Jan Hoek

Vital Video is a WordPress block plugin designed to improve Core Web Vitals performance when displaying YouTube videos.
Instead of traditional embedding, it provides a lightweight, performance-optimized solution that first loads a clickable video thumbnail.
The Vital Video Block doesn’t play videos in the WordPress editor. It’s designed to prioritize performance and user experience on your frontend. To test video behavior, simply preview your post or page.
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Performance-first YouTube video display. </li>
<li>Automatic video thumbnail and title retrieval. </li>
<li>WebP image support for faster image loading. </li>
<li>Customizable aspect ratios (4:3 and 16:9). </li>
<li>Displays the video title in the image. </li>
<li>Multiple thumbnail quality options. </li>
<li>Minimal initial page load impact. </li>
<li>Option to disable WebP images if unavailable. </li>
<li>Advanced video playback controls. </li>
<li>Uses YouTube’s no-cookie thumbnail service. </li>
<li>Respects modern browser autoplay policies. </li>
<li>Alt text matches the video title.</li>
<li>Thumbnail dimensions set based on selected image size:
<ul>
<li>HQ (480×320): Default size </li>
<li>SD (640×480): Standard size </li>
<li>MAX (1280×720): Highest available resolution</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Vital Video Settings</h3>
<ul>
<li>Aspect Ratio: Choose between 16:9 and 4:3. </li>
<li>Mute Toggle: Control video playback behavior. </li>
<li>Thumbnail Quality: Select from High, Standard, or Maximum resolution. </li>
<li>Disable WebP: Turn off WebP usage if unavailable.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Mute Toggle</h3>
The Mute Toggle feature is designed primarily for mobile devices, adhering to browser autoplay policies.
Mute Toggle Off (Sound On):
Videos require two clicks to start playing:
<ol>
<li>The first click loads the video. </li>
<li>The second click begins playback. Ideal for maintaining user control and preventing unexpected audio.</li>
</ol>
Mute Toggle On (Sound Off):
<ul>
<li>Videos play with a single click. </li>
<li>Automatically starts muted. </li>
<li>Perfect for situations where immediate video playback is desired. </li>
<li>Complies with browser autoplay restrictions.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Disable WebP Images</h3>
<ul>
<li>WebP is enabled by default. Most thumbnails will use the WebP format. </li>
<li>However, if you encounter a dummy placeholder image, try selecting a different thumbnail size to see if another WebP version exists. </li>
<li>If no WebP images are available, you can enable the “Disable WebP Images” option as a last resort. This – will use fallback formats like JPG instead.</li>
</ul>
Only use “Disable WebP Images” when absolutely necessary!
<h3>External Services</h3>
This plugin connects to YouTube’s services to embed videos and retrieve video information:
YouTube Video Service:
<ul>
<li>The plugin connects to YouTube’s embed service (youtube-nocookie.com) to display videos</li>
<li>When a video is played, it loads the video player from YouTube’s servers</li>
<li>YouTube’s terms of service: https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms</li>
<li>YouTube’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy</li>
</ul>
YouTube oEmbed API:
<ul>
<li>Used to fetch video titles when adding videos to your content</li>
<li>Sends the YouTube video ID to retrieve the video title</li>
<li>API documentation: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos</li>
</ul>
YouTube Thumbnail Service:
<ul>
<li>Retrieves video thumbnail images from i.ytimg.com</li>
<li>Only loads thumbnails for videos you’ve embedded</li>
<li>No personal data is sent to this service</li>
</ul>
Note: This plugin uses YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode by default, which helps protect your visitors’ privacy by not setting cookies until the video is played.
<h3>Contributing</h3>
Contributions are welcome! You can support Vital Video in various ways:
<ul>
<li>Write about the plugin on your blog or share it on social media. </li>
<li><a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/vital-video-block/" rel="nofollow ugc">Translate the plugin into your language</a> using your WordPress.org account. </li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/vital-video-block/reviews/#new-post" rel="ugc">Review the plugin here on WordPress.org</a>.</li>
</ul>

Vital Video Block

A YouTube block optimized for performance, allowing you to embed YouTube videos without harming your Core Web Vitals.

MUDRAVA

MUDRAVA RUM captures real user performance data from your WordPress site visitors. Unlike synthetic testing tools, this plugin measures actual user experience including Time to First Byte (TTFB), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), server generation time, total page load time, and more.
Features:
<ul>
<li>Collects TTFB, LCP, server generation time, total load, memory peak, device type, network type, country, and session ID</li>
<li>Live Monitor dashboard with real-time log viewing</li>
<li>Filterable by session ID, URL, device type, and network type</li>
<li>On-demand performance reports with averages and P75 LCP</li>
<li>Scheduled email summaries (daily or weekly via WP-Cron)</li>
<li>Critical TTFB alerts with configurable thresholds</li>
<li>Configurable sampling rate and URL blacklist</li>
<li>Role-based exclusion (skip tracking for specific user roles)</li>
<li>Automatic data retention management (max records and days)</li>
<li>Color-coded performance indicators (good/warning/poor)</li>
</ul>
How It Works:
A lightweight JavaScript collector runs on your site’s frontend, gathering Core Web Vitals and performance metrics from each page view. Data is sent via the WordPress REST API and stored in a custom database table. The admin dashboard provides a Live Monitor view, filterable reports, and email summaries.
Links:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://mudrava.com/en/projects/mudrava-rum-wordpress-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin page</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/Mudrava/Mudrava-RUM" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub repository</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy</h3>
Data Collection:
This plugin collects anonymized performance metrics (TTFB, LCP, load times, device type, network type) from site visitors. No personally identifiable information (PII) is collected or stored. Session IDs are randomly generated and not linked to user accounts.
External Requests:
This plugin does not send data to external third-party services. All collected data is stored locally in your WordPress database.
Cookies:
This plugin does not use cookies. Session IDs are stored in the browser’s sessionStorage.
Data Retention:
Collected data is automatically purged based on your configured retention settings (maximum records and retention days).

MUDRAVA RUM

Real User Monitoring (RUM) plugin for WordPress that tracks TTFB, LCP, server generation time, and other performance metrics from real visitors.

Vital Video Block vs MUDRAVA RUM