Poor YouTube Performance in Firefox

[B16CXHatch]

Hi. Just discovered Linus Tech Tips recently and have been enjoying the crap out of the videos. And that's sorta what led me to make this post. They made me notice performance issues on both of my PCs on YouTube with Firefox.

 

Basically, I have two little bit different problems on each one, with the similarity being that Chrome has no problems on either computer. So, my desktop is the worse of the two. Videos are playing slightly slower than they should. After a few minutes, the video falls behind the audio. If I pick a different spot on the video, the audio resyncs but doesn't resync if I just pause or use the arrows on the keyboard to back up. It just started a few days ago, or at least that's when I noticed. After I started noticing it, I immediately fired up the laptop to check. That problem doesn't seem to exist on it. The videos stay synced up just fine. However, they don't appear to be all that smooth. This is especially evident with 60FPS videos. On 30FPS videos, it's not bad, just mildly annoying on some videos (some videos it's either not noticeable or just not happening).

 

The thing is, on either computer, Chrome plays the videos fine. 720p or 1080p, 30 or 60FPS. It's perfectly smooth and synced up. I'm gonna guess it has something to do with FF's HTML5 performance because, I don't remember the videos being choppy when YouTube was still using Flash with FF. Is there any known way to improve FF's HTML5 playback on Youtube? At the very least I'd like the desktop to stay synced because that seems more like a genuine problem. I prefer Firefox and it's annoying to have to keep switching to Chrome just to watch videos.

 

Basic System specs

 

Desktop:

Core i5 2500K

8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

GeForce GTX 770 2GB GDDR5

Samsung 840 Evo 250GB SSD

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Display Resolution: 1920x1200

 

Laptop:

Core i7 4710HQ

8GB DDR3L 1600 RAM

Intel HD4600

GeForce GTX 850M 2GB DDR3 (inactive outside games/benchmarks)

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB SSD

Windows 8.1 64-bit

Display Resolution: 1920x1080

 

Thanks for any insight!

[JebKerman]

I think there's an issue for Firefox.

 

I remember a Youtuber i'm subscribed to mentioned this and actually stopped uploading at 60FPS so people on Firefox, or basically anything other than chrome, could watch his videos at a higher quality.

 

Though it seems as though, according to various people, Firefox 36 has added support, so make sure your browser's up to date first. Reading further there's may be a function called MSE that might need to be enabled.

[B16CXHatch]

I've got the latest version of FF on both. So that's not the issue. MSE, is as enabled as it gets in FF (from what I read, it's not completely implemented in it yet). The videos are playing on the laptop at above 30FPS in 60FPS videos but not at 60FPS. One strange anomaly I noticed is that Chrome, the video seems to have to be fullscreened to play at 60FPS but FF doesn't have to have the video fullscreened. Even weirder, it seems like it might be playing better when not fullscreened which is the exact opposite of how it was when Youtube still used Flash on FF.

[colonel_mortis]

I use Firefox Developer Edition (so an alpha build of Firefox) and aside from 4K video, YouTube has been working really smoothly for me recently (I've had MSE turned on for a while). If you want to try and make it work, you could try going to the beta build of Firefox, at least for the next release cycle.

[B16CXHatch]

Yeah, I started thinking about using a beta build to see if that makes a difference. On my desktop, I think I'm just gonna use Chrome for YouTube time. I decided to open a 60FPS video on it and windowed, it was somewhat OK but full screen was a hideous nightmare. Framerates well bellow 30, possibly in the teens. Kinda hard to tell without a framerate counter. I also decided to install an add-on to force Flash instead of HTML5 on YouTube. When it doesn't bug out, it plays fine but getting it to play is the hard part.

 

Also, I may not have to worry long on the desktop. A nice motherboard popped up in the Newegg newsletter so I just ordered it. Gonna get ready for a new build. This one's served me well enough for three years.

[B16CXHatch]

OK, changed nothing, and it started working right. There wasn't even an update (that I was aware of at least). Was just watching something and left full screen to look something up. I realized I was watching the video in Firefox (with HTML5, got rid of the addon, too buggy) and noticed that the audio was still synced up fine 15 minutes in. Opened a 60FPS video real fast and it played back fine. What is going on?

 

I swear every time this computer acts up and I threaten to build a  new one, it starts acting right. I guess the new MSI Z97 board sitting in front of it scared it good. Too bad it's too late now. Processor's getting ordered next week.

[B16CXHatch]

Figured I'd bring this back from the dead. After my last post, the problem came back, like instantly. I kinda gave up. Now, though, a new computer has replaced it. Well, halfway. A new ASUS Z97A/USB 3.1 motherboard, Core i7 4790K, NH-U14S cooler, Obsidian 750D case, and a copy of Windows 8.1 later and VIDEOS ARE STILL DESYNCING!!! Only on the desktop. The laptop is frickin fine.

 

I have pinpointed the problem though. It seems to be related to my sound card that I failed to mention in my earlier posts. I use an old Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional because I like the EQ, Crystalizer. and other settings for video and music. I thought, well, the only things that can possibly be my issue when comparing to the laptop and taking into account reused parts, it has to be either the video card or sound card. Nothing related to the video card I tried worked (video wise that is). However, switching over to my TV and using the nVidia HD Audio over HDMI to my receiver, the videos stay perfectly synced. I also tested running the audio through HDMI to the receiver while still using my higher res monitor and then also tested using the sound card while watching on the lower res TV. Doesn't matter, it's the sound card. If it's being used, the audio and video desync regardless of the display, but only in FireFox with HTML5 videos. NOTHING ELSE has this problem. Game audio is fine. Chrome HTML5 videos are fine. Videos played in Zoom, VLC, MPC, etc are all fine. It's so weird.

 

It could be something related to the newer driver from Creative though it was released in March of last year. I'm not entirely sure when I installed that driver on the old computer. It could just be some random update to FireFox. Who knows? All I know is, if I want this to work right, I need to quit using the sound card/get a newer one or just live with the mild inconvenience of having to switch to Chrome for video. Since I've actually had a newer Sound Blaster Zx and the software sucked hard (not anywhere near as much tone control), I'm just gonna deal with using Chrome. 60FPS videos play slightly smoother on it anyway.

 

So, there's my little saga with this annoyance. If there is anyone else on the planet still using one of these ancient sound cards and using FireFox, they now have an answer to their problem..... if they even noticed. Computers are fun.