A video embedded in the middle of a page competes with everything around it, and loads whether or not anyone watches.
A popup shows a still image or a play icon, and opens the video over the page only when someone asks for it.
For every Video setting in one place, see the Video block guide.
Before You Start
- Edition: Free — the Video block is in the free Nexter Blocks plugin.
- Block to enable: Video, switched on under Nexter > Blocks in your WordPress dashboard.
- A thumbnail image if you want the banner style rather than a bare play icon.
Steps
- Add the Video block to your page and click Design from Scratch.
- Set Source to YouTube.
- Open the Banner / Icon panel and switch Custom Layout on.
- Choose your banner image, and add a Video Title and Video Description if you want them over it.
- Switch Play on Popup on.
- Publish and click the thumbnail.
Play on Popup only works with the Banner / Icon panel. On its own it does nothing — measured: the page rendered the ordinary inline player and no popup link at all.
How It Behaves
- The popup is real. Measured: with Custom Layout and Play on Popup both on, the thumbnail became a link carrying the embed URL, and clicking it opened a lightbox over the page.
- It works for all three sources. A self-hosted file produced a link straight to the MP4 with
type="video/mp4". - Nothing loads until the click. With the banner showing, there is no player on the page — which is the speed and privacy benefit of doing it this way.
- The Layout setting also offers an icon-only style, which gives a bare play button with no thumbnail and opens the same popup.
Limitations
- Play on Popup does nothing on its own. Without Custom Layout, or the icon-only layout, the page just renders the ordinary inline player — measured.
- The thumbnail is your own image, so it does not update if the video’s own thumbnail changes.
- A popup is awkward on very small screens, where the video ends up nearly full width anyway.
- One video per block. For a row of videos, use several blocks or a carousel.
Troubleshooting
Clicking does nothing and the video is just embedded in the page
Custom Layout is off. Play on Popup needs it, or set the Layout to the icon-only option.
The thumbnail does not show
No banner image is selected. Choose one in the Banner / Icon panel.
I want just a play button, not a picture
Set Layout to the icon-only option.
