Firefox + Youtube HTML5

[xBlizzDevious]

I'm having a problem with Firefox. I watch a lot of Youtube and I want that experience to be as good as possible.

 

So, I want to have 60fps available on Firefox without any issues. Apparently, that's now a thing (and I've not known for ages) as long as you use the HTML5 player. Well... I've tried using HTML5 ever since it first was enabled. Every time I try it on this computer even after many different OS reinstalls, driver reinstalls, Firefox versions and even flavours (Waterfox, Nightly, etc) I cannot get HTML5 to work.

 

Now, if I go to a Youtube video with HTML5 enabled, it WILL work perfectly - so you might be confused by what I just said. Well, it will work perfectly for some time. If I remember correctly, when I first used HTML5, any video that played for 9 minutes and 47 seconds would suddenly go to a black screen. Now over the past couple of years, reinstalls and so on, that number has changed. But I've just enabled HTML5 again to allow 60FPS on Firefox and the first video I watch (which isn't 60FPS) suddenly goes to a black screen at 4 minutes 21 seconds. So it's still an issue, but this time it's happening twice as quickly. What's more bizarre, is that it's just the video itself. The player and the rest of the page are all still fine, as is the audio.

 

Does anyone have ANY idea what's causing this, and if there is a fix for it?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

 

TL;DR: Firefox black screen after some time on HTML5 Youtube video.

 

PS: I'm getting so pissed off with Firefox instabilities and having to find workarounds for things that I'm tempted to move to Chrome. But Chrome doesn't do things that Firefox does (and vice versa, I'm sure) and I really don't like the way Chrome works (which Firefox has recently copied almost exactly). Apart from that, I hate Google. They're the lesser of many evils and the only company to provide certain services, but that doesn't mean I like them AT ALL.

 

 

Other info that may be useful:

Specs:

i7 3930K

MSI Big Bang Xpower II

32GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz RAM

3 x XFX R7970 in Crossfire

Video config:

AMD CCC 14.12 Omega
I'm also using Eyefinity at 3240x1920 (3x1080P portrait) with an "auxiliary" 1080P monitor.

 

The driver version shouldn't matter as I've had the issue over many OS reinstalls including different driver versions over the past few years and not once did it work.

[Samfisher]

Haven't had any issues with HTML5 video on FF on YT AFAIK.

[xBlizzDevious]

Haven't had any issues with HTML5 video on FF on YT AFAIK.

 

What is your hardware, what driver version are you using and have you got any add-ons running?

 

I'd like to compare a few systems where things do and don't work to see if I can figure out why, if no one has an answer. Google shows up a few people having similar issues, but not quite the same but no where has a fix as far as I can see.

[GoodBytes]

I just used Flash player with YouTube. The main reason is that Google implement things in a way that only works with Chrome. Not even IE11 is supported. As Google is forced, so far, to support Flash, their tricks don't work to try and convince people to switch to Chrome, beside not giving support to 60fps videos, but meh, it's not the end of the world.

Google also cut funding of Firefox, in the hope that they die, for Chrome to gain further market share. Google wants that, because they want your data. It tracks you and associates you to Google services to build up a profile for targeted advertising, storing and selling of information, even if you use private browsing. If anything, it probably tags your private browsing with what it logs to know more about you.

Personally, I can't wait for Spartan. I don't expect it to be as fast as Chrome, but if it is around Firefox speed, I am happy. Spartan has better HTML5 support, and web standards, it has super smooth scrolling, proper and full high-DPI support, proper zooming, multi-touch support, will support add-ons, light (although it does open each tab as a new process like Chrome, so we have to see) and has cool features.

Sadly, since a couple of years, Mozilla has been too focused on other projects like Firefox OS, and Firefox is just completely forgotten, with only minor updates and security fixes sprinkled everywhere, and act like they have released this MAJOR version of the web browser, deserving a major version number increase, even though in my book, it is really Firefox 4.0.37, and that is being generous.

[xBlizzDevious]

I just used Flash player with YouTube. The main reason is that Google implement things in a way that only works with Chrome. Not even IE11 is supported. As Google is forced, so far, to support Flash, their tricks don't work to try and convince people to switch to Chrome, beside not giving support to 60fps videos, but meh, it's not the end of the world.

Google also cut funding of Firefox, in the hope that they die, for Chrome to gain further market share. Google wants that, because they want your data. It tracks you and associates you to Google services to build up a profile for targeted advertising, storing and selling of information, even if you use private browsing. If anything, it probably tags your private browsing with what it logs to know more about you.

