What is the best practice to style archive page 2,3,etc differently than archive.php?

Question

I have a custom post-type 'videos' and on the first page I have the first video styled differently than the next videos on the page. Basically I show the first video in a large format, while the rest of the videos on the page are small.

Question:

On page 2, 3, etc of the video post-type, I do not want to have a large video on the top of the page, but rather follow my standard styling.

What would be the best way to do this?

Currently I am using rewrite rules to allow me a second template page for my 'paged' for the post-type. I would rather not use this approach anymore as it is more to maintain.

If I used a check like if_paged.. then I find that I have to replicate a ton of code on my template. Hoping there is a simple way to identify the first post in the loop, style that, and then continue... open to any ideas

thanks

Answer 1

In response to your comment, $wp_query->current_post in action. Note that it's zero-indexed:

<?php

if (have_posts()) :
while (have_posts()) : the_post();

    if($wp_query->current_post==0):
        echo "this is the first post";
    else:
        echo "this is post number " . ($wp_query->current_post + 1);
    endif;

endwhile;
endif;

?>

Answer 2

i don't think there is anything easier than to use the is_paged() together with a counter;

before the loop: <?php $counter = 1; ?>

in the loop:

<?php if( $counter == 1  && !is_paged() ) : 
$counter++; ?>
/*code for the first post with large video*/
<?php else : ?>
/*code for all other posts*/
<?php endif; ?> 

the amount of duplicated code obviously depends on the existing structure of the loop.