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Enable MP4 (H.264 + AAC) HTML5 video in Firefox on Windows XP without Flash


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Ok after hours I finally got it to work but it took additional steps not mentioned in the initial post I had to jump around to find enough info.  I was having trouble viewing particular html5/h.264 videos and the like on firefox portable 48.0, test pages showed negative for h.264 support.  First I tried the latest FF portable 52.2.1ESR but still no joy.  Since I run a portable version of firefox 48.0 I made a mirror copy of that to alter in case I messed up. BTW I'm running winxp 32 w/sp3

First I added the files into my FF profile folder as described on post 1.

Then I added/edited these 9 lines in about:config as described.

media.gmp-eme-adobe.enabled (boolean, true)

media.gmp-eme-adobe.forceSupported (boolean, true; FF 49.0+)

media.gmp-eme-adobe.forcevisible (boolean, true; FF 45-48, no longer used in 49.0+)

media.gmp-eme-adobe.visible (boolean, true; FF 49.0+)

media.gmp-eme-adobe.version (string, 17; required for manual install now that automatic install is no longer an option)

media.gmp-eme-adobe.abi (string, x86-msvc-x86; not required, you can set it if you want to more closely mimic automatic install)

media.gmp-eme-adobe.lastUpdate (integer, 1500000000; not required, you can set it if you want to more closely mimic automatic install)

media.gmp.decoder.enabled (boolean, true)

media.eme.enabled (boolean, true; defaults to false if you downloaded a DRM-free version of FF

SO after all this nothing changed so I went further into the thread and found these additions, I'm not sure if one or all of them made the difference.

I opened add-ons and right-clicked the primetime content encryption plug-in and selected find update, I think it does something but I'm not positive.

BACK to about:config

I rechecked all my added and changed lines, it seemed one or more were missing or not true ect. I'm not sure if this was my fault or not.

checked media.gmp-manager.url  I had to simply replace the %VERSION% part in the long url with 48.0, of course you will put in which ever version you have.

I opened add-ons and right-clicked primetime content encryption and selected find update again.  I rebooted and my videos played!    Thanks gang.

Edited by mst3kpimp
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11 hours ago, mst3kpimp said:

Ok after hours I finally got it to work but it took additional steps not mentioned in the initial post I had to jump around to find enough info.  I was having trouble viewing particular html5/h.264 videos and the like on firefox portable 48.0, test pages showed negative for h.264 support.  First I tried the latest FF portable 52.2.1ESR but still no joy.  Since I run a portable version of firefox 48.0 I made a mirror copy of that to alter in case I messed up. BTW I'm running winxp 32 w/sp3.

The reason you had to do more than what is described in the 1st post is that you're running portable versions, which are a very different beast from the normal versions. So you adventured into uncharted waters, had a fair share of issues, but persistes and met with success! Great! Now, thanks to your hard work, others shall be able to do it much more painlessly, and we all know it does work, so it's not a longshot anymore. :yes:  Hence, thanks are due to you! We sure appreciate your reporting the results of your hard work for the benefit of the whole community! :thumbup

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On 30/07/2017 at 5:28 AM, Alex654 said:

Thank you very much for great post! However, I wanted to ask - is there a way to get it working on Firefox 42? I did everything as described, the DRM plugin appeared in the list, but it just doesn't work. I tried the YouTube test page and test page from the link, and MP4 is not marked or played anywhere... Maybe I should look for an older version of the DRM plugin?

I'm using Firefox 34.0.5 on XP SP3 32-bit.  For me, after manual setup, the Primetime CDM plugin doesn't even appear in the list of plugins.  I have checked all about:config settings and the folder path for the plugin files multiple times but I can't find anything wrong.  I too would like to know if there are older versions of the Primetime CDM plugin available that I can try out.

I've been in this sinking life raft for the past couple of days after YT decided to pull the plug on Flash completely.  I can't play most of the newly released videos now because YT won't make available the WEBM versions until much later, usually up to half a day (up to several days in extreme cases).  I've tried tinkering with other settings per the instructions on various forums, but the only change I ever got out of it is green video.  I need a break... :-)

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Adobe Primetime Content Decryption Module Plugin v17 is officially supported in Firefox 46.0 and later up and including Firefox 51.0.1, that's all. In all other cases You act at Your own risk without official support. It is known that unofficially it works in Firefox 45.9.0ESR and 52.2.1ESR (we all hope that it will work in 52.3.0ESR and later up to 52.8.0ESR). If suddenly You managed to make it work in Firefox 44.0.2 or earlier and Firefox 53.0 and later, please report it here. No need to report about it is not working in very old Firefox revisions.

