Firefox v38 - makes YouTube totally unusable

By T3X4S
in Web Browser Discussion & Support

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Grand Master

T3X4S

Posted
Posted

Since v38 has forced HTML5, I can not watch a single video now.  I have had this problem for a while and cant find the culprit.

Only way I can watch a vid is via Flash.  Furthermore, if someone were to embed a video from Youtube into a webpage in neowin, I would not be able to watch the vid, I would have to go to YouTube to watch that video... via the default flash player... but now, that isnt an option.

When I click on a video, I get the white-ish grey circles rotating, but it never stops, and the video never starts.  If I hover over the placemarker to advance somewhere in the video, I see the little thumbnail over the placemarker, but when I click Start - nothing happens.

I have disabled addons to see if that was causing it - no change.

 

I have switched to Chrome now, but would rather FF work correctly.

Anyone have any ideas ?

Thanks 

post-508501-0-49378400-1430905181.jpg

Grand Master

T3X4S

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I guess that's what happens when you want to run beta software! ;)

 

Expect issues and bugs.

It was the same with 36, and 37.

If you read my original post, you will see I mentioned it has been an issue for a while, but before I was able to select the default flash player.

 

Yep, it's YouTube's way of saying "What is wrong with you? Why are you watching Ariana Grande stuff?"  :laugh:

I was wondering if someone was going to comment on that - it was on my main page - I like the Jimmy Fallon stuff ;)

Grand Master

T3X4S

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Have you tried an add-on like the one below to force videos to play with Flash Player?

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-flash-video-player/

Yes I did - unfortunately no difference.

Here is a weird update....

I clicked on a video and instead of seeing the circles rotate then do nothing - I just sat there, and after about 10 seconds, the video started to play, then stops after 1-2 seconds with an error.

I click on the "about this error" and it says there is no information about the error.  I went to YouTube's TestTube site, and tried the new player - no difference.

I will try the tips mentioned here

Thank You

 

FWIW - I also loaded the new player (I think its supposed to be tweaked for 4K @ 60 fps, and HD stuff - it performed perfectly on chrome - I like the new look of it too, even if it is subtle.

Test Tube

Grand Master

Jason S. Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

OP - just throwing my 2c out there. I have the latest official build, v37, and have zero issues with Youtube. I even tried that Test Tube stuff you linked us to. It works great.

 

What i could try is v38 in a VM... i just think your computer might have another underlying issue that isnt related to FF directly.

  • T3X4S and robertwnielsen
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Proficient

purrcher

Posted
Posted

It sounds like the "mediasource:" script is being blocked on your system. Do you have a script blocker like noscripts installed? If so you need to allow "mediasource:" and then on youtube I think it will be "googlevideo.com" will show up and that will also need to be allowed to run html5 video's on youtube.

Rookie

PanzerFury

Posted
Posted

I don't think that newest versions of Firefox have MSE enabled by default, even on Windows.

 

You can check if your browser supports MSE extensions here https://www.youtube.com/html5

 

Anyway, to manually enable this feature, you have to go to address:  about:config

 

find the key: media.mediasource.enabled

 

and set it from false to true.

 

That should fix your problems.

Grand Master

T3X4S

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It sounds like the "mediasource:" script is being blocked on your system. Do you have a script blocker like noscripts installed? If so you need to allow "mediasource:" and then on youtube I think it will be "googlevideo.com" will show up and that will also need to be allowed to run html5 video's on youtube.

I use ublock, and disabled it and no difference

 

 

OP - just throwing my 2c out there. I have the latest official build, v37, and have zero issues with Youtube. I even tried that Test Tube stuff you linked us to. It works great.

 

What i could try is v38 in a VM... i just think your computer might have another underlying issue that isnt related to FF directly.

I appreciate it -

 

I don't think that newest versions of Firefox have MSE enabled by default, even on Windows.

 

You can check if your browser supports MSE extensions here https://www.youtube.com/html5

 

Anyway, to manually enable this feature, you have to go to address:  about:config

 

find the key: media.mediasource.enabled

 

and set it from false to true.

 

That should fix your problems.

v37 & 38 are completely compt with MSE and I already hate that tweaked in about:config

Thank you though

 

Just tried v38b on a Windows 10 VM. No issues w/ the standard player or the 'new' player.

Thanks Jason - I appreciate you going through all that just to help me.

UPDATE:

OK, this is just weird - now it works!

I havent been able to get it to work for a week or 2, now - suddenly it works through the new player

However, I want to use my addon that automatically selects the highest res the video supports - and it isnt working.

But that is easy to fix with a different addon - the main thing is now I can continue to use FF

This is one of those times where you are totally confused as to why something stopped working, then started working again, but you dont care because it is working....  :D

 

Grand Master

Pupik

Posted
Posted

^ What addon was that? I use YouTube Center (the developer version) to always select the highest quality: https://github.com/YePpHa/YouTubeCenter/wiki/Developer-Version

 

Have no issues on Firefox 38 the latest beta (9 I think). Not with the new player or the old one (all html5, for the 60fps support).

Grand Master

T3X4S

Posted
  • Author
Posted

^ What addon was that? I use YouTube Center (the developer version) to always select the highest quality: https://github.com/YePpHa/YouTubeCenter/wiki/Developer-Version

 

Have no issues on Firefox 38 the latest beta (9 I think). Not with the new player or the old one (all html5, for the 60fps support).

I'll try yours - thanks

This one sucks:

post-508501-0-44253400-1430990789.jpg

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