[gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Gentoo.

When I read a blog in Firefox 31.6.0, there are often You Tube film clips
embedded in it.  When I attempt to view these, I am getting, more and
more frequently, the error message (from You Tube):

    "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats
    available.  Click <here> to visit our frequently asked questions
    about HTML5 video."

Fair enough.  The connection between the first and second sentences is a
bit vague, but I surmise from them that the video is available in HTML5
format (whatever that is) and the link will instruct me on setting it up.

Not a bit of it!  That link, <https://www.youtube.com/html5>, says this:

    "Many YouTube videos will play using HTML5 in supported browsers. You
    can request that the HTML5 player be used if your browser doesn't use
    it by default."

    "If you encounter any problems, right-click on the player and choose
    "report playback issue", or let us know on the user support forums.
    Your feedback will help us continue to improve the player."

, without telling me _how_ I can "request that the HTML5 player be used".
Exactly what "the player" is that I should "right-click on" remains
obscure.

I feel that I'm missing some crucial piece of information which is
obvious to everybody else.  I'd like to view these video clips.  Any help
people can offer me would be gratefully received.

The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:

    USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
    -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
    (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
    -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"

Thanks!

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[walt]

On 04/26/2015 07:49 AM, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Hello, Gentoo.
> 
> When I read a blog in Firefox 31.6.0, there are often You Tube film clips
> embedded in it.  When I attempt to view these, I am getting, more and
> more frequently, the error message (from You Tube):
> 
>     "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats
>     available.  Click <here> to visit our frequently asked questions
>     about HTML5 video."
> 
> Fair enough.  The connection between the first and second sentences is a
> bit vague, but I surmise from them that the video is available in HTML5
> format (whatever that is) and the link will instruct me on setting it up.
> 
> Not a bit of it!  That link, <https://www.youtube.com/html5>, says this:
> 
>     "Many YouTube videos will play using HTML5 in supported browsers. You
>     can request that the HTML5 player be used if your browser doesn't use
>     it by default."
> 
>     "If you encounter any problems, right-click on the player and choose
>     "report playback issue", or let us know on the user support forums.
>     Your feedback will help us continue to improve the player."
> 
> , without telling me _how_ I can "request that the HTML5 player be used".
> Exactly what "the player" is that I should "right-click on" remains
> obscure.
> 
> I feel that I'm missing some crucial piece of information which is
> obvious to everybody else.

This is pretty clever (and a bit scary).  On that page do you see a clickable
button with the title "Request the HTML5 player"?  If you don't see it, maybe
you have NoScript or some other script/ad blocker enabled in Firefox?

When I click on the "Request the HTML5 player" button, it changes color and
the button is now labelled "Use the default player".

I think it works by changing a Firefox setting in your prefs.js file, but I'm
not positive because my prefs.js file is so big I'm not willing to spend the
time to look through the whole thing (and that's the scary part).  Anything
could be going on in that prefs.js file and I wouldn't have a clue. <shudder>

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[»Q«]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 08:55:10 -0700
walt <w41ter@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 04/26/2015 07:49 AM, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > Hello, Gentoo.
> > 
> > When I read a blog in Firefox 31.6.0, there are often You Tube film
> > clips embedded in it.  When I attempt to view these, I am getting,
> > more and more frequently, the error message (from You Tube):
> > 
> >     "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video
> > formats available.  Click <here> to visit our frequently asked
> > questions about HTML5 video."
> > 
> > Fair enough.  The connection between the first and second sentences
> > is a bit vague, but I surmise from them that the video is available
> > in HTML5 format (whatever that is) and the link will instruct me on
> > setting it up.
> > 
> > Not a bit of it!  That link, <https://www.youtube.com/html5>, says
> > this:
> > 
> >     "Many YouTube videos will play using HTML5 in supported
> > browsers. You can request that the HTML5 player be used if your
> > browser doesn't use it by default."
> > 
> >     "If you encounter any problems, right-click on the player and
> > choose "report playback issue", or let us know on the user support
> > forums. Your feedback will help us continue to improve the player."
> > 
> > , without telling me _how_ I can "request that the HTML5 player be
> > used". Exactly what "the player" is that I should "right-click on"
> > remains obscure.
> > 
> > I feel that I'm missing some crucial piece of information which is
> > obvious to everybody else.
> 
> This is pretty clever (and a bit scary).  On that page do you see a
> clickable button with the title "Request the HTML5 player"?  If you
> don't see it, maybe you have NoScript or some other script/ad blocker
> enabled in Firefox?
> 
> When I click on the "Request the HTML5 player" button, it changes
> color and the button is now labelled "Use the default player".
> 
> I think it works by changing a Firefox setting in your prefs.js file,
> but I'm not positive because my prefs.js file is so big I'm not
> willing to spend the time to look through the whole thing (and that's
> the scary part).  Anything could be going on in that prefs.js file
> and I wouldn't have a clue. <shudder>

