Firefox = great browser now rubbished by too many "Extras" etc - no video playable now

jimbo45 · Jul 6, 2023

Hi folks
Why is it that great software inevitably suffers from "Feature-itus" and extensions / plugins which most people rarely want or don't use and kill the effective functionality of the browser.

I've used Firefox for YEARS but after the latest update I can't play videos from most sites

E.g now on Firefox :

Same site with EDGE (even on Linux) Using Edge-dev version for Linux

Program working perfectly.

Seems Ms have got something right for once.

Cheers
jimbo

Josey Wales · Jul 6, 2023

I am not having any problems .

BamaInArk · Jul 6, 2023

Seems to be working fine for me. v115.0 64 bit. Though BBC iPlayer UK won't work for me here in the US.

Edwin · Jul 6, 2023

Bree · Jul 6, 2023

jimbo45 said:
I've used Firefox for YEARS but after the latest update I can't play videos from most sites

E.g now on Firefox :

Same site works fine for me in the latest Firefox 115.0 here in the UK.

Josey Wales · Jul 6, 2023

Ros Atkins on... Ukrainian nuclear plant fears

The BBC’s analysis editor assesses claims about the security of the Zaporizhzhia power station.

www.bbc.com

Ghot · Jul 6, 2023

Works for me....other than the fact I'm not in the UK... (FF 115.0 with NO add-ons, and no VPN)

BBC One - Annika, Series 1, Episode 1

Annika is called in to solve the murder of a man found with a harpoon in his head.

www.bbc.co.uk

This is the "not in the UK" message I get, at the top...

Why does BBC iPlayer think I'm outside the UK? | iPlayer help

The guidance on this page is for users within the UK. If you are outside the UK, have a look here: Can I use BBC iPlayer when I'm outside of the UK? Programmes cannot be streamed outside the UK, even on holiday. This is because of rights agreements.

www.bbc.co.uk

pparks1 · Jul 6, 2023

i used to be an avid firefox user for years. Then i got hooked on the centralized bookmarks and extensions that follow me in Google chrome and the ability to sync my bookmarks between chrome and safari on my Mac, and have been using Chrome since.

Bree · Jul 7, 2023

pparks1 said:
i used to be an avid firefox user for years. Then i got hooked on the centralized bookmarks and extensions that follow me in Google chrome....

Firefox can do that too....

spapakons · Aug 1, 2023

If you suspect a broken extension, then go at Extensions and disable them all. See if the BBC site works now. Then enable the extesions one-by-one to find the culprit. Try updating the extension to see if the bug fixes. In case that the site doesn't work with all extensions disabled, you might have a corrupted Firefox. The cure is simple. Download the offline installer (just in case) and run it to do an in-place upgrade/repair of Firefox.

antspants · Aug 1, 2023

I stopped updates since v56.02 when it broke all the best add-ons. In fact I hardly, if ever, use Firefox at all now. Crap browser now, in my opinion.

spapakons · Aug 2, 2023

You mean version 52.0 which is the latest version that supports NPAPI addons such as Adobe Flash, Java etc. Good news, The browser Pale Moon is based on Firefox and supports all these NPAPI addons. You can download it here: Pale Moon downloads
Pity there is no such browser to also support activeX plugins such as IE 11. Damn it! Why they should switch to Edge? Couldn't they patch IE 11 to be safer and retain the legacy compatibility? I know there are not many sites still using legacy features, but I hate the idea of removing features because they are "obsolete". I would prefer to keep all the old features and add new, not remove anything.

antspants · Aug 2, 2023

spapakons said:
You mean version 52.0 which is the latest version that supports NPAPI addons such as Adobe Flash, Java etc. Good news, The browser Pale Moon is based on Firefox and supports all these NPAPI addons. You can download it here: Pale Moon downloads
Pity there is no such browser to also support activeX plugins such as IE 11. Damn it! Why they should switch to Edge? Couldn't they patch IE 11 to be safer and retain the legacy compatibility? I know there are not many sites still using legacy features, but I hate the idea of removing features because they are "obsolete". I would prefer to keep all the old features and add new, not remove anything.

Thanks.

There is at least a compatibility mode option in edge, for web addresses. (Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode) I have to use it because my PC CCTV interface relies on IE11 or it wont work on a PC, not in any other browser. But I have to allocate the ip page address every month as per settings stipulations.

spapakons · Aug 2, 2023

What if... you could load Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 11?

