Video doesn't play on AlJazeera Topic is solved

[rtega]

This video in AlJazeera doesn't play with beta1 on linux/ubuntu:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/g ... 37236.html

[trava90]

Video plays fine for me here on Linux.

Have you tried a new profile?

[troypulk]

It looks like a HTML5 / mp4 video.

Go here and make sure you have HTML player enabled - https://www.youtube.com/html5

It works on mine as well.

[rtega]

HTML5 is activated. What happens is that my flash plugin is set to "ask to activate" and nothing is asked. The only way that I can see that make it work in this instance is to manually add the domains to permissions.sqlite in my profile directory.

[Walter Dnes]

HTML5 is activated. What happens is that my flash plugin is set to "ask to activate" and nothing is asked. The only way that I can see that make it work in this instance is to manually add the domains to permissions.sqlite in my profile directory.

"ask to activate" is problematical. What happens is that the webpage senses that Flash is present, and therefore tries to play the Flash video, and does not try the HTML5 video. There's a possible work-around...

1. create a separate profile that's used only for HTML5 sites
2. in that profile, set Flash to "never activate" (the settings for each profile are independant)
3. try the website from that profile

[Moonchild]

HTML5 is activated. What happens is that my flash plugin is set to "ask to activate" and nothing is asked. The only way that I can see that make it work in this instance is to manually add the domains to permissions.sqlite in my profile directory.

"ask to activate" is problematical. What happens is that the webpage senses that Flash is present, and therefore tries to play the Flash video, and does not try the HTML5 video. There's a possible work-around...

1. create a separate profile that's used only for HTML5 sites
2. in that profile, set Flash to "never activate" (the settings for each profile are independant)
3. try the website from that profile

A simpler solution is to go into "page info" (or about:permissions, of choice) and either always allow or always block the flash player on that site (depending on what you prefer).
No separate profile needed.

[back2themoon]

Can't play this on Windows, with or without Flash (tried Safe Mode).

[troypulk]

HTML5 is activated. What happens is that my flash plugin is set to "ask to activate" and nothing is asked. The only way that I can see that make it work in this instance is to manually add the domains to permissions.sqlite in my profile directory.

My flash is always set to "never activate" so HTML5 video is always used.

Set yours to "never activate" and when a video doesn't work switch back to "always activate"

[coffeebreak]

Can't play it here on Windows either using Tycho (W7 x86). It defaults to the HTML5 player even with Flash Player set to always activate -- and fails to play. Player loads, video does not. After about 5 minutes an error message appears that says: "Could not download the video. Error Code: PLAYER_ERR_TIMEOUT."

This happens with the Brightcove player embedded on Al Jazeera, (not their YouTube channel's embedded live stream player, which is offered as a fallback if AJ's own live stream player doesn't work.)

Tried fresh Tycho profile, same result. Tried other "usual suspect" things (flipping cookies/ABL on/off; media.autoplay.* settings on/off; different UAs etc.) -- also same result.

EDIT: Tested initially using Beta 1, but re-tested with fresh Beta 2 profile: identical results.

Error Console (Beta 2) for all 3 Flash Player settings:

Code: Select all

Error: NotSupportedError: Operation is not supported 
Source File: http://players.brightcove.net/665003303001/4k5gFJHRe_default/index.html?videoId=5161456637001 Line: 1339

Note:
PM 26.5 does play the videos on this site with no problem. The players, on-demand and live-stream, adjust appropriately to Flash Player's on, off, or click-to-activate settings -- and play the video.

Noticed this:
With PM 26.5, the HTML5 player plays an mp4.
With Tycho, the HTML5 player tries/fails to play this: application/vnd.apple.mpegurl.

PM 26.5 - HTML5 player (media type: mp4):

PM 27 HTML5 - player (media type: application/vnd.apple.mpegurl):

[troypulk]

It looks like a HTML5 / mp4 video.

It works on mine as well.

When I deactivate gstreamer and flash the video does not work, with just flash activeated the video works and with just gstreamer activated it works as well.

with both gstreamer and flash activated the video works, I think AJ uses HTML5 and falls back on flash but will work with both.

This is all in Tycho b2

For the OP use just flash or gstreamer and see what happens, this should weed out the problem.

[Walter Dnes]

This happens with the Brightcove player embedded on Al Jazeera, (not their YouTube channel's embedded live stream player, which is offered as a fallback if AJ's own live stream player doesn't work.)

I've had issues with the Brightcove player on other websites. Try allowing Flash local storage (i.e. "supercookies") for that site. Beware that "supercookies" allow enhanced tracking, and you'll neeed to clear them after visiting the site. In linux, I create ".adobe" and ".macromedia" as symlinks to /dev/null and trackers happily write their supercookies to it

[coffeebreak]

I've had issues with the Brightcove player on other websites. Try allowing Flash local storage (i.e. "supercookies") for that site.

Thank you for the suggestion, Walter Dnes. I'd actually tried that as well but forgot to include it in the list of stuff tried. It didn't have any effect.

Considering the posts so far by Linux and Windows users -- and the difference in results and player function (for me) between PM 26.5 and the Beta -- it's looking like Windows and Linux have a somewhat different experience on AJ, as far as video streaming -- and that the issues on Windows are related to changes that were made as between 26.5 and Tycho.