1264799 - YouTube: forced to use HTML5 player after update 2.39 to 2.40

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[Johannes Leushuis]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:42.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/42.0 SeaMonkey/2.39
Build ID: 20151103191810

Steps to reproduce:

In Seamonkey 2.40 trying to play a video in Youtube, for instance Rita Moreno and Animal in the Muppet Show at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_IpgKzy75E


Actual results:

The video played with hanging and hick ups every few seconds, making viewing videos in Seamonkey 2.40 impossible. Reinstalling Seamonkey 2.39, downgrading from 2.40, let the videos play normally again.


Expected results:

That the videos in SM 2.40 played equally well as in SM 2.39.

My computer is a Compaq Evo N1020v, 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HDD.

Comment 1

[Rainer Bielefeld]

OS due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT
With such an old machine video problems are not completely unexpected.

NOT reproducible with  English SeaMonkey 2.45a1  (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:48.0)  Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0 Build 20160308001946  (Default Classic Theme)  on German WIN7 64bit.
A Also can't remember to have seen such problems with SM 2.40

@Reporter: Thank you for your attention. 
Please:
a) Tell your results on <https://www.youtube.com/html5>
b) Attach screenshots with comments if you believe that that might explain the 
   problem better than a text comment. Best way is to insert your screenshots
   into a OOo or LibreOffice DRAW document and to add comments 
   that explain what you want to show (attach .png or PDF from source document)
c) add information 
c1) concerning your Operating System (Version, Distribution, Language)
c2) concerning your SM localization (UI language, Locale setting)
c3) SM settings that might be related to your problems 
    May be you should attach a copy of menu 
   'Help → Trouble shooting information”
c4) how you launch SM (Double click on document? console? …)
c5) Whether problem persists in safe mode without add-ons
c6) Whether problem persists with blank new profile
c7) everything else crossing your mind after you read linked texts
d)  Processor load when you play movie.
e)  Right click on video really shows "About Flash Player", not HTML5 player?
    If HTML: try 
    <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/youtube-flash-player/> 
    (Might need conversion <http://shortlinks.de/l22n>)

Comment 2

[Johannes Leushuis]

Attachment: screen shot of the result of my Seamonkey 2.39 on www.youtube.com/html5 - What does this browser support

Comment 3

[Johannes Leushuis]

Attachment: screen shot of the result of my Seamonkey 2.40 on www.youtube.com/html5 - What does this browser support

Comment 4

[Johannes Leushuis]

Thanks Rainer, German Gründlichkeit! Here we go:

a+b) screen shots of results on <https://www.youtube.com/html5> are attached
c1) Operating System (Version, Distribution, Language) = (Windows XP SP3, updated till today, NL)
c2) SM localization (UI language, Locale setting) = (GB, where can I find that?)
c3) SM settings that might be related to your problems 
    May be you should attach a copy of menu 
   'Help → Trouble shooting information”
I guess that you found already the cause under d)
c4) how you launch SM (Double click on document? console? …)
clicking the Seamonkey quick launch icon in the lower left, next to the start button
c5) Whether problem persists in safe mode without add-ons
in safe mode the problem persists
c6) Whether problem persists with blank new profile
with a blank new profile the results are as bad as with my normal profile, slightly better
c7) everything else crossing your mind after you read linked texts
no crossings
d)  Processor load when you play movie.
sticking on a full 100%... So I guess this is the bad guy...
e)  Right click on video really shows "About Flash Player", not HTML5 player?
You are right, it is the HTML5 player. Guess I wrongly assumed that everything shown on Youtube is .flv or .swf. Will correct the title.
    If HTML: try 
    <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/youtube-flash-player/> 
    (Might need conversion <http://shortlinks.de/l22n>)
I found a Seamonkey extension Youtube Flash Player by Baris Derin at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/seamonkey/addon/youtube-flash-video-player/. It works well.

Now the processor loads can be easily measured:
In Seamonkey 2.40 with Adobe Flash Player in the add-on selected:
- in thumbnail view (for instance the videos on my homepage at www.jgamleus.dds.nl): 60%
- When browsing in Youtube, default view: 70%
- Theatre view: 95%
- Full screen: sticking at 100%. It was since a few versions of Seamonkey impossible for me to view videos full screen.

In Seamonkey 2.40 with HTML5 Player in the add-on selected:
- in thumbnail view: 90%, with many times against the 100% and with many times sound hick-ups, barely viewable.
- When browsing in Youtube, default view: sticking at 100%, impossible to view.
- Theatre view: sticking at 100%, impossible to view
- Full screen: sticking at 100%, impossible to view.

I was used to the fact that full screen was not available any more and used theatre mode in Youtube as maximum size. But now Theatre mode and default view don't work any more and thumbnail view barely. I am glad you pointed the way to an add-on, the situation works now for me. 

But that the difference in Adobe Flash Player and HTML5 Player would be so big that 2 to 3 more (all) viewing possibilities would be gone for people with older computers, is that acceptable? Not everyone knows this workaround...

Greetings and thanks,

Han

Comment 5

[Rainer Bielefeld]

@Johannes Leushuis
So I hope your problem is solved with the add-on you found?

> Not everyone knows this workaround...
you find a link to such workarounds (in the Wiki) in the "https://unofficialseamonkeynews.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/seamonkey-2-40-additional-release-notes/" published by me for every release in the unofficial Blog 

I added your workaround in the Wiki.

I will update the add-on compatibility list <http://addonconverter.fotokraina.com/compatibility/> later

Comment 6

[Rainer Bielefeld]

Add-on compatibility list is updated.

I close this one because no fix can be expected, the trend is to avoid plugins and especially to use Flash. So the behavior of SeaMonkey is expected, not a bug although its annoying for some users.