1767315 - OpenH264 missing for more users than expected

Status: NEW

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

Description

[Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel]]

It looks like about 1.2% of Nightly users aren't getting H264: https://telemetry.mozilla.org/new-pipeline/dist.html#!cumulative=0&end_date=2022-05-01&include_spill=0&keys=__none__!__none__!__none__&max_channel_version=nightly%252F101&measure=WEBRTC_H264_ENABLED&min_channel_version=nightly%252F101&processType=*&product=Firefox&sanitize=1&sort_by_value=0&sort_keys=submissions&start_date=2022-04-28&table=0&trim=1&use_submission_date=0

on Windows 7 that jumps to 9.25% of users.

Comment 1

[Paul Adenot (:padenot)]

Re-stating what we said on chat.m.o here:

• This might well be because those users are on Windows N or Windows KN. Those version don't have codecs shipped with the OS by default, and a special package has to be installed (the "Media Feature Pack"). We have some code to detect this but it isn't hooked up to telemetry.
• Those versions are (respectively) for the Europeean and South Korean market, we might be able to confirm or infirm this suspicion by looking at the locales.

Comment 2

[Andrew]

(In reply to Paul Adenot (:padenot) from comment #1)

Re-stating what we said on chat.m.o here:

• This might well be because those users are on Windows N or Windows KN. Those version don't have codecs shipped with the OS by default, and a special package has to be installed (the "Media Feature Pack"). We have some code to detect this but it isn't hooked up to telemetry.

Just to clarify on this bit -- Is Media Feature Pack a hard requirement for OpenH264 to work? And if so, which aspects of OpenH264 require it?

Asking folks to install the Media Pack just to make a WebRTC call seems burdensome, so it seems worth exploring if it can be removed as a dependency entirely...

Comment 3

[Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel]]

The Media Feature Pack should not be needed for OpenH264 to work.

Comment 4

[Andrew]

(In reply to Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel] from comment #3)

The Media Feature Pack should not be needed for OpenH264 to work.

If the media pack isn't needed, what is the the significance or takeaway from this statement from :padenot above?

This might well be because those users are on Windows N or Windows KN. Those version don't have codecs shipped with the OS by default, and a special package has to be installed (the "Media Feature Pack"). We have some code to detect this but it isn't hooked up to telemetry.

Comment 5

[Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel]]

It was a hypothesis. We don't have any evidence to suggest it's true.