Embedding videos in playlist headers

I manage the overnight robot at our station. Because no one speaks during the program, I communicate with listeners via fancy playlist headers that I post in advance. I include photos of the artists, concert posters, and occasionally embed a video.

I noticed that often these videos are later converted to static images. Is this something Spinitron automatically does because of bandwidth issues? I am careful to use only short clips that don’t have ads. Here is an example of a playlist with a working video.

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We don’t convert the video links or embeds. For us they are simply HTML text or URLs.

So if a video ends up as a static image, something outside of Spinitron is doing it. If you want to investigate that, I need a recipe to replicate the issue. In other words, describe to me how I can do what you did to observe the same problem.

Btw, we only allow youtube and vimeo embeds, iirc. Others are simply edited out and you’ll notice that immediately.

The recipe to replicate the issue: embed a YouTube video in a playlist header, like I did with the above example. Wait a week or so before reviewing the HTML, and often the replacement image will be in its place, with the “iframe” HTML tag replaced with the “img” tag. The replacement image is a snapshot of a frame of the video.

It happened to the embedded RAYZ video in my example within a week of me posting it. Yesterday, I removed the replacement image and restored my original HTML with the “embedded” version of the vid.

I gave you the replication steps, but please do not waste time investigating this if you are busy. It is not a priority issue, because I doubt anyone looks up old playlists and experiences horror and dismay that the videos have become “unembedded.” The reason I asked is to find out whether videos are a problem for Spinitron, and whether I should stop inserting them. You have assured me that they are fine. Thank you.

OT: I have 3 CDs of your music, and the bot occasionally plays songs from them on this overnight program.

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From your description I’m pretty sure the change that happens after some time is something happening on Youtube itself. It happens a lot with music on Youtube, presumably as copyright take-downs are processed.

Yow! I’ll bet the recognition doesn’t pick them up. If it did I could search and find them and feel even more special than you made me feel with this mention.

Yow! I’ll bet the recognition doesn’t pick them up. If it did I could search and find them and feel even more special than you made me feel with this mention.

Of course you know that if you don’t register your music with an aggregator, it won’t be recognized! I found one of your songs here:

Bot in a Mosh Thu Jan 26 with bot bot on WZBC 90.3 FM Newton (spinitron.com)

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No, I didn’t know. And I think this should be in a new forum topic if you are willing to explain that and how to do it.

I don’t even know what “an aggregator” is.

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