Google enforces HTML5 use on YouTube for Firefox 33 and newer

[Matsuda]

Google Chrome users who are regulars on Google's video hosting platform YouTube have been forced to use the HTML5 player on the website for some time now.

Google provided Chrome users as well as users of other browsers a choice in this regard in the past. The HTML5 player was opt-in for example which meant that users had to visit the YouTube HTML5 Video Player page to switch from Flash to it if they wanted to use it as the main player on the site.

This option was removed for Chrome users visiting the page, and it has now also been removed for Firefox 33 users who visit it. What this means is that Google will enforce the use of HTML5 video on YouTube for all Firefox users who use Firefox 33 or newer on their system to do so (Note this means Firefox Nightly currently, but on Tuesday also Firefox Aurora).

Internet Explorer, Safari or Opera users, and Firefox users who use version 32 or earlier of the browser, are not affected by this yet. They still get the "request the HTML5 player" or "use the default player" button on the HTML5 page on YouTube to switch between Flash video and HTML5 video.

Mozilla did implement support for Media Source Extensions (MSE) and WebM VP9 recently, but the feature is not enabled by default at the time of writing. While it will be enabled in the future, it is necessary to enable it right now in Firefox to make use of it.

If you don't enable the feature, Media Source Extensions is not supported which limits which videos you can play using the HTML5 player. The main issue for Firefox users is that the browser does not support MSE & H.264 which means that you may run into issues playing some videos on YouTube.

Note: I have no insight into how YouTube handles this. The text "is currently used when possible" suggests that the site will fall back to other playback options, Adobe Flash more or less, when videos cannot be played using HTML5.

So what can you do about it?

If videos play fine on YouTube you do not necessarily have to change anything. If you notice that some videos won't play anymore because of the change, you may want to force YouTube to use the Flash Player instead.

One of the better ways to do so is to fake your user agent so that YouTube detects Firefox 31 when you connect to the site.

1. Download and install User Agent Switcher or a comparable add-on for the browser.
2. Load about:addons and click on options next to User Agent Switcher.
3. Select New > New User Agent and enter FF31 as the description, and Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0 as the user agent.
4. Click ok.

You can switch to that user agent using the Tools menu. Press the Alt-key to display it and switch to the new user agent whenever you are visiting YouTube.

You should not run into (many) compatibility issues doing so, and you may want to keep the user agent registered permanently for the time being if you visit YouTube regularly.

The result is that you can select between the HTML5 video player and the Flash Player on YouTube. (via Sören)



Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2014/07/17/google-enforces-html5-youtube-firefox-33-newer/

[SPECTRUM]

"... The main issue for Firefox users is that the browser does not support MSE & H.264 which means that you may run into issues playing some videos on YouTube..."

what ?

Firefox already support H.264, you can verify it in: http://html5test.com/

[calguyhunk]

"... The main issue for Firefox users is that the browser does not support MSE & H.264 which means that you may run into issues playing some videos on YouTube..."

Firefox already support H.264, you can verify it in: http://html5test.com

[Arizin]

Firefox must improve... based on the results I looked at http://html5.com

[CODYQX4]

.

Edited April 28, 2019 by CODYQX4

[OrioNeXus]

ultimate end of adobe flash player am waiting for it....Flash Goto Trash... :yes:

[SPECTRUM]

"... The main issue for Firefox users is that the browser does not support MSE & H.264 which means that you may run into issues playing some videos on YouTube..."

Firefox already support H.264, you can verify it in: http://html5test.com

as you can read my previous post, I only mentioned H.264 and as you can see Firefox already support it ;)

[dcs18]

This the beginning of the end for Flash.

[calguyhunk]

as you can read my previous post, I only mentioned H.264 and as you can see Firefox already support it ;)

I only emphasized your point that H.264 is supported and MSE is not. I even "liked" your post if you noticed, precisely because you're right - and I wouldn't have, if you were not. I highlighted MSE only because Martin Brinkmann's assertion that MSE isn't supported is indeed correct unlike H.264 - which you rightly pointed out was incorrect.

Moral of the story - I was only proving your point. ;)

[OrioNeXus]

hey guys if i disable flash plugin then also youtube videos will start loading using html5 then how can i disable/block video autoloading on youtube ?

[licurg]

Definitely a good thing. Flash is so antiquated. Awkward, buggy, heavy on system memory, open to countless vulnerabilities... Arrrghh...

I wonder why devs are still using it? Well, probably due to the long force of habit, dating back to the times when dinosaurs ruled the earth it ruled the scene because there was no alternative.

But nowadays there is, and it's better and faster. So, these company wars are finally doing something good for the end user, too.

Yeah, RIP flash, enter html5.

@AryaPutraSRJ

Take a look here.

Basically, it's Stop YouTube HTML5 Autoplay extension for Chrome[ium-based] browsers and media.autoplay.enabled=false switch in about:config in Firefox + NoScript to compensate for missing functionality. There may be an out-of-box extension for Firefox as well, but you have to google it yourself: "disable HTML5 autoplay" or something should do it.

[mazigh]

hey guys if i disable flash plugin then also youtube videos will start loading using html5 then how can i disable/block video autoloading on youtube ?

You can do that using an extension or add-on called Magic Actions for Youtube

Edited July 21, 2014 by mazigh