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

[mixit]

Added the info about pref changes needed for 49.0+ to the top post. media.gmp-eme-adobe.visible and media.gmp-eme-adobe.forceSupported are in; media.gmp-eme-adobe.forcevisible is out. Also removed some outdated statements and most of the edit markers that at this point only made the post harder to read.
 

On 2016/9/5 at 0:00 PM, AntiDuck said:

You won't believe how much crazy stuff people write about this problem -

including registry tweaks, system files manual copying, dll re-registering ...
I'm happy you were here to help with just Firefox config settings!

Great thanks!

Thanks for your kind words. I know what you mean about those sites, but to be fair, many of them date back to when this method wasn't available yet.

Edited September 7, 2016 by mixit

[ekeda]

Thanks for the great post, OP!

I received the H.264 checkmarks from https://www.youtube.com/html5 however when I start a video it doesn't load. Also, the about:support page in Mozilla v47 doesn't fully load when Adobe plugin is enabled. I expect this to be unsolvable issue for me (I just got unlucky with the XP version I guess). The main reason I wanted to use H.264 decoding is because I have strange blurring while using the WebM VP8/9 format or the flash player on some videos. It doesn't matter what quality the video is run at (hd or not there are jerky lines while the video is played, which are gone when using H.264 at Chrome browser).

So, my question to you is: Are you able to view all youtube videos for example without any problems when using html5 WebM format (or flash player) on Mozilla at WinXP?

Thanks again for the useful thread!

[5eraph]

Thanks for the updated FF49 configs, mixit.  Works for me in XPx64 using 32-bit FF49.0.1. 

[mixit]

On 2016/10/4 at 1:05 PM, ekeda said:

So, my question to you is: Are you able to view all youtube videos for example without any problems when using html5 WebM format (or flash player) on Mozilla at WinXP?

As far as I can tell, I can watch WEBM video with no problems, as well as Flash video if I enable it. Have you checked how it works with a clean profile? Have you tried disabling all your plugins to get about:support to load? You could get some clues from there, like maybe it has something to do with your driver or hardware decoding being enabled vs not (have you tried toggling that?). Getting up to 49 could also help, recently the devs seem to be updating the GMP/EME code quite often. I can't really call myself a video expert (despite what this thread might suggest to people ), so hopefully others will pitch in on this if simple solutions won't work.

@5eraph
Glad I could could give back a little for your keeping tabs on the POSReady updates

[ekeda]

I tried all possible Mozilla settings to try running that h264 decoding, but with no success - the video simply don't start. The reason is probably I am running XP with SP2 and to upgrade to 3 I have to make a lot of backups, because many things are tweaked, so I am not testing this option any time soon. The blurring/tearing with webm/flash is related to the fact that the video can't receive hardware acceleration. It does so only when the flash player (v23) is in fullscreen and there is no option to enforce it on non-fullscreen. Trying older flash version has pro/cons, but no time to do this atm. The webm is always software accelerated and I have no idea if this is so on other systems. I will check more things next week and write here if there is some solution.

[Stefan43]

On my PC, there was only 1 preference false: media.gmp.decoder.enabled

All of the rest were true, and I was not able to find this one: media.gmp-eme-adobe.forceSupported

youtube.com/html5 says I don't have h.264 and MSE.

Edit: It works, I had to add media.gmp-eme-adobe.forceSupported myself. Thanks for this topic! Got YouTube HTML5 HD to work

Edited October 19, 2016 by Stefan43

[i4004]

On 11.05.2016. at 6:02 PM, mixit said:

45.x.x ESR users *ONLY*: also change media.gmp-manager.url or the Primetime plugin won't get downloaded for you. The default value is "https://aus5.mozilla.org/update/3/GMP/%VERSION%/%BUILD_ID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/update.xml", change only the bolded portion as follows: "https://aus5.mozilla.org/update/3/GMP/46.0/%BUILD_ID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/update.xml". The host in your default may be something other than aus5.mozilla.org, you only need to change the %VERSION% part.

  Reveal hidden contents

There was some discussion about this in the Chrome thread, but I thought it better to create a separate topic instead of having posts buried in a different thread. The most relevant parts are here: 1 (VistaLover), 2 (dencorso), 3 (VistaLover). Since it appears to have ended on a failure, I'm taking the liberty of restating some of what was covered by them. I don't mean to overstep or hog the glory by any means, so if the mods want to prepend those posts to this thread, I have no objection.

