So, we’re currently wrapping up a project for a client where YouTube’s Chromeless Player has played a big part. Basically, we combined a few instances of the player to enable simultaneous playback for several video feeds.

The API is fairly simple, yet powerful enough. However, it’s all written in/for AS2. No ActionScript 3 here, no sir. While some kind soul has made efforts towards what I at first believed to be a fully evolved AS3 player, all is not well. Check out the docs and you’ll find a pretty serious caveat. It will only work when embedded into an XHTML page and properly connected to the youTubeLoader JavaScript functions.

Upon further inspection it really turns out to be nothing more than it claims to be: a wrapper. It uses ExternalInterface to call the functions of YouTube’s own JavaScript implementation. This makes embedding your own custom chromeless (AS3) player on sites where you cannot control the HTML container page near impossible.

Anyway, I got all excited for nothing. Reminding me to properly read the docs before getting all worked up.