1785149 - youtube video sometime failed to play (regression ?)

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

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

Description

[Yann Droneaud]

Steps to reproduce:

I've recently experienced an unprecedented failure to play one specific youtube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfDWfZkNrHU ).

I was able to reproduce the issue on two different computers running different version of Linux desktop using two different Firefox versions (Firefox 103 on Ubuntu 22.04 with discrete AMD GPU graphic card, Firefox Nightly on Fedora Rawhide running on Intel CPU with integrated graphic unit).

I've compared against Chromium (103 and 104) which didn't have the issue. This lead me to report the problem at https://webcompat.com/issues/109230

I've managed to reproduced the issue with https://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/, with the following scenario:

1. start firefox
2. open a new window
3. go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfDWfZkNrHU
4. play the video
5. hit F5
6. play the video
7. hit CTRL-F5
8. play the video

At this point the bug should occur, and the video won't play: a circle will appears, partially hidden by the youtube play button, and it will spin forever.

(If the bug is not triggered, try to close the window, and repeat starting at step 2, sometime, the issue manifest itself at step 4, sometimes I had to open/close the windows a couple of times)

I've managed to do 3 bisect sessions, both lead to the same interval:

19:01.05 INFO: Narrowed nightly regression window from [2021-12-20, 2021-12-22] (2 days) to [2021-12-21, 2021-12-22] (1 days) (~0 steps left)
19:01.06 INFO: Got as far as we can go bisecting nightlies...
19:01.06 INFO: Last good revision: f16661bf49d3ba3edf454c663f90c7a0959b59e3 (2021-12-21)
19:01.06 INFO: First bad revision: b538ca7373143e97e0c5243dfaf6e941d9454d25 (2021-12-22)
19:01.06 INFO: Pushlog:
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=f16661bf49d3ba3edf454c663f90c7a0959b59e3&tochange=b538ca7373143e97e0c5243dfaf6e941d9454d25

37:38.69 INFO: Narrowed nightly regression window from [2021-12-20, 2021-12-22] (2 days) to [2021-12-21, 2021-12-22] (1 days) (~0 steps left)
37:38.69 INFO: Got as far as we can go bisecting nightlies...
37:38.69 INFO: Last good revision: f16661bf49d3ba3edf454c663f90c7a0959b59e3 (2021-12-21)
37:38.69 INFO: First bad revision: b538ca7373143e97e0c5243dfaf6e941d9454d25 (2021-12-22)
37:38.69 INFO: Pushlog:
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=f16661bf49d3ba3edf454c663f90c7a0959b59e3&tochange=b538ca7373143e97e0c5243dfaf6e941d9454d25

10:26.03 INFO: Narrowed nightly regression window from [2021-12-20, 2021-12-22] (2 days) to [2021-12-21, 2021-12-22] (1 days) (~0 steps left)
10:26.03 INFO: Got as far as we can go bisecting nightlies...
10:26.03 INFO: Last good revision: f16661bf49d3ba3edf454c663f90c7a0959b59e3 (2021-12-21)
10:26.03 INFO: First bad revision: b538ca7373143e97e0c5243dfaf6e941d9454d25 (2021-12-22)
10:26.03 INFO: Pushlog:
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=f16661bf49d3ba3edf454c663f90c7a0959b59e3&tochange=b538ca7373143e97e0c5243dfaf6e941d9454d25

I blamed youtube at first (hence the bug opened on https://webcompat.com/issues/109230) , ... but the regression testing proved me wrong, thus I report the issue here.

Actual results:

The video won't play: a circle will appears, partially hidden by the youtube play button, and it will spin forever.

Expected results:

The video should be played.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::Audio/Video: Playback' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Yann Droneaud]

Attachment: Screen recording of Firefox 103 under Ubuntu 22.04

Attached is an example of the behavior: I open the youtube URL in another window, ask to play the video, and the video never start. I hit CTRL-F5, and the video failed to play again.

Comment 3

[Yann Droneaud]

Attachment: Screen recording of Firefox 103 under Ubuntu 22.04: half width / full width

And the puzzling thing: playing the video in a separate window which is not maximized (and share screen estate with another window) seems to always work: I can play the window anytime, provided it's played in a smaller window.

Comment 4

[Yann Droneaud]

Attachment: Firefox 103 on Ubuntu 22.04 about:support (raw)

Comment 5

[Roman]

That's a great find that un-maximizing Firefox fixes these videos that refuse to start playing. As hard to believe as it is, I currently have a video where this behaviour is reliably reproducible. Un-maximize Firefox and reload, and the video works. Maximize Firefox and reload, it's stuck again. This is on Windows 10. I'm not linking the video because I suspect there's nothing wrong with it; it plays fine on a different install of Firefox.

