463826 - nbc.com - NBC video player fails to detect Flash properly if "Firefox" isn't part of UA string

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[David E. Ross]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 SeaMonkey/1.1.12
Build Identifier: SeaMonkey 1.1.11

Attempting to view video at indicated URL gives the following message: "Requires Adobe Flash Player 9 or greater, click here to download."  

Spoofing Firefox 1.5.0.9 resolves this problem.  

Reproducible: Always




See <news://news.mozilla.org:119/mozilla.support.seamonkey>, thread with subject "NBC and flash".  

This bug report was submitted as an accommodation for "JD", a person who actually experienced the problem (but who apparently does not have a Bugzilla account).  Since I have a dial-up connection, I don't view videos online.  Thus, I have not verified the problem.  

I have informed "JD" that he or she is responsible for alerting the Web site's owner.

Comment 1

[Ant]

I was able to reproduce it and reported it to NBC via http://www.nbc.com/Footer/Technical_Support/ ...

Comment 2

[Biju]

http://www.nbc.com/the-apprentice/video/the-contenders/1246139/
http://www.nbc.com/the-apprentice/video/

Comment 3

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

I don't know whether comment 2 means "this works now" or "this still doesn't work" (or something else entirely), but I tried loading the first link there in Camino with the "like Firefox" portion of the UA string removed, and it just sits there endlessly on the "Loading Player Configuration" screen.

I have not, however, tried it with all my /etc/hosts blocking removed and with a fresh profile. If someone wants to give it a shot in the next 24 hours or so, please feel free. I can probably try this again in a couple days with everything disabled.

Comment 4

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

Current STR:

1) Load NBC video page in a Gecko browser without "Firefox" in the UA

ER: Video loads and begins playing
AR: Video loader displays endless "loading" screen

Comment 5

[Ant]

I used NBC.com a few weeks ago to watch Persons Unknown and some Apprentice clips, and still had the same problem. I had to change SeaMonkey v2.0.6's user agent to Firefox to make the videos work. :(

Comment 6

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> I used NBC.com a few weeks ago to watch Persons Unknown and some Apprentice
> clips, and still had the same problem.

Did you ever get a reply, or even any acknowledgement at all, when you contacted them before?

Might be time to try it again.

Comment 7

[Ant]

Nope from the one long time ago. I even sent another one recently. I don't think they care about us. We ALL need to do it.

Comment 8

[Rich Gray (:rbgray)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.16) Gecko/20101123 SeaMonkey/2.0.11 like Firefox

Still the case, but maybe this is irreverent with SM 2.1 raising the white flag and adding FF to the user agent string (as above).

Comment 9

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 SeaMonkey/2.26.1

With "Advertise Firefox compatibility" disabled, I was still able to view an NBC video.