Personally, I can't wait for Spartan. I don't expect it to be as fast as Chrome, but if it is around Firefox speed, I am happy. Spartan has better HTML5 support, and web standards, it has super smooth scrolling, proper and full high-DPI support, proper zooming, multi-touch support, will support add-ons, light (although it does open each tab as a new process like Chrome, so we have to see) and has cool features.

Sadly, since a couple of years, Mozilla has been too focused on other projects like Firefox OS, and Firefox is just completely forgotten, with only minor updates and security fixes sprinkled everywhere, and act like they have released this MAJOR version of the web browser, deserving a major version number increase, even though in my book, it is really Firefox 4.0.37, and that is being generous.

 

Someone who sees Google the same as me. Nice to see that I'm not the only one.

 

I agree with you on Firefox too. It used to be great. But it's progressively gotten worse as Chrome has gotten better. My issue with using Spartan is the whole logging in to Microsoft thing. I don't like that and just see Microsoft as Google at that point. But then half of the OS doesn't work if you don't log in with a Live account. I just want the internet to go back to how it should be; how it used to be - just with the speed it is nowadays.

 

No idea on fixes then? And I assume you do have the same issue when using HTML5, judging by the "I just use Flash Player with Youtube"?

[Blebekblebek]

Uhm... all major browser do the same thing, mainly for ads.

 

anyway, yeah I agree I can't even view on 1080 on most video, I have to switch to chrome based browser (opera) to see the option.

[xBlizzDevious]

Uhm... all major browser do the same thing, mainly for ads.

 

anyway, yeah I agree I can't even view on 1080 on most video, I have to switch to chrome based browser (opera) to see the option.

 

Yeah, I know, but Google are much, MUCH more ubiquitous than Firefox. My phone is run by Google along with god knows how many other things. Firefox is simply my browser.

 

Apart from that, I use adblock as the internet is a mess of (excuse the language) horse shit without it.

 

I can only hope that Google don't take over.

 

Apart from that, does anyone have a fix for HTML5 video on Firefox?

[GoodBytes]

Someone who sees Google the same as me. Nice to see that I'm not the only one.

 

I agree with you on Firefox too. It used to be great. But it's progressively gotten worse as Chrome has gotten better. My issue with using Spartan is the whole logging in to Microsoft thing. I don't like that and just see Microsoft as Google at that point. But then half of the OS doesn't work if you don't log in with a Live account. I just want the internet to go back to how it should be; how it used to be - just with the speed it is nowadays.

 

No idea on fixes then? And I assume you do have the same issue when using HTML5, judging by the "I just use Flash Player with Youtube"?

I don't have the same issue exactly, but it I didn't try it recently, but I only play videos in 1080p 30fps in any case, so I use Flash. In Canada, I have a monthly limit on downloads, so I don't jump on anything higher. I am just watching a YouTube video, not a a movie where I enjoy the full experience, including the visual art style.

While we will know all the details once the Windows 10 is released, Cortana should only track you when/if you use it.

My solution to Microsoft account in Win8/10, is also for security. I create an account which I ONLY use for Windows integration and services. That e-mail is not shared with anyone. POINT. It doesn't have my full name either. I have read the privacy policies of Microsoft, and so far they are far more respecting my privacy (in my opinion) than Google. Not perfect, but good. Hopefully, it will remain that way (or better).

[xBlizzDevious]

I don't have the same issue exactly, but it I didn't try it recently, but I only play videos in 1080p 30fps in any case, so I use Flash. In Canada, I have a monthly limit on downloads, so I don't jump on anything higher. I am just watching a YouTube video, not a a movie where I enjoy the full experience, including the visual art style.

While we will know all the details once the Windows 10 is released, Cortana should only track you when/if you use it.

My solution to Microsoft account in Win8/10, is also for security. I create an account which I ONLY use for Windows integration and services. That e-mail is not shared with anyone. POINT. It doesn't have my full name either. I have read the privacy policies of Microsoft, and so far they are far more respecting my privacy (in my opinion) than Google. Not perfect, but good. Hopefully, it will remain that way (or better).

 

Fair enough. That must be a pain living with a bandwidth cap. I can remember living on a 2GB cap, then a 10GB cap. Then we got unlimited and I could NEVER go back to a cap. Even a 500GB per month cap would kill me - and that's on a 5Mb connection. I've just recently moved and now I get 56Mb and it's sooo fast! Haha.

[GoodBytes]

Mine is 175GB cap, and already that is something over here.

There is unlimited option. But you have to pay more, and that fee varies if you have other services with the ISP or not (despite not being related, like TV and phone), and which current plan you have in connection speeds.