Yes you can!

Open Notepad and copy-paste this code:

CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Visible=true

Then save it on your desktop, say ie11.txt

Open Folder options and make sure you have unchecked the box to hide known extensions. Now you can rename your file from ie11.txt to ie11.vbs (Visual Basic script). Then double-click on ie11.vbs to execute. Ta-da! It will launch Internet Explorer 11!

To be able to browse any sites without automatically being redirected to Microsoft Edge, you must go in Edge settings, Default Browser, and configure to never allow IE to open sites in Microsoft Edge. This way the site won't be automatically opened in Edge but in Internet Explorer 11. If it works, OK, otherwise you might change your User Agent to pretend you are using another browser. The User Agent is a code that tells which browser you are using, which version and in which device. Some sites simply refuse to work if they detect IE11 and they display an annoying message to upgrade your browser to Firefox or Chrome. But we can trick them by spoofing (faking) the User Agent. Press F12 to open Developer Tools, go to Emulation and you can change the User Agent from there. For example, to watch Netflix change it to Safari (iPad). You must install Microsoft Silverlight to play the videos. To run YouTube change it to Firefox. You can also open a modern browser, such as Edge, search for "what is my user agent" and copy the result. Then go to Custom and paste the User Agent. Spoofing the User Agent will allow you to open some sites in IE11 but not all. If a site uses unsupported HTML5 code (such as Greek National TV www.ertflix.gr) it won't open no matter what you do.

jimbo45 · Aug 2, 2023

Hi folks

activeX was a huge security problem -- I for one am not sorry that's gone. However nothing to stop people from running say W7 as a VM if they need apps based on activeX and possible IE11.

Or if you need to run legacy hardware and apps you could get a separate cheaper old computer for that purpose - I still have one for XP as I run some disc vinyl cutting software and hardware which only runs on that platform and new hardware would cost around €25,000 !!!. If you need current applications as well you can connect the machine up to your LAN and use rdp to access it so you can concurrently run your older app and your W11 applications.

Whilst I appreciate the work of people finding all these various "get arounds" my experience is that you are only buying trouble if you are a typical user with even above average computer knowhow. Any W11 update could break the fix, plus registry keys etc change / are removed etc all the time. If for a small bit of cash in getting a dedicated machine or by learning to use a VM preserves the integrity of the current OS then IMO it's worthwhile.

Netflix works perfectly on Edge if you want to watch in a browser. Also works now again in firefox (latest builds).

I think Ms silverlight was deprecated ages ago as the DRM mechanism for Netflix etc. Not sure where you'd even find the installer any more.

Same for services like SKYGO which used to insist you installed Ms silverlight but now - you need to install SKY GO's own app for that but on a laptop it can run Windowed or full screen so it's like running in a browser.

For Firefox I just use Firefox-Esr -- older version but works perfectly -- the nightly build versions also seem to work OK now. Edge works as well (even on Linux edge-dev can be used)

In fact Edge has improved a lot since the initial release -- I don't like Bing though but there are ways around that too.

Cheers
jimbo

antspants · Aug 2, 2023

spapakons said:
What if... you could load Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 11?

ha! I'll check that out, thanks

DzigiBau · Aug 2, 2023

FIrefox has a problem with handling hardware video acceleration inside of Windows 11 environment with AMD GPUs. The problem has started last fall, when Firefox with enabled hardware acceleration create freezes of Windows 11. They said the problem was fixed, which in a part is true (50%), but the problem remains since number of users had to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox settings, which means more CPU usage, more energy spent and higher temperature.

I did that one to in settings by disabling Use recommended performance settings and keeping Use hardware acceleration when available. The result was no freezing for now, although if you tick Use recommended performance settings, you will have Windows 11 free for sure, where in Event Viewer you can see that problem is Firefox could not find files or missing files related to Firefox. What is that exactly I do not know.