It doesn't affect Fx settings -- it just sets a cookie.  And I think
it only affects what happens when viewing youtube.com pages, not
youtube videos embedded in third-party pages.

The choice really between HTML5 and a Flash plugin, so maybe the button
doesn't show up if Flash isn't installed.

If you're viewing an HTML5 video, right-clicking anywhere on the video
brings up the context menu with 'report playback issues', provided
Firefox's dom.event.contextmenu.enabled is set to 'true', which is the
default.

Alan, I think Firefox relies on gstreamer for at least some of its
HTML5 playback capability, so USE="-gstreamer" may be at the root of
the  issue.  On the YouTube HTML5 page, do you get a "What does this
browser support?" section?  If so, what does it say?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Alan Mackenzie]

On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 11:23:53AM -0500, »Q« wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 08:55:10 -0700
> walt <w41ter@gmail.com> wrote:

> > On 04/26/2015 07:49 AM, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > > Hello, Gentoo.

> > > When I read a blog in Firefox 31.6.0, there are often You Tube film
> > > clips embedded in it.  When I attempt to view these, I am getting,
> > > more and more frequently, the error message (from You Tube):

> > >     "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video
> > > formats available.  Click <here> to visit our frequently asked
> > > questions about HTML5 video."

> > > Fair enough.  The connection between the first and second sentences
> > > is a bit vague, but I surmise from them that the video is available
> > > in HTML5 format (whatever that is) and the link will instruct me on
> > > setting it up.

> > > Not a bit of it!  That link, <https://www.youtube.com/html5>, says
> > > this:

> > >     "Many YouTube videos will play using HTML5 in supported
> > > browsers. You can request that the HTML5 player be used if your
> > > browser doesn't use it by default."

> > >     "If you encounter any problems, right-click on the player and
> > > choose "report playback issue", or let us know on the user support
> > > forums. Your feedback will help us continue to improve the player."

> > > , without telling me _how_ I can "request that the HTML5 player be
> > > used". Exactly what "the player" is that I should "right-click on"
> > > remains obscure.

> > > I feel that I'm missing some crucial piece of information which is
> > > obvious to everybody else.

> > This is pretty clever (and a bit scary).  On that page do you see a
> > clickable button with the title "Request the HTML5 player"?  If you
> > don't see it, maybe you have NoScript or some other script/ad blocker
> > enabled in Firefox?

> > When I click on the "Request the HTML5 player" button, it changes
> > color and the button is now labelled "Use the default player".

Yes, I get this too, but there's no noticeable difference between when
the button says "... default ..." and when it says "... HTML5 ...".

> > I think it works by changing a Firefox setting in your prefs.js file,
> > but I'm not positive because my prefs.js file is so big I'm not
> > willing to spend the time to look through the whole thing (and that's
> > the scary part).  Anything could be going on in that prefs.js file
> > and I wouldn't have a clue. <shudder>

> It doesn't affect Fx settings -- it just sets a cookie.  And I think
> it only affects what happens when viewing youtube.com pages, not
> youtube videos embedded in third-party pages.

