JQuery thumbnail src rotator on hover (multiple images)

Question

Situation: We've got this DIV with thumbnails who need their src being changed on hover:

<div id="moreVideos">
<span class="mb">
    <a href="#" onclick="javascript:loadAndPlayVideo('qrO4YZeyl0I');return false;" class="ml">
        <img src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qrO4YZeyl0I/default.jpg" id="thumb_qrO4YZeyl0I" class="mvThumb" title="Lady Gaga - Bad Romance">
    </a
</span>
<span class="mb">
    <a class="ml" onclick="javascript:loadAndPlayVideo('niqrrmev4mA');return false;" href="#">
        <img title="Lady Gaga - Alejandro" class="mvThumb" id="thumb_niqrrmev4mA" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/niqrrmev4mA/default.jpg"&gt;
    </a>
</span>
<span class="mb">
    <a href="#" onclick="javascript:loadAndPlayVideo('qrO4YZeyl0I');return false;" class="ml">
        <img src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qrO4YZeyl0I/default.jpg" id="thumb_qrO4YZeyl0I" class="mvThumb" title="Lady Gaga - Bad Romance">
    </a
</span>
<span class="mb">
    <a class="ml" onclick="javascript:loadAndPlayVideo('niqrrmev4mA');return false;" href="#">
        <img title="Lady Gaga - Alejandro" class="mvThumb" id="thumb_niqrrmev4mA" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/niqrrmev4mA/default.jpg"&gt;
    </a>
</span>

Problem: On thumbnail hover we need to change the thumbnail src every 2 seconds from default.jpg -> 1.jpg -> 2.jpg -> 3.jpg -> default.jpg (loop through them while the mouse is hovering the thumb, after mouse out it need to stop and stay on the current image)

What I've tried: Plenty of sample codes from other websites and the JQuery cycle plugin. Trying to use this solution failed: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2039750/jquery-continuous-animation-on-mouseover/2039769#2039769

Will be used on: http://ListAndPlay.com

I'm very curious in how you would solve a problem like this :)!

Answer 1

Try this (demo)... I also extracted out the inline call to loadAndPlayVideo:

$(document).ready(function(){

 $('a.ml').click(function(){
  loadAndPlayVideo( $(this).find('img').attr('id').replace(/thumb_/,'') );
  return false;
 });

 var timer,
  count = 0,
  cycle = function(el){
    var s = el.attr('src'),
     root = s.substring( 0, s.lastIndexOf('/') + 1 );
    count = (count+1)%4;
    el.attr('src', root + ((count===0) ? 'default' : count) + '.jpg');
 };

 $('.mb img').hover(function(){
   var $this = $(this);
   cycle($this);
   timer = setInterval(function(){ cycle($this); }, 1000);
 }, function(){
   clearInterval(timer);
 });

});

HTML

<!-- changed the "moreVideos" id to class, assuming you'll have more than one block -->
<div class="moreVideos"> 
<span class="mb">
    <a class="ml" href="#">
        <img src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qrO4YZeyl0I/default.jpg" id="thumb_qrO4YZeyl0I" class="mvThumb" title="Lady Gaga - Bad Romance">
    </a
</span>
<span class="mb">
    <a class="ml" href="#">
        <img title="Lady Gaga - Alejandro" class="mvThumb" id="thumb_niqrrmev4mA" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/niqrrmev4mA/default.jpg"&gt;
    </a>
</span>
<span class="mb">
    <a class="ml" href="#">
        <img src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qrO4YZeyl0I/default.jpg" id="thumb_qrO4YZeyl0I" class="mvThumb" title="Lady Gaga - Bad Romance">
    </a
</span>
<span class="mb">
    <a class="ml" href="#">
        <img title="Lady Gaga - Alejandro" class="mvThumb" id="thumb_niqrrmev4mA" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/niqrrmev4mA/default.jpg"&gt;
    </a>
</span>