to uStudio. This video should be published to the player with the YouTube Wrapper module on it. A small video file is recommended, as it will use less storage space. The video must be longer than 1 second in duration.
5. Go to the Edit Video page of the placeholder video and paste the YouTube video ID into the metadata field you created above. Now the YouTube video will be streamed through the uStudio player when you go to the video embed code. Note: if you leave this piece of metadata blank, your placeholder video will play instead.

Note: Query parameters, such as start or finish time, cannot be appended to the YouTube video ID in the metadata field.

Note: Having trouble finding the YouTube video ID? The YouTube video ID can be found in the YouTube video’s URL. For example, if the full YouTube URL is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwt24eGlCMA, then the YouTube video ID is: uwt24eGlCMA.