Dave-H Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 I've just made the rather annoying discovery that the new Facebook layout, which will become mandatory next month, apparently causes the playing of videos to break if Firefox 52.9 ESR is used with the Primetime plugin. The videos appear for an instant, and then go to a black screen with a message on it saying that the video can't be played. Reverting back to the old layout makes it all come good again. Can anyone else confirm this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 Just been bumped to the new Facebook layout again, and still no videos working. I have tried using different user agent strings, but no difference on any I've tried so far. If I switch back to the old layout, the videos immediately work again! This will not be possible for much longer though, as the new layout will become mandatory this month. Anyone any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted September 8, 2020 Author Share Posted September 8, 2020 I've just been bumped to the new layout again, and now I'm being told I can only switch back to the old layout for another 48 hours! Am I really the only person having this problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docR Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 I can't be certain of this, but I think the old FB version will be accessible a bit longer using a Safari useragent. When using one particular string I don't receive warnings or prompts to switch to the new version. https://www.fbpurity.com/faq.htm Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_5) AppleWebKit/603.3.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.1.2 Safari/603.3.8 New layout seems to play nicely with UXP browsers btw, video playback included. Some ridiculousness with reactions though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 Thanks, I will give that user agent a try! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdf2345 Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 I dislike Facebook, but at least they were one of the few that stuck around with a good design. Now, it seems like that's not true anymore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 I don't actually mind the new design too much, I've seen far worse, but I do want the videos to work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docR Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 I'm ambivalent about the new design. I don't think any FB design has been particularly bad, but the new version puts unnecessary strain on non-Chromium browsers (gee who would've guessed?). I'm guessing its WebComponents or some other related shenanigan. In any event I'm guessing that useragent will buy us a few months at least Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siria Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 (edited) Dave-H said:I don't actually mind the new design too much, I've seen far worse, but I do want the videos to work! Just curious, regarding possible workarounds (can't test myself, old browser): does this new layout still contain the direct video links in html source code? Especially easy in meta tag "og:video". And futher down are SD and HD variations. In whichever version they send me, those links still work for downloading. If giving a timestamp error, must just replace "&" with "&". Suppose a little userscript can also wrap those links into a simple html5 video tag . Edited September 9, 2020 by siria 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 Yes, the option to see the source is still there. One thing with using that Safari user agent string is that videos now no longer seem to play automatically, I have to click on a "play" arrow symbol to make them play, as i do on Instagram. Is that what you would expect @docR? Slightly annoying, but better than them not playing at all! This is still on the old layout BTW, I haven't been switched again yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docR Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 12 minutes ago, Dave-H said: Yes, the option to see the source is still there. That's promising. So userscripts could probably be injected to fix the regressions with the new layout. 13 minutes ago, Dave-H said: One thing with using that Safari user agent string is that videos now no longer seem to play automatically, I have to click on a "play" arrow symbol to make them play, as i do on Instagram. Is that what you would expect @docR? Yeah that's intended behavior for this useragent. I'll try and hold out with this layout til my favorite script Facebook Purity is updated, and hopefully UXP fixes that regression with the reactions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 I love Facebook Purity, I've been using it for years, and I wouldn't dream of using Facebook without it! Whenever I use the Facebook app on my phone I'm reminded just how awful Facebook on my desktop would be without it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docR Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 (edited) I actually just started using Purity. I haven't had an account in years, I only just reopened one for my gf. I was using Social Fixer for Facebook, but then found FB Purity. Hiding the 'People You May Know' from my timeline was enough to sell me Would be rather embarrassing to hit add by mistake. Zuckerbook doesn't make it too obvious when you have active friend requests out too sooo Edit: Actually I take it back, timeline autoplay does actually work for me using this useragent. I'm using Pale Moon 28.13. Tested Waterfox Classic 2020.08.1 too. Perhaps its a restriction of some sort with Ff 52.9? Edited September 10, 2020 by docR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 Do those browsers use the Primetime plugin? If not, and they have other HTML5 video support, that might be the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docR Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 46 minutes ago, Dave-H said: Do those browsers use the Primetime plugin? If not, and they have other HTML5 video support, that might be the issue. Not to my knowledge, no. Maybe some HTML5 canvas feature not found in 52.9? These are the plugins I have running: And here's the multimedia section from HTML5test: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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