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

[Dibya]

FF55 came with Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. ( I noticed it in in my 8.1x64 when i opened FF ) 

any one can add it to FF 52 ESR 

[Dave-H]

No good on Windows XP though, as IIRC the Widevine plugin doesn't work on XP.

[dencorso]

2 hours ago, Dibya said:

any one can add it to FF 52 ESR

No.

[killabud]

hello....

 

i managed to get "Primetime Content Decryption" installed by following all the steps, i had a little trouble with the "waiting to install" but i got that problem fixed...

 

everything seems to be in order EXCEPT...it didn't help anything...i still can't watch H.264/MSE & H.264

 

 

i am using firefox 52.3.0(32 bit)....not sure what i am doing wrong

 

 

any help would be greatly appreciated,thanks!

 

 

Edited August 26, 2017 by killabud

[Dave-H]

Assuming that the plugin is in the plugins list and showing no errors, is it set to "always activate"?

[killabud]

yea,it was set to "always active"

this is so frustrating

[Dave-H]

Do YouTube videos actually work, and if they do, are they using HTML5 or the Flash Player?
Right clicking on them should tell you.

[dencorso]

Revise, character by character, every one of the directives added to about:config for case and . vs - vs _

[killabud]

tried right clicking but i am not seeing where it says if it's HTML5 or not.....but they do work

 

 my main problem has been with twitter videos and youtube live streams

[Dave-H]

The right click pop-up should say "stats for nerds" at the bottom if it's using HTML5, and the Flash Player version at the bottom if it's using Flash.

[Tomcat76]

19 hours ago, killabud said:

 my main problem has been with twitter videos and youtube live streams

I suppose brand-new YT videos won't work for you either, then.  You can test this easily by performing a YT search on a specific topic and sort the results by date.  Then pick one that was uploaded only in the last few hours.  Sometimes, though, a new video may still play for you but that's only because YT (for whatever reason) decided to create the WEBM version along with the default H.264 version; normally, it takes several hours to several days before the WEBM version is created.  If you right-click the video and choose Stats for nerds, you will see whether it's using video/mp4 or video/webm.

This is exactly what I had before installing the Primetime plugin.  Now, using FF46 with the Primetime plugin, I'm fed the WEBM versions by default and the H.264 versions if the WEBM variant isn't available yet.

Reasons why this may not work for you:

1) There might be a global setting in place that force-disables all plugins except Flash.  Do you have other plugins installed, such as Quicktime or RealPlayer?  Does content utilizing those plugins work?

2) Something went wrong during the installation procedure.  Revise dencorso's latest post before mine, and check that you placed the uncompressed files in the correct profile folder if you have multiple profiles.

 

Has anyone here attempted to install this clean on Firefox 52.x, or was Firefox updated to 52.x *after* installation of the Primetime plugin?

[killabud]

20 hours ago, dencorso said:

Revise, character by character, every one of the directives added to about:config for case and . vs - vs _

everything looks right

 

1 hour ago, Tomcat76 said:

 

i checked a few random new videos and they all say "webm codecs"?

 

i do have a few other plugins but they are all set top "Ask to activate"  and yea,they work fine

10 hours ago, Dave-H said:

The right click pop-up should say "stats for nerds" at the bottom if it's using HTML5, and the Flash Player version at the bottom if it's using Flash.

oh ok,yea...,.says "Stats for nerds"

[Dave-H]

If it says "stats for nerds" I've always assumed that means it's using HTML5 and the plugin is working OK, but whether it's using H.264 or WEBM I don't know as i don't normally look in that detail.
Even very new videos are using H.264 for me as far as I can see.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Dave-H
Additions

[killabud]

the only thing i did different from the instructions is that i didn't create the "gmp-eme-adobe" folder because it was already in there...but i don't see how that could possibly be the problem

[Tomcat76]

13 hours ago, Dave-H said:

If it says "stats for nerds" I've always assumed that means it's using HTML5 and the plugin is working OK, but whether it's using H.264 or WEBM I don't know as i don't normally look in that detail.
Even very new videos are using H.264 for me as far as I can see.

Perhaps I should've mentioned that I'm using the "YouTube Video and Audio Downloader" (v 0.5.0 now) to give me a clearer view as to what's going on with YouTube videos.  With a brand new video, uploaded only minutes ago, firing up the YT Video and Audio Downloader reveals that I can only download H.264 versions of that video.  If I wait a couple of hours (sometimes several days), the list will finally include some WEBM variants as well.

Sidenote and rant: Most videos will never get all resolutions in the WEBM format.  In my experience, a 720p video will be playable and downloadable at 720p in H.264, but WEBM (once made available) will usually be limited to 360p; coming across a WEBM that goes up to 720p or even 1080p is very rare, at least for videos uploaded in the last couple of months.  Wasn't Google themselves behind the creation of WEBM?

What is downloadable coincides with what is playable in the player.  Without the Primetime plugin for Firefox on WinXP, you'll just get an error message for the extend of the period that a video is only made available in H.264 format.  I never noticed this problem before the end of July (2017), as I used to force the Flash Player, which can handle all formats.