Direct YouTube link as background video not working

Question

I have video banners using the direct mp4 link to YouTube videos using the solution posted by 'ale' here

This worked perfectly yesterday however when viewing the site today, none of the videos load anymore and if I open one of the direct links in a browser I get

'Access to r3---sn-aigl6ner.googlevideo.com was denied'

(which explains why they're not displaying)

Looking today within VLC and going through the process again, the 'direct' link is different so perhaps this link changes daily? If so, this isn't going to work for me. Is there a way of getting a direct download link of a YouTube video that remains static and doesn't change?

Answer 1

The direct link changes daily indeed (maybe even more frequently). If you want to embed a YouTube video permanently, your best bet is using the normal iframe embed method.

Answer 2

YouTube direct links are token based and tokens change a few times per day. If you want to embed video to the background you will need to use <iframe>

Some examples can be found here:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42055200/set-youtube-video-on-background
• https://www.labnol.org/internet/youtube-video-background/27933/