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Firefox 34 is the most recent version that will work acceptably on my computer.  It is still tamed down with Memory Fox and various other memory controlling about:config changes, which make a huge difference.  It's still leaking, but I can at least browse a little longer.  Some time ago, I did an extensive test with many different FF versions and the problems with FF35 and later are too big.

I installed 52 ESR yesterday, but it took more than half a minute to start (each time) and browsing was exceptionally sluggish.  45 ESR, which I tried after that, was better in that respect.

With my limited knowledge of obscure about:config settings, I doubt I will find a fix for Primetime CDM for older versions of Firefox.  So I will run another major test with the latest versions of Firefox to see if I can make them work acceptably, and go from there.

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That test page seems to be working fine here using Firefox 52 ESR, and says it's using HTML5.

Bizarrely, Opera 12.18 also plays the video, and if I right click on it the Flash Player menu pops up, but at the top right of the page it says "Flash is not installed or enabled. If you would prefer not to use the HTML5 Player on this device you must download or enable Flash"!

:dubbio:
 

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Both the Flash and HTML5 player on that BBC test page are working for me, using FF 34.0.5 on XP x86.

Dave-- I can confirm getting the odd error message using Opera 12.18 even though the Flash video is playing just fine.  It's probably to do with how they detect the plugin.  At least they aren't blocking the browser based on that false assumption.

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15 hours ago, ricardrosen said:

Has anyone managed to get the BBC Iplayer (HTML5 ) play videos on FF using XP.  It comes up with an error "sorry you need flash to  play this".

This is the test page.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/html5

.

Just try to switch the user agent to W7 and it work !!!

(using Firefox 52.3.0esr with User Agent Switcher extension :D)

So that's a limitation from the site for XP :crazy:

Edited by patclash
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I've been searching one year to make this works in Firefox 47.0.1 in Windows XP SP3. Thank you. Don't forget to set

media.mp4.enabled=true

OTHERWISE you'll get red exclamation marks by H.264 /MSE & H.264.

Now I have blue markseverywhere on youtube.com/html5 ;)

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Thanks Mixit!!

You have given me some hope here!! Any help would be sincerely appreciated.  But after two days of checking and double checking here's what I've got. I am running XP sp3 on a home built desktop PC. Using FF 52.2.1 esr channel. Curiously this problem only cropped up in the last couple of weeks. I can play some youtube videos using flash just fine. Other say, "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available."

No video from facebook, BBC and livestreams.  I have tried to adhere to your instructions as closely as possible.  But the condition is unchanged from before I implemented the changes you suggested to the present.  With this important exception, Primetime Content Decryption Module Provided by Adobe Systems, Inc. is being displayed in the plugins WITH the following Primetime Content Decryption Module Provided by Adobe Systems - will be installed shortly! And that is as far as it goes, I can't make this bear dance.

Thanks,

Mac

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5 hours ago, Mac said:

Thanks Mixit!!

You have given me some hope here!! Any help would be sincerely appreciated.  But after two days of checking and double checking here's what I've got. I am running XP sp3 on a home built desktop PC. Using FF 52.2.1 esr channel. Curiously this problem only cropped up in the last couple of weeks. I can play some youtube videos using flash just fine. Other say, "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available."

No video from facebook, BBC and livestreams.  I have tried to adhere to your instructions as closely as possible.  But the condition is unchanged from before I implemented the changes you suggested to the present.  With this important exception, Primetime Content Decryption Module Provided by Adobe Systems, Inc. is being displayed in the plugins WITH the following Primetime Content Decryption Module Provided by Adobe Systems - will be installed shortly! And that is as far as it goes, I can't make this bear dance.

Thanks,

Mac

I just went through this same problem on a machine I built for someone else. I kept getting the "will be installed shortly" message until I manually set 51.0 in the %VERSION% section of the update URL and manually forced it to check for updates. Then it magically decided that it would work...:wacko:

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4 hours ago, LoneCrusader said:

I just went through this same problem on a machine I built for someone else. I kept getting the "will be installed shortly" message until I manually set 51.0 in the %VERSION% section of the update URL and manually forced it to check for updates. Then it magically decided that it would work...:wacko:

Quote

IMPORTANT: The Primetime CDM plugin can no longer be downloaded from Adobe servers, which means that attempts to automatically download the plugin through Firefox GUI will fail even if you edit the download configuration URL per the old instructions below.

Quote

To manually install the actual Primetime plugin software, first download the ZIP package (backup link) from @sdfox7's site (he has plenty of other useful XP stuff there as well, definitely worth checking out!)

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175591-enable-mp4-h264-aac-html5-video-in-firefox-on-windows-xp-without-flash/

(Read first post of this thread :rolleyes:)

Edited by patclash
typo
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