Closed Bug 1520734 Opened 5 years ago Closed 5 years ago

The Preview Videos from Netflix are not blocked from autoplay

Categories

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

Desktop
Unspecified
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED INVALID
Tracking Status
firefox64 --- disabled
firefox65 --- disabled
firefox66 --- affected

People

(Reporter: rdoghi, Assigned: alwu)

References

Details

Attachments

(3 files)

Attached video 2019-01-17_10h55_19.mp4

[Affected versions]:
Nightly 66.0a1

[Affected platforms]:
Platforms: All

[Steps to reproduce]:

  1. Open the Firefox browser with a fresh profile and reach Netflix.com
  2. Login and Reach the Main page with all the videos.
  3. Wait for a few seconds without scrolling or clicking anywhere on page.

Expected Results:
The Preview videos should be blocked from Autoplaying.

Actual Results:
The Preview videos will start playing automatically.

Please note that if you reach the settings page and then come back to the main page the Block auto play icon is displayed and the content is blocked correctly, this issue occurs after you select the user and reach his main page.

You have activated the site by user gesture (clicking), so the site is allowed to autoplay after you clicked it.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 5 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID

But then why does this feature block those previews when you reach the same page coming from the settings page ? or why does it block the videos for some users but not the others, using the same steps with a different user from that account the videos are blocked from playing or in some cases they are played without sound, why on some users with the same steps the previews start playing with sound like in the attachment?

Flags: needinfo?(alwu)

Could you screen-record the situaiton where the video is playing without sound?

The user-gesture-activation model would allow page to autoplay after page is interacted with mouse click, keyboard press or touch, no matter what site you are goint to. After you activate the page, it would has a user-gesture-activation flag which is related with the document. If the site (eg. Youtube, Twitch) is using same document during the url navigation, the flag would keep during navigation and they can always autoplay. If the site (eg. CNN) is using different document during the url navigation, the flag would be reset and then user needs to activate the site again in order to alllow the site to autoplay.

So I'm curious why you would get the different result when you're using different account. The possible reason is that sometime Netflix would use a new document after you confirm login, which might cause the new document is not allowed to play because it hasn't beem activated by user yet so that Netflix plays muted video.

Flags: needinfo?(alwu) → needinfo?(rares.doghi)
Attached video BlockedVideos.mp4
Attached video PLaysMuted.mp4

As you can see for the first 2 videos are pretty much the same steps except different users and one of them is completely blocked while the other plays with sound.

As for the 3rd video the user logs in and the previews play muted.

Flags: needinfo?(rares.doghi)

Interesting, I will investigate this one.

Assignee: nobody → alwu
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: INVALID → ---

I've tested 5 accounts, and one of them will play muted preview and other 4 would try to play audible preview which was blocked.

I believe that is Neflix's behavior, maybe they're doing the A/B testing for different users. For other 4 accounts which preview was blocked, Netflix was tring to start audible preview and they didn't try to play muted preview after audible preview was blocked. For the one which plays muted preview, Netflix didn't try to start audible preview, they started preview without sound in the beginning.

So I think they have different site logic to control whether play audible or muted preview depending on different accounts.

In addition, I can't reproduce the behavior which is video starting automatically without blocking. From my observation, Netflix would use new document after you clicks login, so the preview shouldn't start playing because the new document haven't been activated yet.

The reason I could imagine is that, they have another diffent site logic which would use same document after the navigation...


Accoding to above analysis, video preview is controlled by Netflix's site logic, we have nothing to do here. I will close this bug again.

Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 5 years ago5 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
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