> The choice really between HTML5 and a Flash plugin, so maybe the button
> doesn't show up if Flash isn't installed.

It does.

> If you're viewing an HTML5 video, right-clicking anywhere on the video
> brings up the context menu with 'report playback issues', provided
> Firefox's dom.event.contextmenu.enabled is set to 'true', which is the
> default.

> Alan, I think Firefox relies on gstreamer for at least some of its
> HTML5 playback capability, so USE="-gstreamer" may be at the root of
> the  issue.  On the YouTube HTML5 page, do you get a "What does this
> browser support?" section?  If so, what does it say?

Of the six boxes there, I have ticks (?check marks?) on
  o - HTMLVideoElement
  o - WebM VP8
I have exclamation marks on all the others, namely
  o - H.264
  o - Media Source Extensions
  o - MSE & H.264
  o - MSE & WebM VP9
.  It's frustrating that "HTML5" isn't mentioned in that list of six.

I'll take your tip and try rebuilding with gstreamer enabled.  Thanks!

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[»Q«]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 16:49:27 +0000
Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 11:23:53AM -0500, »Q« wrote:

> > Alan, I think Firefox relies on gstreamer for at least some of its
> > HTML5 playback capability, so USE="-gstreamer" may be at the root of
> > the  issue.  On the YouTube HTML5 page, do you get a "What does this
> > browser support?" section?  If so, what does it say?
> 
> Of the six boxes there, I have ticks (?check marks?) on
>   o - HTMLVideoElement
>   o - WebM VP8
> I have exclamation marks on all the others, namely
>   o - H.264
        ^^^^^
This is the only one which I have but you don't, and HTML video plays ok
for me with Firefox 37.0.2.

>   o - Media Source Extensions
>   o - MSE & H.264
>   o - MSE & WebM VP9

The MSE ones are disabled in all Firefoxen for now.  They tried
enabling support recently, but uncovered so many bugs they had to
disable it right away.

> It's frustrating that "HTML5" isn't mentioned in that list of six.

HTML5 video encompasses several formats.  "HTMLVideoElement" checked
just means the browser will recognize <video> elements, and the others
are various formats.

> I'll take your tip and try rebuilding with gstreamer enabled.  Thanks!

I hope it works!  I just tried looking at which gst-plugins I have
installed, to figure out which might give H.264 support, but I can't
make sense of it.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Fernando Rodriguez]

On Sunday, April 26, 2015 1:03:30 PM »Q« wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 16:49:27 +0000
> Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 11:23:53AM -0500, »Q« wrote:
> 
> > > Alan, I think Firefox relies on gstreamer for at least some of its
> > > HTML5 playback capability, so USE="-gstreamer" may be at the root of
> > > the  issue.  On the YouTube HTML5 page, do you get a "What does this
> > > browser support?" section?  If so, what does it say?
> > 
> > Of the six boxes there, I have ticks (?check marks?) on
> >   o - HTMLVideoElement
> >   o - WebM VP8
> > I have exclamation marks on all the others, namely
> >   o - H.264
>         ^^^^^
> This is the only one which I have but you don't, and HTML video plays ok
> for me with Firefox 37.0.2.
> 
> >   o - Media Source Extensions
> >   o - MSE & H.264
> >   o - MSE & WebM VP9
> 
> The MSE ones are disabled in all Firefoxen for now.  They tried
> enabling support recently, but uncovered so many bugs they had to
> disable it right away.
> 
> > It's frustrating that "HTML5" isn't mentioned in that list of six.
> 
> HTML5 video encompasses several formats.  "HTMLVideoElement" checked
> just means the browser will recognize <video> elements, and the others
> are various formats.
> 
> > I'll take your tip and try rebuilding with gstreamer enabled.  Thanks!
> 
> I hope it works!  I just tried looking at which gst-plugins I have
> installed, to figure out which might give H.264 support, but I can't
> make sense of it.
> 

Do you have the "OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems" firefox add-on 
installed (I think it comes with firefox). I have it but I still don't have 
H.264 checked on that page and I can't play some H.264 videos like this one 
https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us. If you have it, do you 
mind disabling it to check if that's where you're getting H.264 support from?

