It’s lines 396 – 398 in the smart youtube plugin’s smartyoutube.class.php
file:
function check($the_content, $side = 0)
{
if (strpos($the_content, "httpv") !== false )
{
$char_codes = array('×', '–'); // <-- 8211 is an en dash
$replacements = array("x", "--"); // <-- here's where it's swapping in --
$the_content = str_replace($char_codes, $replacements, $the_content); // <--