1210519 - Cisco H264 Plugin causes bad detection of H264 Hardware decoding on Supported Hardware

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Untriaged, defect, P2)

Description

[[e-mail]]

Attachment: about:support data and DXDIAG reports

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:41.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/41.0
Build ID: 20150929144111

Steps to reproduce:

First Steps:
1.- Install Firefox or Create a new empty profile
2.- Inmediately type about:support and see that H264 hardware decoding is true
3.- Let Cisco H264 and Adobe Primetime decoders to install
4.- Restart Firefox
5.- H264 hardware decoding is unavailable now.

Further Testing:
1.- If Cisco H264 is installed, type about:config
2.- Change media.hardware-video-decoding.failed to false
3.- Change media.gmp-provider.enabled to false
4.- Restart Firefox
5.- Play any HD/Full HD video @ 60 fps, Now Firefox uses local hardware decoders, which even prevent Firefox to have bugs with Adobe Flash Player Enabled/Installed. Videos play fast and steady.


Actual results:

The first step leads to Firefox thinking your VGA cannot handle H264 decoding (which in my case, it can do it completely)

The second removes the need of the plugin, leading to Firefox, using your local decoders (AMD, Windows...), improving speed, CPU usage (lower than with Cisco's) and removing bugs with Flash (Not reverting to media.hardware-video-decoding.failed=true if Flash plugin loads, for example in Youtube)


Expected results:

Cisco musn't have changed the result in media.hardware-video-decoding.failed after instalation, also, it shoudn't conflict with flash plugins.

This bug seems partially fixed in Nightly 440a1, but for some reason, Cisco's plugin still reverts media.hardware-video-decoding.failed to true when it's installed, while Firefox clearly sees your hardware as capable before this is downloaded and installed.

I attach some files that include info in about:support, and my DxDiag information (32-64 bit), for extra reference, VLC Player with DXVA 2.0 support plays any video with this codec, even 60fps ones in HD and Full HD, Windows Media Player does as well.

My Specs:
OS: Windows 7 x64 SP1
RAM: 4 GB
VGA: ATI Radeon HD 3200 (Drivers: v8.970.100.1100)

Comment 1

[[e-mail]]

As a matter of suggestion, could it be that, Firefox would use some sort of detection for local decoders to use instead of Cisco? For example if AMD Accelerated Transcoder (Or Nvidia's, I fail recalling the name) or Windows own H264 implementation exists, then, no need to download Cisco's, otherwise, use Cisco's alternative.

This could avoid this nasty bugs with Firefox detectors and the actual plugin... and even other plugins in the future.

Hope ths helps somehow, Firefox is such a great browser, and latest Nightly builds are fast as lightning!

Comment 2

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Firefox: 48.0.1, Build ID: 20160817112116
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:48.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0

Hi Ferline,

I have tested this with the latest Firefox (48.0.1) release and latest Nightly (51.0a1) build and I could not reproduce it. I have created a new clean profile and it seems that in "about:support", "H264 hardware decoding" is set to "no". I have also checked the "change media.hardware-video-decoding.failed" pref and now is set to "false".

Can you please retest this using latest Firefox and latest Nightly build (https://nightly.mozilla.org/) and report back the results?

Comment 3

[[e-mail]]

(In reply to Cosmin Muntean [:CosminMCG] from comment #2)
> Firefox: 48.0.1, Build ID: 20160817112116
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:48.0) Gecko/20100101
> Firefox/48.0
> 
> Hi Ferline,
> 
> I have tested this with the latest Firefox (48.0.1) release and latest
> Nightly (51.0a1) build and I could not reproduce it. I have created a new
> clean profile and it seems that in "about:support", "H264 hardware decoding"
> is set to "no". I have also checked the "change
> media.hardware-video-decoding.failed" pref and now is set to "false".
> 
> Can you please retest this using latest Firefox and latest Nightly build
> (https://nightly.mozilla.org/) and report back the results?

Seems the bug is gone, that's why. The only thing is that my GOU is still blacklisted, even if capable of running hardware acceleration. I fixed it by removing the driver known to be prone for crashes (I didn't have any) in about:config (the setting was media.wmf.disable-d3d9-for-dlls)...

I feel this blacklistng is kinda silly right now, but well, at least I can run Hardware Acceleration without problems with this XD.

Thanks a lot for tracking this bug :D

Comment 4

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Hi Ferline,

Thanks for the reply. Considering this I will close this issue as Resolved - Worksforme.