1556094 - Bloomberg.com video error on Android: "An error has occurred. Reload the web page or use another browser. Error 4"

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Audio/Video: Playback, defect, P2)

Description

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Adam, I think this Android video bug is a regression in Gecko 68.

STR

1. Load https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-25/uber-is-said-to-plan-ipo-price-range-of-about-44-to-50-a-share?srnd=technology-vp
2. Click the video play button
3. Wait for the pre-roll ad to play

Expected Behavior

The Bloomberg video should play after the pre-roll ad.

Actual Behavior

After the pre-roll ad plays, the video play stops and shows an error message: "An error has occurred. Reload the web page or use another browser. Error 4"

I think this is a regression in Gecko 68. The video plays fine for me in Fennec 67 on my Moto G5 Plus, but I can reproduce the error in:

• Fennec 68 Beta
• Fennec 69 Nightly
• Focus 8.0.9 (GV 68.0.20190401094905)
• Fenix 1.0.1922 (GV 68.0-20190527103257)

Vesta says the video plays for her in Focus 8.0.12, but I can't test 8.0.12 yet because my phone is still on Focus 8.0.9.

This bug was originally reported in the Fenix issue tracker:
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2070

Comment 1

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I thought the video error was a regression in Gecko 68 because I could play the video in Fennec 67 but not Fennec 68 or 69. However, noticing that I had Tracking Protection enabled in my Fennec 67 but not 68, I enabled Tracking Protection in 68 and then I could play this video in 68! Why enabling Tracking Protection fix the video?

jonalmeida reported in R-B crash issue mozilla-mobile/reference-browser#780 that he could reproduce the video error in R-B but the video would play if he disabled Tracking Protection or if he enabled WebRender.

Comment 2

[Adam Stevenson [:adamopenweb]]

I can reproduce the issue. At first enabling TP was resolving the issue but now it appears to be more hit or miss if the video plays. This doesn't seem like it's a media related issue.

Comment 3

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Tom, could you give this a spin please?

Comment 4

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

I managed to get this error once in the web console when I first tried on my regular Fennec nightly build:

VIDEOJS: ERROR: (CODE:3 MEDIA_ERR_DECODE) The media playback was aborted due to a corruption problem or because the media used features your browser did not support. 
{…}
​code: 3
​message: "The media playback was aborted due to a corruption problem or because the media used features your browser did not support."
​<prototype>: Object { code: 0, MEDIA_ERR_CUSTOM: 0, MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED: 1, … }
vendor.js:17:4447
    logByType https://cdn.gotraffic.net/projector/v0.11.148/vendor.js:17
    error https://cdn.gotraffic.net/projector/v0.11.148/vendor.js:17
    error https://cdn.gotraffic.net/projector/v0.11.148/vendor.js:13
    handleTechError_ https://cdn.gotraffic.net/projector/v0.11.148/vendor.js:13
    i https://cdn.gotraffic.net/projector/v0.11.148/vendor.js:17
    i https://cdn.gotraffic.net/projector/v0.11.148/vendor.js:17
    dispatcher https://cdn.gotraffic.net/projector/v0.11.148/vendor.js:17

But given the daunting number of errors and warnings in the web console, I opted to try my luck with mozregression first. Unfortunately the problem didn't reproduce for me before I ran out of "free articles" for the month, so now I'm stuck. (I just had to either wait for the video to play itself, or click it or the ad if it didn't start autoplaying correctly, and it eventually started playing).

Based on the symptoms with ads and the above error, it's possible that certain ads are breaking their video loader, and I do recall seeing some signs that ads were causing script errors in my initial attempt. So it's entirely possible that if the pre-roll ad breaks, their player doesn't know which video stream to play, and tries to play one which isn't valid.

Do we have an account with Bloomberg for testing? If so, I can continue without waiting until they permit me to view the same article a few more times.

Comment 5

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

In answer to Comment 4, I don't believe we have a Bloomberg testing account.

Comment 6

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Do we have an account with Bloomberg for testing?

I think you can work around the Bloomberg article limit by testing in Private Browsing mode or clearing your cookies.

Comment 7

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Hey shu, any chance you'd be able to help grease the wheels here on us being able to get a test account? :)

Comment 8

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

I was just able to play the video, but I didn't notice an ad pre-roll? I just have whatever default Fenix Preview settings it comes with.

Comment 9

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Chris, can you still reproduce?

Comment 10

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Deferring this bug from Fenix's M7 (July) milestone to the M8 backlog for later in Q3.

Comment 11

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Mike Taylor [:miketaylr] from comment #8)

I was just able to play the video, but I didn't notice an ad pre-roll? I just have whatever default Fenix Preview settings it comes with.

Fenix enables Tracking Protection by default, which is probably blocking some pre-roll ads. I see ads in Fennec but not Fenix.

Chris, can you still reproduce?

I can still reproduce this error in Focus 8.0.15, but no longer in Fennec 68 Beta, Fennec 69 Nightly, or Fenix. Since this works in Fennec and Fenix now, we can probably close this bug as WORKSFORME now. I'll comment in the original Fenix issue, too: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2070

Comment 12

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Removing regressionwindow-wanted keyword because this bug has been resolved.

Comment 13

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Removing regressionwindow-wanted keyword because this bug has been resolved.

Comment 14

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Removing regressionwindow-wanted keyword because this bug has been resolved.