I have no problems playing youtube videos without it (both HTML5 and Flash) 
and I don't have gstreamer enabled on firefox.

-- 
Fernando Rodriguez

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[»Q«]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 18:58:55 -0400
Fernando Rodriguez <frodriguez.developer@outlook.com> wrote:

> Do you have the "OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems"
> firefox add-on installed (I think it comes with firefox). I have it
> but I still don't have H.264 checked on that page and I can't play
> some H.264 videos like this one
> https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us. If you have it,
> do you mind disabling it to check if that's where you're getting
> H.264 support from?

I don't understand all the details -- not by a long stretch -- but
AIUI, the Cisco thing makes it possible to use H.264 for real-time
video chat, called WebRTC by the W3C and "Firefox Hello" by Mozilla.

Judging by Alan's USE flags, it's not available for Fx 31.x.  In later
versions gmp-autoupdate controls it -- with that flag set, Firefox
will silently download the thing and updates to it from Cisco.  Mozilla
won't bundle it because it's patent-encumbered.  It comes from Cisco as
a binary.

There's also media-plugins/gmp-openh264, which I guess means the Gentoo
devs hope to offer it built from source -- I haven't looked at the
ebuilds.

> I have no problems playing youtube videos without it (both HTML5 and
> Flash) and I don't have gstreamer enabled on firefox.

That makes me worried I gave Alan a bum steer.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Fernando Rodriguez]

On Tuesday, April 28, 2015 3:27:32 PM »Q« wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 18:58:55 -0400
> Fernando Rodriguez <frodriguez.developer@outlook.com> wrote:
> 
> > Do you have the "OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems"
> > firefox add-on installed (I think it comes with firefox). I have it
> > but I still don't have H.264 checked on that page and I can't play
> > some H.264 videos like this one
> > https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us. If you have it,
> > do you mind disabling it to check if that's where you're getting
> > H.264 support from?
> 
> I don't understand all the details -- not by a long stretch -- but
> AIUI, the Cisco thing makes it possible to use H.264 for real-time
> video chat, called WebRTC by the W3C and "Firefox Hello" by Mozilla.
> 
> Judging by Alan's USE flags, it's not available for Fx 31.x.  In later
> versions gmp-autoupdate controls it -- with that flag set, Firefox
> will silently download the thing and updates to it from Cisco.  Mozilla
> won't bundle it because it's patent-encumbered.  It comes from Cisco as
> a binary.

Thanks, I rebuilt firefox with gstreamer support today and now I can play H.264 
video. I still can't play quicktime videos from apple's site. I think there's 
a gstreamer plugin for this but I don't know what gentoo package to install.

-- 
Fernando Rodriguez

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Stroller]

On Sun, 26 April 2015, at 3:49 pm, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:

> The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:
> 
>    USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
>    -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
>    (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
>    -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"

`euses system-libvpx` says "use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx" and if we look up media-libs/libvpx then its description explains that its about the WebM VP8 codec. It would be better if it explained that this is a _video_ codec, but Gentoo's USE flag and package descriptions have always been rubbish.

I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking the https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.

Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.

I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube html5 firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer", "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the HTML5 video player in Youtube by default" and "Firefox 37 Released With Native HTML5 YouTube Playback"

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Fernando Rodriguez]

On Monday, April 27, 2015 1:24:59 AM Stroller wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 26 April 2015, at 3:49 pm, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
> 
> > The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:
> > 
> >    USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
> >    -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
> >    (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
> >    -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"
> 
> `euses system-libvpx` says "use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx" and if we 
look up media-libs/libvpx then its description explains that its about the 
WebM VP8 codec. It would be better if it explained that this is a _video_ 
codec, but Gentoo's USE flag and package descriptions have always been rubbish.
> 
> I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking the 
https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.

