Arch Linux

CelticSpice

Member

Registered: 2015-09-11

Posts: 20

Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

Hello,

I have Firefox 42 installed along with freshplayerplugin and chromium-pepper-flash. I've noticed in the past couple of days that Firefox and YouTube has not been defaulting to HTML5 playback like it has been.  I have the optional gst packages installed. If I disable the Flash plugin, HTML5 will play normally on YouTube - I've never had to do this before.

Steps I have taken include tinkering with the about:config options and reinstalling Firefox; alas, to no avail. Any ideas?

[SOLVED]

After an update to Firefox 43, YouTube is now properly defaulting to HTML5. I suspect that GStreamer was somehow the cause, since Firefox has moved to FFMPEG for h.264.

Last edited by CelticSpice (2015-12-16 04:21:46)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,076

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

Obvious question, did you go to youtube.com/html5 and set that preference accordingly?

ugjka

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-04-01

Posts: 1,952

Website

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

Maybe Youtube has reverted back to flash silently

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https://ugjka.net

MoSal

Member

Registered: 2015-09-23

Posts: 32

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

1- Look for 'mediasource', 'mp4', and 'webm' in about:config.

2- With copyrighted content, YouTube might choose to use flash to show ADs.

I personally always use youtube-dl and mpv for downloading and playback.

CelticSpice

Member

Registered: 2015-09-11

Posts: 20

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

Obvious question, did you go to youtube.com/html5 and set that preference accordingly?

That I have done,  and it does prompt HTML playback; however, I should not have to set that preference, because YouTube ought to default to HTML5 automagically, shouldn't it? It did in the past anyway.

The issue again stated, YouTube is for some reason wanting to default to Flash rather than HTML5. I can verify that HTML5 playback works.

Last edited by CelticSpice (2015-11-28 15:11:13)

CelticSpice

Member

Registered: 2015-09-11

Posts: 20

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

1- Look for 'mediasource', 'mp4', and 'webm' in about:config.

2- With copyrighted content, YouTube might choose to use flash to show ADs.

I personally always use youtube-dl and mpv for downloading and playback.

As said in the OP, I tried tinkering with the about:config options to no avail. Those specific options effected little more than YouTube's HTML5 page telling me I'm ready to go with HTML5 playback.

The Loko

Member

From: Spain

Registered: 2014-07-23

Posts: 103

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

I think youtube doesn't use HTML5 as default on Firefox for Linux yet, only Windows.

severach

Member

Registered: 2015-05-23

Posts: 198

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

HTML5 looks supported to me. At Youtube HTML5 Settings I see

Windows Firefox
What does this browser support?
[x] HTMLVideoElement
[x] H.264
[x] WebM VP8

[x] Media Source Extensions
[x] MSE & H.264
[!] MSE & WebM VP9

[x] The HTML5 player is currently used when possible.

Windows Chrome
What does this browser support?
[x] HTMLVideoElement
[x] H.264
[x] WebM VP8

[x] Media Source Extensions
[x] MSE & H.264
[x] MSE & WebM VP9

[x] The HTML5 player is currently used when possible.

Linux Firefox
What does this browser support?
[x] HTMLVideoElement
[!] H.264
[x] WebM VP8

[!] Media Source Extensions
[!] MSE & H.264
[!] MSE & WebM VP9

[x] The HTML5 player is currently used when possible.

Linux Chrome
What does this browser support?
[x] HTMLVideoElement
[x] H.264
[x] WebM VP8

[x] Media Source Extensions
[x] MSE & H.264
[x] MSE & WebM VP9

[x] The HTML5 player is currently used when possible.

CelticSpice

Member

Registered: 2015-09-11

Posts: 20

Re: Firefox 42 - No Default to HTML5 [SOLVED]

This issue has still not been solved. The same thing is happening on my laptop that has pretty much the same configs as my desktop has, so the problem is either strictly on my end or with Firefox. I'm curious to hear if anyone else is experiencing this same issue.