If you untick Use recommended performance settings and keep Use hardware acceleration when available in Firefox settings, you will probably have no freezes of Windows 11 but, here is the one, your GPU card will stay in such status with higher GPU use and higher memory use when GPU is in idle creating more energy spent and high temperatures. For instance, GPU of mine has 300Mhz for GPU and 150Mhz for memory when GPU is in idle, but with opened Firefox and minimize of it, I have 501Mhz for GPU and 1250Mhz for memory (which is maximum for my card). I need to close Firefox to return idle values for my GPU. That is programming stuff, meaning hardware video acceleration has to be triggered when in use and released when it is not necessary creating possibility for GPUs to return to idle mode. I did not report that bug since I am not willing to sign in for Firefox account, but if someone could report it to Firefox team it would be nice. Sorry for longer post, I cannot explain it in a few words.

spapakons · Aug 2, 2023

jimbo45 said:
Hi folks

activeX was a huge security problem -- I for one am not sorry that's gone. However nothing to stop people from running say W7 as a VM if they need apps based on activeX and possible IE11.

Or if you need to run legacy hardware and apps you could get a separate cheaper old computer for that purpose - I still have one for XP as I run some disc vinyl cutting software and hardware which only runs on that platform and new hardware would cost around €25,000 !!!. If you need current applications as well you can connect the machine up to your LAN and use rdp to access it so you can concurrently run your older app and your W11 applications.

Whilst I appreciate the work of people finding all these various "get arounds" my experience is that you are only buying trouble if you are a typical user with even above average computer knowhow. Any W11 update could break the fix, plus registry keys etc change / are removed etc all the time. If for a small bit of cash in getting a dedicated machine or by learning to use a VM preserves the integrity of the current OS then IMO it's worthwhile.

Netflix works perfectly on Edge if you want to watch in a browser. Also works now again in firefox (latest builds).

I think Ms silverlight was deprecated ages ago as the DRM mechanism for Netflix etc. Not sure where you'd even find the installer any more.

Same for services like SKYGO which used to insist you installed Ms silverlight but now - you need to install SKY GO's own app for that but on a laptop it can run Windowed or full screen so it's like running in a browser.

For Firefox I just use Firefox-Esr -- older version but works perfectly -- the nightly build versions also seem to work OK now. Edge works as well (even on Linux edge-dev can be used)
View attachment 66482

In fact Edge has improved a lot since the initial release -- I don't like Bing though but there are ways around that too.

Cheers
jimbo

I just said it is possible to use IE 11, just for experiment. I regularly use Edge or Firefox to get full modern functionality and be safe. I never said to stop using modern browsers. Yes, you can find Silverlight from third-party download sites. Make sure you install 32-bit and 64-bit version to get access to both type browsers. Setting the User Agent to iPad (Safari) still works using Silverlight. Netfilx would not like to dissapoint thousands of iPad owners by blocking this compatibility, so it still works. It is rather funny because you are using the mobile user interface, like if you were on a real iPad.

PS: I just checked, Netflix works OK, but when trying to watch a movie prompts you to download the iOS app. Bad boy Apple!

jimbo45 · Aug 2, 2023

spapakons said:
I just said it is possible to use IE 11, just for experiment. I regularly use Edge or Firefox to get full modern functionality and be safe. I never said to stop using modern browsers. Yes, you can find Silverlight from third-party download sites. Make sure you install 32-bit and 64-bit version to get access to both type browsers. Setting the User Agent to iPad (Safari) still works using Silverlight. Netfilx would not like to disappoint thousands of iPad owners by blocking this compatibility, so it still works. It is rather funny because you are using the mobile user interface, like if you were on a real iPad.

Hi there

Not having a go at you -- loads like doing all this sort of stuff -- and why not. I was just saying that if I needed to run almost daily legacy hardware and other applications this wouldn't be the way to do it - even if technically feasable for the moment, especially if the user wasn't quite technically skilled with Windows. One would need to guarantee some sort of stability and continuity.

The only reason IE11 still exists in Windows 11 is that Windows file explorer (itself long needs an overhaul) is still tightly bound to IE11 and uses old Windows API's. Removing IE11 will certainly happen probably in the not too distant future.

You can tell file explorer still uses old Windows API's since it still can't display path/folder/file names > 266 chars reverting to DOS8.3 format even though Windows has allowed > 266 chars for ages -- e.g if you use filezilla (excellent free ftp/sftp file transfer program) you can see the full file names - but after transfer to windows and you use file explorer they come up in DOS 8.3 format !!!.

Now if you could find a way to make file explorer show >266 chars -- that would be a winner !!!!

cheers
jimbo

spapakons · Aug 2, 2023

To get to the limit of 266 characters (I think this is 255), you must have too many nested subfolders and really long file names. Have you reached it?

Firefox = great browser now rubbished by too many "Extras" etc - no video playable now

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