I believe that option is just a choice between using the libvpx bundled with 
firefox (as recommended by mozilla) and using the system wide libvpx.

> Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> 
> I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer 
versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube html5 
firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for 
all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer", "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the 
HTML5 video player in Youtube by default" and "Firefox 37 Released With Native 
HTML5 YouTube Playback"

I'm using firefox 37 and it has always used the flash player. It has fallen back 
on HTML5 a few times because the flash plugin crashed. It uses flash even if I 
open a private session (no cookies) or even if I move the ~/.mozilla 
directory, It also says on that page that the option to switch between HTML5 
and Flash was removed on firefox 33 and I still have it so they must have 
changed their mind.

-- 
Fernando Rodriguez

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Fernando Rodriguez]

On Monday, April 27, 2015 1:24:59 AM Stroller wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 26 April 2015, at 3:49 pm, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
> 
> > The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:
> > 
> >    USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
> >    -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
> >    (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
> >    -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"
> 
> `euses system-libvpx` says "use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx" and if we 
look up media-libs/libvpx then its description explains that its about the 
WebM VP8 codec. It would be better if it explained that this is a _video_ 
codec, but Gentoo's USE flag and package descriptions have always been rubbish.
> 
> I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking the 
https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.

I believe that's just an option between using the libvpx bundled with firefox 
as recommended by mozilla, or using the system libvpx.

> Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> 
> I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer 
versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube html5 
firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for 
all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer", "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the 
HTML5 video player in Youtube by default" and "Firefox 37 Released With Native 
HTML5 YouTube Playback"

Firefox 37 still uses the flash player for youtube. It will fallback on HTML5 
if the flash player crashes. There's an update on that page that the change has 
been delayed.

-- 
Fernando Rodriguez

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[»Q«]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 22:18:05 -0400
Fernando Rodriguez <frodriguez.developer@outlook.com> wrote:

> > I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking
> > the https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.
> 
> I believe that's just an option between using the libvpx bundled with
> firefox as recommended by mozilla, or using the system libvpx.

That's right.

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Fernando Rodriguez]

On Monday, April 27, 2015 1:24:59 AM Stroller wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 26 April 2015, at 3:49 pm, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
> 
> > The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:
> > 
> >    USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
> >    -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
> >    (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
> >    -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"
> 
> `euses system-libvpx` says "use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx" and if we 
look up media-libs/libvpx then its description explains that its about the 
WebM VP8 codec. It would be better if it explained that this is a _video_ 
codec, but Gentoo's USE flag and package descriptions have always been rubbish.
> 
> I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking the 
https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.

I believe that's just an option between using the libvpx bundled with firefox 
as recommended by mozilla, or using the system libvpx.

> Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> 
> I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer 
versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube html5 
firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for 
all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer", "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the 
HTML5 video player in Youtube by default" and "Firefox 37 Released With Native 
HTML5 YouTube Playback"

Firefox 37 still uses the flash player for youtube. It will fallback on HTML5 
if the flash player crashes. There's an update on that page that the change has 
been delayed.

-- 
Fernando Rodriguez

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Fernando Rodriguez]

On Monday, April 27, 2015 1:24:59 AM Stroller wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 26 April 2015, at 3:49 pm, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
> 
> > The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:
> > 
> >    USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
> >    -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
> >    (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
> >    -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"
> 
> `euses system-libvpx` says "use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx" and if we 
look up media-libs/libvpx then its description explains that its about the 
WebM VP8 codec. It would be better if it explained that this is a _video_ 
codec, but Gentoo's USE flag and package descriptions have always been rubbish.
> 
> I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking the 
https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.

I believe that's just an option between using the libvpx bundled with firefox 
as recommended by mozilla, or using the system libvpx.

> Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> 
> I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer 
versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube html5 
firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for 
all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer", "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the 
HTML5 video player in Youtube by default" and "Firefox 37 Released With Native 
HTML5 YouTube Playback"

Firefox 37 still uses the flash player for youtube. It will fallback on HTML5 
if the flash player crashes. There's an update on that page that the change has 
been delayed.

-- 
Fernando Rodriguez

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Fernando Rodriguez]

On Monday, April 27, 2015 1:24:59 AM Stroller wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 26 April 2015, at 3:49 pm, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
> 
> > The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:
> > 
> >    USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
> >    -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
> >    (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
> >    -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"
> 
> `euses system-libvpx` says "use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx" and if we 
look up media-libs/libvpx then its description explains that its about the 
WebM VP8 codec. It would be better if it explained that this is a _video_ 
codec, but Gentoo's USE flag and package descriptions have always been rubbish.
> 
> I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking the 
https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.

I believe that's just an option between using the libvpx bundled with firefox 
as recommended by mozilla, or using the system libvpx.

> Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> 
> I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer 
versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube html5 
firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for 
all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer", "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the 
HTML5 video player in Youtube by default" and "Firefox 37 Released With Native 
HTML5 YouTube Playback"

Firefox 37 still uses the flash player for youtube. It will fallback on HTML5 
if the flash player crashes. There's an update on that page that the change has 
been delayed.

-- 
Fernando Rodriguez

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Matti Nykyri]

> On Apr 27, 2015, at 3:24, Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Sun, 26 April 2015, at 3:49 pm, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:
>> 
>> The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox 31.6.0:
>> 
>>   USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags
>>   -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo) -pulseaudio
>>   (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg -system-libvpx
>>   -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"
> 
> `euses system-libvpx` says "use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx" and if we look up media-libs/libvpx then its description explains that its about the WebM VP8 codec. It would be better if it explained that this is a _video_ codec, but Gentoo's USE flag and package descriptions have always been rubbish.
> 
> I would perhaps try rebuilding with USE=system-libvpx and checking the https://www.youtube.com/html5 page again.
> 
> Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> 
> I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube html5 firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer", "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the HTML5 video player in Youtube by default" and "Firefox 37 Released With Native HTML5 YouTube Playback"

A little bit OT, but does anyone know how to satisfy Firefox's need for audio device. If I have no asound.conf Firefox will use hw0,0 for audio output. If I set asound to:

pcm.!default {
 type hw
 card 0
 device 0
}

ctl.!default {
 type control
 card 0
 device 0
}

Sorry. Wrote this from memory so there might be a typo somewhere. With these settings Firefox don't playback anything... Other applications and flash plugin works perfectly.

How could I get firefox to use hw0,3 or hw1,3 for HTML5 audio playback?

-- 
-Matti

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[»Q«]

On Mon, 27 Apr 2015 18:01:06 +0300
Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:

> How could I get firefox to use hw0,3 or hw1,3 for HTML5 audio
> playback?

There is no way.  Mozilla products will only ever use card 0.  I had to
solve it on a laptop I once had, but I don't remember the details.  I
think no amount of tinkering with asound.conf will help, only switching
the card numbers via kernel boot parameters.

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[»Q«]

On Tue, 28 Apr 2015 15:59:17 -0500
»Q« <boxcars@gmx.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 27 Apr 2015 18:01:06 +0300
> Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> > How could I get firefox to use hw0,3 or hw1,3 for HTML5 audio
> > playback?  
> 
> There is no way.  Mozilla products will only ever use card 0.  I had
> to solve it on a laptop I once had, but I don't remember the
> details.  I think no amount of tinkering with asound.conf will help,
> only switching the card numbers via kernel boot parameters.

<https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ALSA#HTML5_does_not_play_in_the_Firefox_browser>

If that had been in the wiki when I had the problem, it would have
saved me about a week of searching through blogs and bug reports.  Hope
it works for you!

