How to Embed a Part of any YouTube Video

YouTube Video Embed

Sometimes you may want to embed just a portion of a YouTube video in your web pages.

For instance, you are embedding a movie from YouTube but want the viewer to focus on a particular scene that begins at ‘x’ seconds and ends at ‘y’ seconds. When the scene has finished, the embedded clip should stop playing irrespective of the length of the video.

Well, here are two simple ways to help you embed a part of any YouTube video:

A: Embed YouTube Video with Start Time

This is a scenario where you specify a start time for the embedded video and let it play through the end. Here you can use the standard embed code from YouTube and append the start time parameter to the YouTube URL as illustrated in the following example:

<iframe
  width="500"
  height="300"
  frameborder="0"
  allowfullscreen
  src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID#t=1234s"
></iframe>

Replace VIDEO_ID with the actual ID of your YouTube video and replace 1234s with the start time (in seconds). For instance, if you want the video to start playback at the 03:24 (mm

) mark, you’ll specify the time as t=204s (60*3 + 24).

B: Embed YouTube Video with Start & End Time

The following YouTube video recording from a Yanni concert is several minutes long but I’ve only embedded the most interesting segment where the lady is playing the violin.

Hit the play button inside the embedded player for a quick demo.

<div
  data-video="Iq3zo432sAU"
  data-startseconds="323"
  data-endseconds="432"
  data-height="309"
  data-width="550"
  id="youtube-player"
></div>

<script src="https://www.youtube.com/iframe_api"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
    var ctrlq = document.getElementById('youtube-player');
    var player = new YT.Player('youtube-player', {
      height: ctrlq.dataset.height,
      width: ctrlq.dataset.width,
      events: {
        onReady: function (e) {
          e.target.cueVideoById({
            videoId: ctrlq.dataset.video,
            startSeconds: ctrlq.dataset.startseconds,
            endSeconds: ctrlq.dataset.endseconds
          });
        }
      }
    });
  }
</script>

The standard YouTube embed code doesn’t support the end time parameter but we can make use of the YouTube JavaScript API to embed a part of any YouTube video. Without boring you with the technical details, here’s your new embed code:

<div
  data-video="VIDEO_ID"
  data-startseconds="100"
  data-endseconds="200"
  data-height="480"
  data-width="640"
  id="youtube-player"
></div>

<script src="https://www.youtube.com/iframe_api"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
    var ctrlq = document.getElementById('youtube-player');
    var player = new YT.Player('youtube-player', {
      height: ctrlq.dataset.height,
      width: ctrlq.dataset.width,
      events: {
        onReady: function (e) {
          e.target.cueVideoById({
            videoId: ctrlq.dataset.video,
            startSeconds: ctrlq.dataset.startseconds,
            endSeconds: ctrlq.dataset.endseconds
          });
        }
      }
    });
  }
</script>

You just have to replace the Video ID, the start time (in seconds), the end time (in seconds), the height of the player (in pixels) and the width in the DIV tag as per your needs. See this annotated source code to learn how the playback is controlled via the YouTube API.

Also see: YouTube as Audio Player