1331605 - No sound on HTML5 videos

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1345661

(Core :: Audio/Video: Playback, defect)

Description

[sworddragon2]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:50.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/50.0
Build ID: 20161213225349



Actual results:

If I'm playing any HTML5 video the sound is missing. But any other application like games, the VLC media player or even the Flash Player are working fine. Creating a new profile does not solve this issue but interestingly this issue appears only on my Laptop and not on my PC.

The 2 systems are configured very identical except for hardware-related differences (like drivers). I would assume that Firefox chooses just a difference sound output than any other application which may be the cause of this but I could be wrong. But just in case:

The sound cards seen by alsamixer for my PC:

0  HDA ATI SB
1  HDA NVidia

And for my Laptop:

0  HD-Audio Generic
1  HDA ATI SB

Also both systems are mainly ALSA systems. They only have libpulse0 installed to met minimal dependencies.

Comment 1

[Anthony Jones (:ajones, :kentuckyfriedtakahe, :k17e)]

You need pulse audio, so I recommend you install it.

Comment 2

[sworddragon2]

(In reply to Anthony Jones (:kentuckyfriedtakahe, :k17e) from comment #1)
> You need pulse audio, so I recommend you install it.

(In reply to sworddragon2 from comment #0)
> Creating a new profile does not solve this issue but
> interestingly this issue appears only on my Laptop and not on my PC.

But this does not explain this behavior as I seem to do met already all minimum requirements.

Comment 3

[u590800]

(In reply to Anthony Jones (:kentuckyfriedtakahe, :k17e) from comment #1)
> You need pulse audio, so I recommend you install it.

Why exactly is pulseaudio needed ? Sworddragon2 has issue in firefox 50 which does not have the hard dependency on pulseaudio yet. Also if it were really needed then the issue would on both his computers but it's only affecting the laptop and not the desktop.

Running Pulseaudio is not always desirable, it is not in my case as it breaks my dual external cards setup and adds extra latency that make sound pops and crackles which is a no-no when outputting sound on a PA system.

Comment 4

[sworddragon2]

After upgrading to Firefox 52.0.1 this issue does also appear on my PC (and the link from the info bar ( https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/52.0.1/Linux/de/fix-common-audio-and-video-issues ) does not work). I saw bug #1345661 and this change seems to be indeed intended. But I'm still wondering why with Firefox 50 this issues did appear on some ALSA-only systems but not on others. Anthony, do you have a clue about it? In case all should be fine only the broken link issue is remaining.

Comment 5

[Anthony Jones (:ajones, :kentuckyfriedtakahe, :k17e)]

We had a number of issues with the ASLA backend so we decided to discontinue it.

Comment 7

[sworddragon2]

I think you missed comment #4.

Comment 8

[Anthony Jones (:ajones, :kentuckyfriedtakahe, :k17e)]

Do you have Pulse Audio installed?

Comment 9

[sworddragon2]

I think you do not understand what I'm pointing to so I'm trying again:

I'm aware that Firefox 52 uses now PulseAudio. But as in the startpost stated on Firefox 50 on very closely identical setups (no PulseAudio installed - just a library of it to met minimal dependencies) the sound failed on my laptop but not on my PC. Of course with the upgrade to Firefox 52 it does now also fail on my PC but I'm wondering about the Firefox 50 discrepancy. In the worst case it could be the cause of a bug that might still exist and has now unknown sideeffects in Firefox 52+ so I wanted just that somebody evaluates this. Otherwise only the broken link issue is left but this is just a minor one.

Comment 10

[Blake Wu [:bwu][:blakewu]]

Chunmin,
It sounds like an interesting bug. Can you check it?

Comment 11

[Anthony Jones (:ajones, :kentuckyfriedtakahe, :k17e)]

(In reply to sworddragon2 from comment #9)
> I'm aware that Firefox 52 uses now PulseAudio. But as in the startpost
> stated on Firefox 50 on very closely identical setups (no PulseAudio
> installed - just a library of it to met minimal dependencies) the sound
> failed on my laptop but not on my PC. Of course with the upgrade to Firefox
> 52 it does now also fail on my PC but I'm wondering about the Firefox 50
> discrepancy. In the worst case it could be the cause of a bug that might
> still exist and has now unknown sideeffects in Firefox 52+ so I wanted just
> that somebody evaluates this. Otherwise only the broken link issue is left
> but this is just a minor one.

I just need you to confirm these facts:

1. Do you have Pulse Audio installed and working?
2. Does Firefox 52 work on each of your systems?

Comment 12

[sworddragon2]

On my PC Firefox 52 and PulseAudio were already running (with working sound). I have now upgraded my Laptop and the sound does work there with Firefox 52 and PulseAudio too - but this is now not unexpected.

Comment 13

[C.M.Chang[:chunmin]]

Hi sworddragon2,
Thanks for reporting the problems.

My ubuntu with only-ALSA support can play HTML video in FF50 well on https://www.w3.org/2010/05/video/mediaevents.html

To get clearer information, please help us to find out the following answers
1. Can you play HTML5 video in FF50 with PulseAudio?
2. Can you play HTML5 video in FF52 with PulseAudio?
3. Can you play HTML5 video in FF50 without PulseAudio(ALSA-only)?
4. Can you play HTML5 video in FF52 without PulseAudio(ALSA-only)?

You can download the old firefox here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Comment 14

[sworddragon2]

(In reply to Chun-Min Chang[:chunmin] from comment #13)
> 1. Can you play HTML5 video in FF50 with PulseAudio?

On testing this now the sound does work on my Desktop-PC and my Laptop.


(In reply to Chun-Min Chang[:chunmin] from comment #13)
> 2. Can you play HTML5 video in FF52 with PulseAudio?

Yes, as tested in comment #12.


(In reply to Chun-Min Chang[:chunmin] from comment #13)
> 3. Can you play HTML5 video in FF50 without PulseAudio(ALSA-only)?

This was possible on my Desktop-PC but not on my Laptop.


(In reply to Chun-Min Chang[:chunmin] from comment #13)
> 4. Can you play HTML5 video in FF52 without PulseAudio(ALSA-only)?

This hasn't worked on my Desktop-PC and on testing this now with my Laptop the sound doesn't work there too.