Low quality and distorted aspect ratio of the preview image in versions starting from 3.0.0 for at least youtube videos

[level420]

Up to version 2.0.3 of the embetty server, the preview image of a youtube video was rendered fine, showing the preview image with the "native" resolution and aspect ratio of the video.

From version 3.0.0 on, it seems that the preview image is forced to a resolution of 480 x 360 px with an aspect ratio of 4:3, which leads to a distorted and low quality preview.

General information

• embetty version: 2.0.3 vs. 3.0.0 and up
• Node.js version: image from docker hub
• Operating system name and version: docker
• Browser name and version: chrome, firefox, safari, edge

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

Embed a youtube video for use with embetty, e.g. RvpudFBKUbo

Expected behaviour

The preview image rendered should have a resolution of 1280 x 720 px as with embetty server up to 2.0.3

Actual behaviour

The preview image has a resolution of 480 x 360 px (aspect ratio 4:3) from embetty server starting with version 3.0.0 which leads to a distorted and low resolution up scaled image which looks ugly

[level420]

@pmb0 I've seen the latest commits were done by you. Are the issues still tracked by the heise-Team?
Some reaction would be cool! Thanks allot!

[pmb0]

Hi. At the time, I had not found a way to get the images in better quality without loading the Google code.

[level420]

@pmb0 thank you for your answer. As the preview images are still retreived with the correct resolution and aspect ratio with the old server version 2.0.3: couldn't that code ther be used again for version 3.x ?

[level420]

@pmb0 any chance that this will get fixed?

[frictionel]

Wouldn't it be sufficient to change

embetty/libs/base/src/youtube-video.ts

Line 15 in b83c309

return `https://img.youtube.com/vi/${this.id}/hqdefault.jpg`

into: return 'https://img.youtube.com/vi/${this.id}/maxresdefault.jpg'?

Reference: https://tools.simonwillison.net/youtube-thumbnails?url=CRpHNB87gRY

[djmaze]

The fix proposed b @frictionel works for me as well. Created a PR at #437.

[level420]

@pmb0 It would be very kind if an new embetty server version could be published which hat PR #437 merged.
Thank you in advance.

[djmaze]

Unfortunately, it seems some videos only have the hqdefault version and not the maxresdefault one (example). So we probably first need to check which one exists..