Faster YouTube Embeds with JavaScript

The HTML
The HTML code sets the YouTube video ID, styles the video size (width and height), and lists the Youtube URL parameters if needed.

The CSS
In the two videos used as examples, the picture ratio is 16:9, which returns the sddefault.jpg thumbnail with horizontal black bands. To hide them when showing this thumbnail, the background-position property is set with the center value, while setting the picture size inlined in the HTML div tag, like style="width:500px;height:281px;". This way, it is possible to show different video sizes on the same page.

The play icon, which tells the users the content is not a mere picture, is added in a layer on top of the thumbnail with an opacity transition to highlight it. We are using a data URI base64-encoded png here (from IconFinder), which saves an HTTP request and works down to IE8.

Vanilla JavaScript Implementation
With no dependency and the fastest implementation, the vanilla JavaScript version uses the smallest DOM ready code I could find.

Browser differences still have to be taken into account, like the lack of support for the getElementsByClassName method in IE8.

The jQuery Implementation
While being more expressive to my eyes and with wider browser support, the jQuery implementation comes with the price of the whole jQuery library and slightly slower performance.

https://www.sitepoint.com/faster-youtube-embeds-javascript/
http://www.languagesandnumbers.com/articles/en/The-Canticles-of-Holy-Mary-and-the-Galician-Portuguese-language/

index.html

<div class="youtube"
     id="fsrJWUVoXeM" 
     style="width: 500px; height: 281px;">
</div>

<div class="youtube" 
     id="lR4tJr7sMPM" 
     data-params="modestbranding=1&showinfo=0&controls=0&vq=hd720"
     style="width: 640px; height: 360px;">
</div>

jq.js

"use strict";
$(function() {
    $(".youtube").each(function() {
        // Based on the YouTube ID, we can easily find the thumbnail image
        $(this).css('background-image', 'url(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/' + this.id + '/sddefault.jpg)');
    
        // Overlay the Play icon to make it look like a video player
        $(this).append($('<div/>', {'class': 'play'}));
    
        $(document).delegate('#'+this.id, 'click', function() {
            // Create an iFrame with autoplay set to true
            var iframe_url = "https://www.youtube.com/embed/" + this.id + "?autoplay=1&autohide=1";
            if ($(this).data('params')) iframe_url+='&'+$(this).data('params');
    
            // The height and width of the iFrame should be the same as parent
            var iframe = $('<iframe/>', {'frameborder': '0', 'src': iframe_url, 'width': $(this).width(), 'height': $(this).height() })
    
            // Replace the YouTube thumbnail with YouTube HTML5 Player
            $(this).replaceWith(iframe);
        });
    });
 });

style.css

.youtube {
    background-position: center;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    position: relative;
    display: inline-block;
    overflow: hidden;
    transition: all 200ms ease-out;
    cursor: pointer;
}

.youtube .play {
    background: url("data:image/png;base64,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") no-repeat center center;
    background-size: 64px 64px;
    position: absolute;
    height: 100%;
    width: 100%;
    opacity: .8;
    filter: alpha(opacity=80);
    transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
}

.youtube .play:hover {
    opacity: 1;
    filter: alpha(opacity=100);
}

vanilla.js

'use strict';
function r(f){/in/.test(document.readyState)?setTimeout('r('+f+')',9):f()}
r(function(){
    if (!document.getElementsByClassName) {
        // IE8 support
        var getElementsByClassName = function(node, classname) {
            var a = [];
            var re = new RegExp('(^| )'+classname+'( |$)');
            var els = node.getElementsByTagName("*");
            for(var i=0,j=els.length; i<j; i++)
                if(re.test(els[i].className))a.push(els[i]);
            return a;
        }
        var videos = getElementsByClassName(document.body,"youtube");
    } else {
        var videos = document.getElementsByClassName("youtube");
    }

    var nb_videos = videos.length;
    for (var i=0; i<nb_videos; i++) {
        // Based on the YouTube ID, we can easily find the thumbnail image
        videos[i].style.backgroundImage = 'url(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/' + videos[i].id + '/sddefault.jpg)';

        // Overlay the Play icon to make it look like a video player
        var play = document.createElement("div");
        play.setAttribute("class","play");
        videos[i].appendChild(play);

        videos[i].onclick = function() {
            // Create an iFrame with autoplay set to true
            var iframe = document.createElement("iframe");
            var iframe_url = "https://www.youtube.com/embed/" + this.id + "?autoplay=1&autohide=1";
            if (this.getAttribute("data-params")) iframe_url+='&'+this.getAttribute("data-params");
            iframe.setAttribute("src",iframe_url);
            iframe.setAttribute("frameborder",'0');

            // The height and width of the iFrame should be the same as parent
            iframe.style.width  = this.style.width;
            iframe.style.height = this.style.height;

            // Replace the YouTube thumbnail with YouTube Player
            this.parentNode.replaceChild(iframe, this);
        }
    }
});