Comment 6

[Asif Youssuff]

Same regression range as bug 1683052.

Comment 7

[campbell_kerr]

I appear to have hit this bug too. On Windows.

I found that adjusting the video quality (away from auto) made the video start instantly. Other reports:

https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/wthtet/youtube_videos_often_wont_load_and_otherwise_the/

https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/wropka/firefox_struggling_to_open_some_youtube_videos/

Comment 8

[Tom S. (please needinfo tschuster)]

Additional report on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/wwnxtu/youtube_videos_freezing_since_updating_to_1040/.

Apparently disabling media.wmf.zero-copy-nv12-texture and gfx.direct3d11.reuse-decoder-device helps.

Comment 9

[Tom S. (please needinfo tschuster)]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]: Regression on very popular website.

Comment 10

[Asif Youssuff]

We've got a report that this is a Windows issue:

EDIT: it is indeed a Windows 11 issue for those who are running Windows 11, both preview and beta versions. The updates 22621.586 and 22622.586 fix this.

Comment 11

[Alastor Wu [:alwu]]

(In reply to Yann Droneaud from comment #2)

Created attachment 9290191 [details]
Screen recording of Firefox 103 under Ubuntu 22.04

Attached is an example of the behavior: I open the youtube URL in another window, ask to play the video, and the video never start. I hit CTRL-F5, and the video failed to play again.

Is any error showing in the web console when you're not able to play video? Could you help us capture debug log by using MOZ_LOG=timestamp,MediaDecoder:5,PlatformDecoderModule:5,MediaFormatReader:5?

Thank you!

Comment 12

[Sotaro Ikeda [:sotaro]]

(In reply to Tom Schuster [:evilpie] from comment #8)

Additional report on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/wwnxtu/youtube_videos_freezing_since_updating_to_1040/.

Apparently disabling media.wmf.zero-copy-nv12-texture and gfx.direct3d11.reuse-decoder-device helps.

It is related only to Windows. This bug is reported to happen on linux.

Comment 13

[Tom S. (please needinfo tschuster)]

You are right, I've opened bug 1787412 for windows, but this problem still seems valid.

Comment 14

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug is marked as tracked for firefox104 (release). However, the bug still isn't assigned.

:jimm, could you please find an assignee for this tracked bug? If you disagree with the tracking decision, please talk with the release managers.

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 15

[Asif Youssuff]

Attachment: about:support from affected user pogthegog on reddit

Comment 16

[Sotaro Ikeda [:sotaro]]

Hi Asif, Attachment 9292096 [details] seemed to be on Windows. Is it related to this bug?

Comment 17

[Asif Youssuff]

(In reply to Sotaro Ikeda [:sotaro] from comment #16)

Hi Asif, Attachment 9292096 [details] seemed to be on Windows. Is it related to this bug?

I have seen multiple Windows users seeing this issue - it may not be Linux specific.

Comment 18

[Raul Bucata]

Yann, could you please try on the latest build of Firefox Release, by following these steps:

1. Type about:profiles in the url bar.
2. Choose Create a new profile.
3. Call it deleteme or anything you please.
4. Then start it. (this way you will be sure that nothing is interfering, no ghost caching etc.)
5. Test.

Comment 19

[Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel]]

There are no indications that this is graphics related and it seems unrelated to bug 1787293

Comment 20

[Raul Bucata]

I was able to reproduce the issue randomly, just once, on a Windows machine.

Video link that reproduces the issue for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfDWfZkNrHU

I have also recorded a performance profile: https://share.firefox.dev/3TzY0yp

Seems that the issue is more likely to reproduce if the cache is not cleared.

Tested with:

Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 106.0a1 (2022-09-01) (64-bit)
Operating System: Windows 10 PRO x64

Comment 21

[Asif Youssuff]

From reddit:

In my case it turned out to be most likely a change on Youtubes side, probably having nothing to do with FF. Previously I was able to browse Youtube just fine without agreeing to the Cookie popup policy (as long as I was coming to Youtube via link). Now the browsing also works fine but apparently I only can watch the videos if I first have accepted the cookie policy. The weird thing is this cookie policy window just shows up when I try to go to a channel. If I follow a link or browse around Youtube, there is no popup, the video playback just won't work ... which led the the confusion.

Comment 22

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Redirect a needinfo that is pending on an inactive user to the triage owner.
:jimm, since the bug doesn't have a severity set, could you please set the severity or close the bug?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 23

[Yann Droneaud]

(In reply to BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte] from comment #22)

Redirect a needinfo that is pending on an inactive user to the triage owner.
:jimm, since the bug doesn't have a severity set, could you please set the severity or close the bug?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

I haven't been able to reproduce the issue for a long while. So I guess either Youtube made a change that fixes this behavior, or something did fix the issue on Firefox/Linux side.