Even Netflix Canada has a special streaming option for low quality video playback. Exclusive to Canadians due to the data cap limits.

It's funny to say this. It is like YouTube coming out with "240p 5fps" as a new playback option, everyone would look at their calendar to see if it is April fools or not.

[xBlizzDevious]

Mine is 175GB cap, and already that is something over here.

There is unlimited option. But you have to pay more, and that fee varies if you have other services with the ISP or not (despite not being related, like TV and phone), and which current plan you have in connection speeds.

Even Netflix Canada has a special streaming option for low quality video playback. Exclusive to Canadians due to the data cap limits.

It's funny to say this. It is like YouTube coming out with "240p 5fps" as a new playback option, everyone would look at their calendar to see if it is April fools or not.

 

Hahahah! That's painful. I'm in the UK and I've always complained that the internet speeds here are terrible. The most you can get on standard fibre is 80Mbps IF you can get fibre at all. But unlimited has been an option ever since I can remember. Why on earth would there NOT be an option for unlimited? Is the infrastructure in Canada possibly worse than over here?

[MetaDrow]

Running HTML5 player just fine with Firefox and no problems so far. How are you enabling HTML5 video? Are you forcing it though settings or telling flash to go away?

Or are you using the toggle switch youtube has?

https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=CA

[GoodBytes]

Hahahah! That's painful. I'm in the UK and I've always complained that the internet speeds here are terrible. The most you can get on standard fibre is 80Mbps IF you can get fibre at all. But unlimited has been an option ever since I can remember. Why on earth would there NOT be an option for unlimited? Is the infrastructure in Canada possibly worse than over here?

I have 30Mpbs, but here you have 200Mbps. But while it sounds like a great deal, price isn't, and of course, as it is fiber, it depends on where you live. It is 125$ to get this nice speed for residential, but that is with TV, and phone with the ISP, so it adds all up (TV isn't cheap either), you have to add, at least in Quebec, a lovely 15% tax on all of this. Oh and did I mention that you have a data cap? At least it is better at 500GB.

You are looking at around 215$ per month with taxes and everything. But that is the most basic phone (not even caller ID), and most basic TV (about 4-5 channels worth watching, which involves mostly news stations, the rest FM Radio (yes, I kid you not), crap channels, and shipping channel, weather channel, and that is about it). Then again, you can argue that you could watch everything online, true. But at this point, you are paying TV that you don't use. Oh, I forgot. You need to pay installation fees.

So the Internet provider situation in Canada and a bit special. My offers are completely different than another province or even region, even in a big city. The reason for this is big factors:

-> Complete lack of competition. You usual have 2 big players (smaller player simply rents the big player lines, so while their prices are a bit cheaper, but you need to buy the equipment, there is a bunch of small fees on their sides to hook you up that they charge you, installation is not free, and more costly, and so on. So the savings aren't much. If they get the lines from the same big player provider that throttles connection during period of days, well.. too bad for yo,. the small ISP can't do anything. So we have the infrastructure. Where I am, both big player ISP have fiber nearly everywhere. The "last mile" (basically, to the house) isn't fiber. Installing that is way to costly. Let's not forget the complications that are involved with buildings. And due to weather conditions here, most wires are passed under ground. So cost a lot of money. I must admit, it is SUPER nice looking when you compare cities with outside wires everywhere and those who have ta big part of them underground. It is like a super clean cable management with a modular power supply compared to one that has no cable management of any kind, with a power supply that isn't modular, and have too many cables for some reason, all dangling around.

-> As everyone have larger lands then, say London, more cabling is needed to reach the same amount of people, so that add cost. So by default, infrastructure is more costly.

-> As Canada is really big, getting internet to rural areas or cities far away from big ones, you can as low at 5Mbps only. So on that regard, you are there isn't much to do until ISPs eventually, one day, upgrade the lines to fiber. and that will only and most likely only be done when fiber becomes very cheap, as it will not be worth the cost of installing them for the few subscribers that are there.

So those are the big point. Many big cities in Canada have less competition than where I am, despite also being 2 providers (usually: 1x Cable, and 1x does DSL), so their internet speed and plans simply sucks. Similar story for cellular network. The government does try a few times to promote competition, by even, in the case of cellular network, give wireless spectrum to small guys and prevent bidding from the big guys for it, but all that happens is that the big companies just buy the small ones, shut the doors and merge it all in their company. With the amount of money the big companies make, this is nothing more than a scratch at their bank account sadly.

[xBlizzDevious]

Running HTML5 player just fine with Firefox and no problems so far. How are you enabling HTML5 video? Are you forcing it though settings or telling flash to go away?

