I was correct that I should have been calling the embed URL. To do this, I had to extract the video id and plug it into the embed URL for each entry. If anyone is seeking to do something similar, here is the working code (the above link will no longer work - it was for testing only):
<?php
//Credits: Mixed some code from Vikram Vaswani (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-youtubeapi/), Matt (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7221485/get-youtube-video-id-from-url-w-php), & Tim (http://groups.google.com/group/youtube-api-gdata/browse_thread/thread/fc1efc399f9cc4c/d1a48cf5d4389cf8?lnk=gst&q=colorbox#d1a48cf5d4389cf8), and then messed around with it to fit my needs.
function getYoutubeId($ytURL)
{
$urlData = parse_url($ytURL);
//echo '<br>'.$urlData["host"].'<br>';
if($urlData["host"] == 'www.youtube.com') // Check for valid youtube url
{
$query_str = parse_url($ytURL , PHP_URL_QUERY);
parse_str($query_str, $args);
$ytvID = $args['v'];
return $ytvID;
}
else
{
//echo 'This is not a valid youtube video url. Please, give a valid url...';
return 0;
}
}
// set feed URL
$feedURL = 'your feed url here';
// read feed into SimpleXML object
$sxml = simplexml_load_file($feedURL);
?>
<h1 class="page-title">Video Gallery</h1>
<?php
// iterate over entries in feed
foreach ($sxml->entry as $entry) {
// get nodes in media: namespace for media information
$media = $entry->children('http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/');
// get video player URL
$attrs = $media->group->player->attributes();
$watch = $attrs['url'];
// get video thumbnail
$attrs = $media->group->thumbnail[0]->attributes();
$thumbnail = $attrs['url'];
//get video id
$videoid = $yt->videoid[0];
// get <yt:duration> node for video length
$yt = $media->children('http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007');
$attrs = $yt->duration->attributes();
$length = $attrs['seconds'];
// get <yt:stats> node for viewer statistics
$yt = $entry->children('http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007');
$attrs = $yt->statistics->attributes();
$viewCount = $attrs['viewCount'];
// get <gd:rating> node for video ratings
$gd = $entry->children('http://schemas.google.com/g/2005');
if ($gd->rating) {
$attrs = $gd->rating->attributes();
$rating = $attrs['average'];
} else {
$rating = 0;
}
$videoId = getYoutubeId($watch);
?>
<div class="item">
<h1 class="video-title">
<a class="youtube" href="http://www.youtube.com/embed/<?php echo $videoId ?>?rel=0&wmode=transparent"><?php echo $media->group->title; ?></a>
</h1>
<p>
<span class="video-thumbnail">
<a class="youtube" href="http://www.youtube.com/embed/<?php echo $videoId ?>?rel=0&wmode=transparent" title="<?php echo $media->group->title; ?>"><img src="<?php echo $thumbnail;?>" /></a>
<br/>click to view
</span>
</p>
</div>
<?php
}
?>