P.S. Hi everyone and thanks for the truckloads of useful information that's been posted here in the past. I've been lurking for about 1.5 years already and thought it was about time to contribute something.

this works for FF 44.0 too.

prior to that it just stays in "Primetime plugin getting downloaded shortly", but never moves from there.

also added all the mentioned lines to about:config.

for the first time i can see all videos on

http://www.quirksmode.org/html5/tests/video.html

[ThomasW]

This looks wonderful, and would allow me to completely excise Google Chrome from my life!

My only question is: How do I install it?!?

I looked at about:plugins and it seems like there's no standard place to store them!

Even looking at Adobe's plugins — some are in system32, others are in Program Files, and some are even in the profile folder!

How does the browser know where to look for these plugins?

Thanks,
      Thomas

[submix8c]

Re-read the first post. The "plug-in" is installed in each individual user's FireFox Profile folder - per instance (yes, you can have more than one, in addition to User's Default). Beware that the entries indicate are a *must* for it to function (as well as install). As you should know by now, that's the only way to get it.

[int24h]

Can someone confirm this is still working in FF 50.xx? I had problem with instagram video  and some (not all) youtube video with error "if playback doesn't begin shortly try restarting your device"

Work perfect in previous FF. Thanks

[dencorso]

I've just updated to FF 50.0 and I confirm all the videos in the Quirksmode Test Page play OK.
Moreover, all my extensions (PlainOldFavorites, RefControl, User Agent Switcher and New Tab Override 3.0) were accepted and kept working.
 

[ThomasW]

On Wednesday November 23, 2016 at 6:29 PM, submix8c said:

Re-read the first post. The "plug-in" is installed in each individual user's FireFox Profile folder - per instance (yes, you can have more than one, in addition to User's Default). Beware that the entries indicate are a *must* for it to function (as well as install). As you should know by now, that's the only way to get it.

I don't see installation instructions in the first post or anywhere else, but putting together the pieces, I'm guessing the plug-in is "installed" in a subfolder of the user's profile folder entitled "gmp-eme-adobe"?

I now realize the likely problem is that I'm trying this in Pale Moon 26.5 and Firefox 28, but I'll gladly update to Firefox 50 if it means I can get MP4 video, PlainOldFavorites, and Mozilla Stylish to replace Google Chrome as a Twitter client! (they killed off all the others including TweetDeck rather recently)

Thanks Dencorso for that important compatibility detail!

Edited November 28, 2016 by ThomasW

[ThomasW]

I just updated from Firefox 28 (the last sane pre-Australis version) to 43.0.1 to 47.0.2 to 50.0!

It's actually quite nice (at least as a Twitter client) when customizability is brought back with extensions like Classic Theme Restorer!
It also has a set of colour emoji built in for OSes without that built-in (though you'll still want the latest version of Symbola for full coverage), and Reader view, a very nice feature which was exclusive to Safari for as long as I can remember!

I now realize that this plugin is installed as part of Firefox (inside of "gmp-gmpopenh264/1.6" in the user profile folder), so it installed once I configured the about:config settings and restarted a few times.

I don't understand why there is the "OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc." as well as the "Primetime Content Decryption Module provided by Adobe Systems, Incorporated" but what I do know is that the test page does work, and Twitter videos work as well, and the performance is so much better than in Google Chrome!

Thanks so much everyone!!!

You're life savers!!

Edited November 28, 2016 by ThomasW

[dencorso]

Inside the gmp-gmpopenh264/1.6/ is Cisco's "OpenH264 Video Codec", while Adobe's "Primetime Content Decryption Module" goes inside gmp-eme-adobe/17/... the .dll in mine is v. 5.14.40673.0, digitally signed by Adobe on Feb 12, 2016. This plugin is the one that does the magic, AFAIK. Cisco's module is installed when FF is installed and is not enough by itself. Until one adds the correct directives to about:config and the Adobe plugin gets automagically installed, the videos that matter don't play at all. Afterwards, it just works!!!

[thomaz909]

i use xp sp3 with ff esr 45.x and after everything is done H.264 & WebM VP8 are still red on the youtube html5 testpage.

Edited November 30, 2016 by thomaz909