On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 08:55:10 -0700 walt <[email protected]> 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?
