Upcoming change to the AS3 player for format=5 media:content URLs

[Jeffrey Posnick]

I want to let folks know about a change in the YouTube Data API that's
scheduled to start rolling out September 27. The change affects the
URLs returned in <media:content> elements for embeddedable videos.

Currently, if you examine the <media:content> elements for an
embeddable YouTube video, you'll see an entry with yt:format='5' that
looks something like:

<media:content url='http://www.youtube.com/v/Zhawgd0REhA?
f=videos&amp;app=youtube_gdata' type='application/x-shockwave-flash'
medium='video' isDefault='true' expression='full' duration='2395'
yt:format='5'/>

The 'url' attribute of this element contains a URL pointing to the
YouTube Player instance that could be used to play back the video.
This URL currently corresponds to the ActionScript 2-based version of
our YouTube Player, which is several years old and effectively
deprecated.

The newer, ActionScript 3-based YouTube Player instance shares the
same base URL with an additional query parameter appended to it:
'version=3'. Once this upcoming change is implemented, we'll start
returning URLs pointing to the ActionScript 3 player in the
<media:content> element with yt:format='5'. The new element will look
very similar to

<media:content url='http://www.youtube.com/v/Zhawgd0REhA?
version=3&amp;f=videos&amp;app=youtube_gdata' type='application/x-
shockwave-flash' medium='video' isDefault='true' expression='full'
duration='2395' yt:format='5'/>

If your code queries the Data API, reads the value of this 'url'
attribute and then uses that URL to embed the YouTube Player on your
web page (via SWFOject or otherwise), then you will start embedding
the ActionScript 3-based player automatically once this change is
implemented, and no action should be required.

The only anticipated compatibility issue is for developers who are
taking that URL value and using it to embed the YouTube Player using
an ActionScript 2-based Flash parent container rather than a web page.
We believe only a very small number of developers are doing this, but
if you are one of them, please update your code to explicitly request
a player URL using the version=2 URL query parameter. Alternatively,
you could take the opportunity to update your code to use ActionScript
3.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, YouTube API Team
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