Google disrupted YouTube video playback on Firefox, again - gHacks Tech News ( www.ghacks.net )

Some Firefox users noticed playback issues on YouTube for several months. These affected high resolution videos only, from 1080p and up. To make matters worse, no clear pattern could be identified.

Some videos played fine, others would stop abruptly when they ran out of buffer.

ms_lane ,

I stopped watching on their website due to this. It's faster and I get better scalers on ytdl(p)+mpv

eskimofry ,

Are Piped or vanced affected as well?

30p87 ,

I exclusively use Piped, and never have any problems. No ads, no bullshit, sponsorblock and DeArrow.

t0fr ,
@t0fr@lemmy.ca avatar

You browse YouTube in the browser then use a handler to send it to MPV?

Potatisen ,

What is this?

GodsKillerKirb ,
@GodsKillerKirb@sh.itjust.works avatar

mpv? yt-dlp?

  • mpv is a media player, kind of like VLC but more powerful and lightweight.
  • yt-dlp is a CLI (command line interface) tool that allows you to download youtube videos as videos, videos without audio, or just as audio files.
ChicoSuave ,

More powerful and lightweight than VLC? I didn't know such things existed.

Kuro ,

Could you elaborate on your workflow for that? I am really interested in doing the same.

DmMacniel ,

Clearly this isn't an anti-competition effort.

nul9o9 ,

We need to being back trust busting.

entropicdrift ,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

FTC is already on Google's case

M0oP0o ,
@M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

Yeah that $1000 fine should fix things (or whatever amount they pick)

jawa21 ,
@jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

75% of annual revenue until the issue is addressed would actually work.

eric5949 ,

Yes well that's pie in the sky.

MelodiousFunk ,
@MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net avatar

A pie in the face is worth two in the sky.

M0oP0o ,
@M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

The question is why? Having big corporations beyond the control of regulation should not be as normalized as it is.

stormesp ,
@stormesp@lemm.ee avatar

Oh lol so that was it, yesterday all of a sudden 1440p and 4k videos were unwatchable, it was a stutter fest and thought something was wrong with my gpu.

hushable ,

I've noticed that 60fps videos struggle a lot, even at 720p, suspiciously, no issues on chrome

Zetta ,

Ya I've had this issue for months now, the video will freeze when the original 10 seconds of buffer is used, and it'll play fine if I skip another 10 seconds but just buffer indefinitely otherwise.

casmael ,

You can get an extension to easily change your browser ‘user agent’ to make YouTube think you’re on chrome lol

SendMePhotos ,

Which one

mrvictory1 ,

Not OP, I use this
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/uaswitcher/

brb ,

I've been having this exact issue too

bolexforsoup ,

I love freetube

stardust ,

Me too. So nice not needing an account to keep a playlist or channel subs.

YurkshireLad ,

For months I’ve had problems with YouTube videos in Firefox, at any resolution. They would play at really low FPS. Sometimes the player would pause and continue at the correct FPS, but usually not. Skipping backwards or forwards usually fixes it but not always. Another step in their monopoly to destroy competition.

mrvictory1 ,

Firefox for Android? Happens with any video, this is not YT bug.

JPAKx4 ,

Reminder for everyone to use a user-agent spoofing extension to make their Firefox appear to be chrome/another browser to Google

michael_palmer ,

Just add flag in about:config page

Sterile_Technique ,
@Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world avatar

Any you recommend? I tried this during during the first round of YouTube fuckiness on Firefox, and it didn't seem to make a difference.

I'm also probably the least techy person on Lemmy, so chances are high that I fucked something up.

JPAKx4 ,

I personally use Chameleon on Firefox. Alternativly, you may find luck using a web client such as piped.

InternetUser2012 ,

When it all goes down, there's always the option of just downloading what you want to watch and watch it in your favorite media player. That's what I do on my phone since I refuse to watch ads and they make everything buffer. Hit the dl button and in under a minute i have the video downloaded in hd.

oce ,
@oce@jlai.lu avatar

It seems Netflix is able to detect that spoofing, and sends this error when trying to play videos, "Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.". I had to disable my add-ons one by one to identify that it was User Agent Switcher causing it.

Sestren ,

Simple solution is to not pay Netflix and just pirate their content. They go out of their way to make the experience worse for paying customers on a regular basis. Sonarr+Jellyfin on an old computer with no video card and you've got a better Netflix where your content doesn't just magically disappear or fail to play on some devices.

brbposting ,

This ends with $500/mo Netflix subscriptions. An employee comes to your house and holds a laptop up in front of your couch while looking for hidden cameras camming the show.

Bathroom breaks are allowed, but they’ll pause the show if it’s during commercials.

outerspace ,

*pause the ads

SeekPie ,

I've been really happy with Stremio + Real-Debrid. Yes, it costs money, yes it's worth it (less than 3€/month).

Azzu ,
@Azzu@lemm.ee avatar

Any piracy costing money is also really really likely to be shut down relatively soon, making you need to change your setup.

