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The php declaration is to force your server to use php version 5.3, 3Plains. It's often put in place when a site's applications require a more recent version of php than is the default on the server. @Aleya - his htaccess had the php declaration in the middle of some of his conditionals, which I suspect was the issue. Had him move the php declaration to the top of the file before turning rewrite engine on. Seems to have resolved the issue. (Note, the php declaration can also be placed as last line in the file. I just find it better at the top so it reminds it's there in case I have a php version issue after a future server upgrade) Pleased we got ya working Paul

Thanks Phil. I almost gave up on this question! Via another article of yours, I've been able to (I believe) correctly upload a video Sitemap through Wistia. Hopefully this will add another signal to Google to rank the video. Who knows...I'll let you know if I see anything cool.