I starting to feel more and more like a fool regarding this "hidden" message. I should have thought of the possibility of a middleman tampering with the video. Very easily done with digital media, especially media that is distributed over the Internet.
I'm waiting to hear what happened from the 'finders'.
"I should have thought of the possibility of a middleman tampering with the video. "
Assuming the code is in fact there in some form then consider this. How do we know that the code was not added in said mannor by those who made and released the video? Is it possible to add a code to the video image that would not be the same quality as the original video. Not being an expert in that field...I would not know.