SeekPie ,

Been using it for 2 years, no issues so far.

mrvictory1 ,

The DRM module tells Netflix you are on Firefox. For Netflix I would use Chrome on Wine tbh, it now supports 1080p w/o extensions. Or maybe Chromium w/ ChromeOS' Widevine module.

oce ,
@oce@jlai.lu avatar

Good point

InternetUser2012 ,

Yuck. Piss on anything chrome related. Just hit the high seas for what you want to watch, it doesn't care what browser or os you're using.

noodlejetski ,

sadly, skewing stats like that gives Google more reason not to support Firefox in the long run.

petrol_sniff_king ,

Well.. yes, but I assume that this specifically was sabotage. Like how Intel products have been throttling amd cpu performance for years.

pineapplelover ,

Absolutely not, I want them to know I'm using Firefox on my Linux computer. I'm doing my best to boost up marketshare.

fine_sandy_bottom ,

what would be the benefit of that?

SlopppyEngineer ,

I resorted to having Chrome for work things, Opera for Youtube and Firefox for the good stuff. Divide and conquer, I guess.

michael_palmer ,

I use Librewolf with Ublock and sponsorblock. Sometimes youtube video stops loading or keeps seeking 5-10 seconds forward. However, reloading the page helps. I don't have such problems when watching Youtube with mpv.

parpol ,

Invidious on PC,

Grayjay on Android.

You're welcome.

Adanisi ,
@Adanisi@lemmy.zip avatar

NewPipe on Android.

Fuck GrayJay, their marketing lies, and their nasty license.

x4740N ,
@x4740N@lemm.ee avatar

Isn't the greyjay developer team funded by Louis Rossman

parpol ,

What's wrong with Louis Rossman? His right-to-repair push is great.

Imperor ,
@Imperor@lemmy.world avatar

No. Louis works for greyjay. There is some billionaire behind it all.

x4740N ,
@x4740N@lemm.ee avatar

You know the billionares name, it would be a good idea to see who the people are behind the funding

parpol ,

What lies? And what's wrong with the license? It is to prevent other companies from taking their source code to make applications that aren't free.

orhtej2 ,

I solved a lot of performance issues I had with yt playback by disabling Ambient Mode (it's hidden under cog menu in the player). No clue why, but it was causing massve CPU usage.

TBi ,

Yeah. I hate ambient mode. Kills battery life on all systems.

Sabata11792 ,
@Sabata11792@ani.social avatar

It's also really ugly and distracting.

TheOakTree ,

I'm not sure why, but ambient mode also introduces a lot of color banding for me. I find it odd because it doesn't occur in similar dark-gradient scenes while gaming, just YouTube.

tibi ,

My guess is that it's supposed to look good if you have HDR enabled (which gives you 10 bits per color channel, although even with HDR, the desktop UI still renders in 8 bits per channel).

But still, it looks terrible for most people, and is a complete waste of resources. Because of the horrible banding, I initially thought something was wrong with my monitor. I don't understand why they added this feature.

Delusional ,

My videos play fine but my side bar is completely gone. No recommended videos, no similar videos, no playlist. Works fine on my other PC.

Blackmist ,

It's underneath on mine, with the contents in the sidebar. Looks shite.

FlashMobOfOne ,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

They work fine on Brave Browser.

Takumidesh ,

Of course, Brave is built by Google.

FlashMobOfOne ,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

Here we go with the circle jerk of trolls.

No, it isn't.

Reddfugee42 ,

Brave is built on Chromium which is maintained by Google. Under that context, what they said is true and also makes perfect sense

largess ,
@largess@mastodon.au avatar

@FlashMobOfOne
Sort of, Chromium is maintained by Google, Brave and its users just sit atop the Goggle shitpile and help enable it to contine.

@Takumidesh

Matriks404 ,

I have had the same issue for at least a month now. I use YouTube Premium, the fuck am I paying for?

SGG ,

For your experience to only be degraded a little.

For an slightly better but still degraded experience they want you on Google Chrome. But remember please use 360p or lower so their poor servers don't have to work so hard, they even help you do this by default on mobile!

Etterra ,

You're posting for your inability to download ublock.

Matriks404 ,

I already have an uBlock dude, it's just I like to support content creators on YouTube by having Premium.

winkerjadams ,

Support them directly instead of whatever peanuts google decides to graciously give them.

Matriks404 ,

That's a lot of effort, given how many people I am subscribed to. And I wouldn't say that it' "peanuts", after all they redistribute 55% of YouTube Premium earnings, that's a lot more than what other similar subscriptions give.

Brickardo ,

Would you support that kind of business model if you were at the other end, knowing full well you could be earning more? Then again, this is an age-old question...

psud ,

I also pay for YouTube, and I keep chrome around for watching it, and for the Google apps

InternetUser2012 ,

You're paying them to sell your data and to better advertise to you.

Furbag ,

I have issues with YouTube playback specifically on my work laptop. At home it's fine. It just started one day where videos sometimes fail to auto play and requires multiple refreshes. Even once they get going they often stall out and the progress bar goes all the way back to the beginning so I've gotten in the habit of taking notes of the time before I hit refresh and hope it comes back before I completely lose all interest.

I'd use Piped instead, but it has literally never once worked for me. Videos never load.

Doof ,

I happens to me but all i thought was that YouTube was bad not Firefox.

Blackmist ,

It is.

"This problem is triggered by bad muxed VP9 bytestream served by Youtube, so it's not a regression on our side, this issue can also be reproduced on old versions Firefox".

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