Open Bug 1915097 Opened 3 months ago Updated 11 days ago

www.netflix.com - Videos fail to play when in desktop mode

Categories

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect, P3)

Product:
Web Compatibility
Component:
Site Reports
Platform:
ARM
Android
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: rbucata, Unassigned)

References

(
URL
)

Details

(Keywords: webcompat:blocked, webcompat:contact-ready, webcompat:site-report, Whiteboard: [webcompat-source:web-bugs])

User Story

platform:android
impact:site-broken
configuration:general
affects:few
branch:release
diagnosis-team:media

Attachments

(2 files)

Video.mp4
2.93 MB, video/mp4
Details
Video.mp4
4.74 MB, video/mp4
Details

Environment:
Operating system: Android
Firefox version: Firefox 123.1.0 Mobile

Preconditions:
Desktop mode enabled

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Navigate to: https://www.netflix.com and perform account login
  2. Select a show and play it
  3. Observe

Expected Behavior:
Video plays

Actual Behavior:
Video fails to play in desktop mode

Notes:

  • Reproduces regardless of the status of ETP
  • Reproduces in Firefox Nightly, and Firefox Release
  • Does not reproduce in Chrome

Created from https://github.com/webcompat/web-bugs/issues/134526

This is only a problem on Android as I understand it.

User Story: (updated)

I'm also getting "Pardon the interruption" screen. on Firefox nightly on windows 10, since Friday, including 2x Nightly upgrades.
Slightly different error though: F7121-1331 on this page: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/100151?accordionCategory=windows_computer,
And E100 on the "Pardon the interruption" screen.
I can open another bug, if this seems to be too different from the Android one.

Actually for desktop, this bug more closely matches the error I get: bug# 1763811
But why would I be hit by a 2-year old bug now: I watch video regularly on this browser typically every week.

Severity: -- → S2
User Story: (updated)
User Story: (updated)
Severity: S2 → S4
Priority: P1 → P3

I don't think we need to be too concerned about desktop mode support. Might be interesting to look at some telemetry to know how common that is though to be sure.

This is almost guaranteed to be intentional, we'll need to contact Netflix to be sure.

Same here on Windows 11 23H2 + Firefox 132.0 (64-bit).

Attached video Video.mp4 —
Attached video Video.mp4 —

My second video https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=9435038 shows the issue. Please ignore the first video https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=9435035 (there I really had two Netflix tabs opened).

Could you try to set the pref media.wmf.media-engine.enabled to 0 to see if it helps? If not, could you reset the pref, and then follow this instruction to capture a profile? Thanks!

Flags: needinfo?(maik.diessner)

@Alastir Wu Yes, media.wmf.media-engine.enabled = 0 seems to fix it.

Flags: needinfo?(maik.diessner)

Is there any negative downside with this setting?

Looks like with new Firefox 132.0.1 update and media.wmf.media-engine.enabled = 2 (default) it's working fine again too.

Yes, the fix is already included in the Fx 132.0.1 (bug 1928798), so you can reset the pref.

Many thanks!

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