Improve video thumbnail images

[jonoaldersonwp]

Video thumbnail images (those in 'grids layouts') on pages like ​https://wordpress.tv/, ​https://wordpress.tv/category/year/2017/ and ​https://wordpress.tv/tag/translation/page/2/ (excluding the video/thumbnail in the hero 'player' element when present) should be loaded more efficiently.

Specifically:

• The thumbnail should be generated/requested at an appropriate size (160x100)*
• A loading="lazy" property should be added.
• Explicit height and width properties should be added.
• If available, an srcset property should reference a x2 size option (at 320x200).

*E.g., ​https://videos.files.wordpress.com/bjn9Fo1g/video-33873a5e9c_mp4.scrubthumb.jpg, which is currently on the homepage, is loaded at 1920x1080, but squashed into a 160x100 space

[darshitrajyaguru97]

Issue Confirmation

I tested the video grid thumbnails on WordPress.tv and can confirm the issue.

Observations

• Thumbnail images are currently loaded at full resolution (e.g., 1920x1080).
• These are visually rendered at approximately 160x100, resulting in unnecessary bandwidth usage.
• No loading="lazy" attribute is present.
• width and height attributes are missing.
• No srcset is defined for higher resolution displays.

Suggested Improvements

• Serve appropriately sized thumbnails (160x100).
• Add loading="lazy" for better performance.
• Include explicit width and height attributes to improve layout stability.
• Provide a srcset with a 2x variant (e.g., 320x200) for high-density screens.

Impact

This would significantly improve page load performance, reduce data usage, and enhance Core Web Vitals.

Additional Notes

• It may be worth exploring whether thumbnail URLs from videos.files.wordpress.com support dynamic resizing via query parameters or predefined size variants.

• If not already available, introducing a standardized thumbnail size generation process could help ensure consistent and optimized delivery.

Happy to help test any patches or proposed implementations.