Or are you using the toggle switch youtube has?

https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=CA

 

Using the youtube.com/html5 link. It definitely works as there's no black screen problem with HTML5 turned off at that link.

 

 

I have 30Mpbs, but here you have 200Mbps. But while it sounds like a great deal, price isn't, and of course, as it is fiber, it depends on where you live. It is 125$ to get this nice speed for residential, but that is with TV, and phone with the ISP, so it adds all up (TV isn't cheap either), you have to add, at least in Quebec, a lovely 15% tax on all of this. Oh and did I mention that you have a data cap? At least it is better at 500GB.

You are looking at around 215$ per month with taxes and everything. But that is the most basic phone (not even caller ID), and most basic TV (about 4-5 channels worth watching, which involves mostly news stations, the rest FM Radio (yes, I kid you not), crap channels, and shipping channel, weather channel, and that is about it). Then again, you can argue that you could watch everything online, true. But at this point, you are paying TV that you don't use. Oh, I forgot. You need to pay installation fees.

So the Internet provider situation in Canada and a bit special. My offers are completely different than another province or even region, even in a big city. The reason for this is big factors:

-> Complete lack of competition. You usual have 2 big players (smaller player simply rents the big player lines, so while their prices are a bit cheaper, but you need to buy the equipment, there is a bunch of small fees on their sides to hook you up that they charge you, installation is not free, and more costly, and so on. So the savings aren't much. If they get the lines from the same big player provider that throttles connection during period of days, well.. too bad for yo,. the small ISP can't do anything. So we have the infrastructure. Where I am, both big player ISP have fiber nearly everywhere. The "last mile" (basically, to the house) isn't fiber. Installing that is way to costly. Let's not forget the complications that are involved with buildings. And due to weather conditions here, most wires are passed under ground. So cost a lot of money. I must admit, it is SUPER nice looking when you compare cities with outside wires everywhere and those who have ta big part of them underground. It is like a super clean cable management with a modular power supply compared to one that has no cable management of any kind, with a power supply that isn't modular, and have too many cables for some reason, all dangling around.

-> As everyone have larger lands then, say London, more cabling is needed to reach the same amount of people, so that add cost. So by default, infrastructure is more costly.

-> As Canada is really big, getting internet to rural areas or cities far away from big ones, you can as low at 5Mbps only. So on that regard, you are there isn't much to do until ISPs eventually, one day, upgrade the lines to fiber. and that will only and most likely only be done when fiber becomes very cheap, as it will not be worth the cost of installing them for the few subscribers that are there.

So those are the big point. Many big cities in Canada have less competition than where I am, despite also being 2 providers (usually: 1x Cable, and 1x does DSL), so their internet speed and plans simply sucks. Similar story for cellular network. The government does try a few times to promote competition, by even, in the case of cellular network, give wireless spectrum to small guys and prevent bidding from the big guys for it, but all that happens is that the big companies just buy the small ones, shut the doors and merge it all in their company. With the amount of money the big companies make, this is nothing more than a scratch at their bank account sadly.

 

Where've I heard this story before? Oh yeah, I was in the same damn boat as you until February of this year - except the data caps part. I live on an island in the UK and to be honest, I'm amazed we've got any fibre broadband at all. There's only a couple of around 20 cabinets running fibre in JUST the main "city" (small town or large village to most people) on the main island. The only ISP here is BT. Everything is BT Openreach and there's nothing else you can do about it. Unless you go satellite, but then say goodbye to gaming - and even then it's only 20Mbps. We also don't get "cable"... It just doesn't exist here. You can get Virgin Media in a lot of the mainland UK and that's the equivalent of cable - their internet also goes up to 150Mbps. To be fair, if you're willing to shell out a minimum of £500/month, you can get a BT Net leased line that can go anywhere from 1Mbps/1Mbps to 10Gbps/10Gbps assuming the infrastructure is there.

 

With our weather, everything is underground here too - I like the analogy!

 

To be honest, it doesn't sound unholy there. Before the beginning of last year, the fastest speed anyone in the whole of my county could get, was 6-7Mbps. Since the beginning of last year, the speeds increased (in the main town) to ~18Mb/s at most. Fibre has JUST been rolled out and now there's the capability of getting up to 80Mbps. That's assuming that you're on copper - but most of our lines are made of aluminium so you get about 70% of what you should - hence why I only get 56Mbps and not the 72 minimum estimate that I received. I should get 78.

 

Note that the mainland UK doesn't have ALL of the same struggles as I do where I am, but there are places that have <1Mbps internet and can't get anything better. That being said, you can always get an unlimited package.

