If an exercise studio wants YouTube videos to play sequentially, automatically. Can a bunch be loaded on a thumb drive and play one after the other, or will a magic black box be required?

Maybe

Tom, I've used a nantronix (I think that was the name) box that was pretty cool for this. I think it cost appx $110.

I can look it up and get you the model #, if interested. Works great. HDMI out. Menu gui is decent too.

Downloaded or streaming online?


Ah, so downloaded then. In which case, the origin of the video is immaterial. But what exactly is the thumb drive going to be plugged into that could conceivably play its contents if there ISN'T a black box? Some smart TVs have media players that can do this, although I would be cautious about saying they all have an infinite loop playback option.

Otherwise, you'd really be best going for a dedicated media player OR a digital signage device, especially if this is going to be in a commercial environment.

And is this really only going to happen on ONE screen? Not a series of screens?

Exactly why my answer was what it was.

In case you cannot tell, I have zero experience with this. I just know that I have seen televisions to slideshows of photos on a thumb drive, so wondered if they would sequentially play video clips.

Can you even download YouTube videos?

It sounds like the more bulletproof method would be an outboard box. John, your recommendation would be appreciated, as well as any others.

Google "Convert YouTube video to MP4"
Save on your thumb drive.

That will give you something to work with.
Most consumer tvs can play a MP4 file

Tom,

The product I used (DataTronix) DT-HDMP-2 worked very well. Small box, usb and SD card slot (I used the SD card slot as it didn't stick out like a USB drive would).

Came with an IR remote. Intuitive well laid out menu. Lots of options (resolution, repeat mode, behavior on power up, etc). HDMI out, supports several file types of and outputs standard 720 or 1080 over hdmi, Not expensive either.

Of course you will need to separately, configure the video and load onto the SD card. I had a friend download a bunch of YouTube videos, edit them into one large video file (either MP4 or AVI, can't remember) and load it onto the SD card. Done.

Customer wanted this video file to play/repeat over an over, as long as the DataTronix and TV were on - and start playing the video upon power up...which it has done faithfully for a year now.

I settled on this piece after quite a bit of research. The Digital Signage units I reviewed were over kill for my application and more difficult to set up.

The friend that helped me with the video creation, was so impressed with the unit he decided to start using them on a local museum that he freelances for.

rixhifi touched on this, but once you have the hardware sorted out, YouTube doesn't provide any way to download videos.

There are some 3rd party utilities like ClipGrab that will allow you to do this, but not sure how legal it is.

There are some standalone programs (4k Video Downloader), websites, and browser plug-ins that can easily download YouTube videos.

But I agree that there are potential legal ramifications depending on what's going to be shown, especially in a commercial/public exhibition setting. Just because you find it on YouTube doesn't mean a business can use it however they want. Make sure you're legally covered against any blowback.