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 01:24:59AM +0100, Stroller wrote

> Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> 
> I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer
> versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube
> html5 firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5
> video on YouTube for all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer",
> "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the HTML5 video player in Youtube by default"
> and "Firefox 37 Released With Native HTML5 YouTube Playback"

  I've picked up a few tricks that seem to work some of the time.  This
is with Seamonkey, but should work with standard Firefox...

1) Set up a separate profile for Youtube, and disable the Flash plugin
only for that profile (never thought I'd say that).

2) If a video won't play, remove "&hd=1" at the end of the URL.  That
sometimes helps.

3) Warning... bleeding edge & crash-prone.  In about:config toggle
media.mediasource.enabled to "true".

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[covici]

Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 01:24:59AM +0100, Stroller wrote
> 
> > Personally, I would probably also try a later version of Firefox.
> > 
> > I appreciate that 31.x is the latest stable version, but I doubt newer
> > versions are actually unstable in any way, and if I google "youtube
> > html5 firefox" I find that "Google will enforce the use of HTML5
> > video on YouTube for all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer",
> > "FYI: Firefox 35 uses the HTML5 video player in Youtube by default"
> > and "Firefox 37 Released With Native HTML5 YouTube Playback"
> 
>   I've picked up a few tricks that seem to work some of the time.  This
> is with Seamonkey, but should work with standard Firefox...
> 
> 1) Set up a separate profile for Youtube, and disable the Flash plugin
> only for that profile (never thought I'd say that).
> 
> 2) If a video won't play, remove "&hd=1" at the end of the URL.  That
> sometimes helps.
> 
> 3) Warning... bleeding edge & crash-prone.  In about:config toggle
> media.mediasource.enabled to "true".

I think this is the default.  Also, I have had several occasions where
the profile somehow got corrupted and the video would not play, I had to
create a new profile and then it worked.

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

[gentoo-user] Re: Half error message on attempting to access You Tube from Firefox

[Jonathan Callen]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

On 2015-04-26 10:49, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Hello, Gentoo.
> 
> When I read a blog in Firefox 31.6.0, there are often You Tube film
> clips embedded in it.  When I attempt to view these, I am getting,
> more and more frequently, the error message (from You Tube):
> 
> "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video
> formats available.  Click <here> to visit our frequently asked
> questions about HTML5 video."
> 
> Fair enough.  The connection between the first and second sentences
> is a bit vague, but I surmise from them that the video is available
> in HTML5 format (whatever that is) and the link will instruct me on
> setting it up.
> 
> Not a bit of it!  That link, <https://www.youtube.com/html5>, says
> this:
> 
> "Many YouTube videos will play using HTML5 in supported browsers.
> You can request that the HTML5 player be used if your browser
> doesn't use it by default."
> 
> "If you encounter any problems, right-click on the player and
> choose "report playback issue", or let us know on the user support
> forums. Your feedback will help us continue to improve the
> player."
> 
> , without telling me _how_ I can "request that the HTML5 player be
> used". Exactly what "the player" is that I should "right-click on"
> remains obscure.
> 
> I feel that I'm missing some crucial piece of information which is 
> obvious to everybody else.  I'd like to view these video clips.
> Any help people can offer me would be gratefully received.
> 
> The following USE flags were used in my building of firefox
> 31.6.0:
> 
> USE="bindist dbus jit minimal startup-notification -custom-cflags 
> -custom-optimization -debug -gstreamer -hardened (-pgo)
> -pulseaudio (-selinux) -system-cairo -system-icu -system-jpeg
> -system-libvpx -system-sqlite {-test} -wifi"
> 
> Thanks!
> 

One of the ways to get H.264 video to work is to enable USE=gstreamer
on Firefox, which will allow Firefox to use any plugin that GStreamer
1.x supports.  If you then also set USE=ffmpeg on gst-plugins-meta,
you will have GStreamer supporting any codec that ffmpeg or libav
(whichever you have installed) supports.  If you set USE=x264 on
gst-plugins-meta, you will get H.264 support via libx264 as well.  One
of those options should get you support for viewing H.264 videos on
Firefox.

- -- 
Jonathan Callen
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