[xBlizzDevious]

Running HTML5 player just fine with Firefox and no problems so far. How are you enabling HTML5 video? Are you forcing it though settings or telling flash to go away?

Or are you using the toggle switch youtube has?

https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=CA

 

And to be thorough, I've just disabled ALL extensions and it still does it. Just that this video went black at 8:21.

[Blebekblebek]

are you sure you are running HTML5?
and install proper codec, HTML5 on firefox use system OS codec not from browser.

[xBlizzDevious]

And to be thorough, I've just disabled ALL extensions and it still does it. Just that this video went black at 8:21.

 

How would I install a specific HTML5 codec? As far as I'm aware, HTML5 is what allows the video to play - what sort of codec installation would I need? I'm using Windows 7 and have VLC installed - all up to date. That's where all of my codecs would come from as far as I know.

[Blebekblebek]

VLC use use independent codec, mean their codec isn't usable by any other software.

 

install K-Lite codec pack or CCCP

[colonel_mortis]

Using Firefox 39.0a2, YouTube HTML5 has been working fine for me (including at 60fps) for ages, though I think I had a similar issue several months ago, which has now been fixed. Try following the guide that I made for enabling 60fps YouTube in Firefox to make sure that your browser supports everything properly.

You might also want to try disabling hardware acceleration - http://lifehacker.com/disable-firefoxs-hardware-acceleration-to-fix-slowness-749344037has the instructions on how to do so.

Finally, if you go to about:addons or press Ctrl+Shift+A, then go to the plugins tab, to you have the Open H.264 video codec plugin installed and set to always activate? It should install by default, but it is possible that it may not have installed for some reason.

[xBlizzDevious]

Using Firefox 39.0a2, YouTube HTML5 has been working fine for me (including at 60fps) for ages, though I think I had a similar issue several months ago, which has now been fixed. Try following the guide that I made for enabling 60fps YouTube in Firefox to make sure that your browser supports everything properly.

You might also want to try disabling hardware acceleration - http://lifehacker.com/disable-firefoxs-hardware-acceleration-to-fix-slowness-749344037has the instructions on how to do so.

Finally, if you go to about:addons or press Ctrl+Shift+A, then go to the plugins tab, to you have the Open H.264 video codec plugin installed and set to always activate? It should install by default, but it is possible that it may not have installed for some reason.

 

The plugin is definitely working fine and is set to always active. Hardware acceleration was on so I have just switched it off - will see if that makes a difference. According to the HTML5 page on Youtube, everything is set and working fine.

 

I've just watched a 16 minute video (it's always died by this point before) and it had absolutely no issue at all. Thank you so much!!! This has bugged me for years! It's so nice to be able to watch videos properly again!

 

EDIT: I should note - it was disabling hardware acceleration that fixed it.

[Darkman]

Using Firefox 39.0a2, YouTube HTML5 has been working fine for me (including at 60fps) for ages, though I think I had a similar issue several months ago, which has now been fixed. Try following the guide that I made for enabling 60fps YouTube in Firefox to make sure that your browser supports everything properly.

You might also want to try disabling hardware acceleration - http://lifehacker.com/disable-firefoxs-hardware-acceleration-to-fix-slowness-749344037has the instructions on how to do so.

Finally, if you go to about:addons or press Ctrl+Shift+A, then go to the plugins tab, to you have the Open H.264 video codec plugin installed and set to always activate? It should install by default, but it is possible that it may not have installed for some reason.

-snip-

I followed that guide, but for some reason MSE & WebM VP9 isn't showing its supported even when doing what you said in the guide..

 

 

EDIT: I got it working

Edited October 3, 2015 by Darkman

[colonel_mortis]

I followed that guide, but for some reason MSE & WebM VP9 isn't showing its supported even when doing what you said in the guide..

 

YouTube should still work correctly without that working. However, to force that to be enabled, go into about:config and double click media.mediasource.webm.enabled to set it to true, and it should then work.

[Darkman]

YouTube should still work correctly without that working. However, to force that to be enabled, go into about:config and double click media.mediasource.webm.enabled to set it to true, and it should then work.

I got it to work with the new player, thanks!

[MoonSpot]

Starting to get frustrated with youtube here too and just getting into gear searching/figuring what's up.

 

2Ghz quad w/o HT

FF v42.0

hardware acceleration on or off is still shit performance, just a different texture to the fecalware

 

 

Maxing out all 4 cores is definitely not right for anything.

[MoonSpot]

NVM gots malware.  been awhile since an fdisk, going to figure out a plan for fresh install of win 10 before I pour gas on the system and drop the match.