Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Webm video stopped working in Firefox 4 and Chrome

  • 4 replies
  • 13 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by Quaker120

more options

Ok, evidently this just happened over night. I don't know what is going on, and after googling for hours, i'm not finding anyone else with the SAME issue.

My site uses the webm video and audio format. Today i woke up to find that it was no longer working*. Here's what's going on:

Example video: http://thesocialexpo.com/?a=SMMM_Multimedia_Display&id=12984049790379189

Browser: Firefox: The video will play, if you right click and select "play", but the video CONTROLS do not show up, unless you tell the video to go wide or full screen. If you mouseover the video element, you can see javascript errors in firefox's chrome module for the video element. The error is:

Error: this.video is null Source File: chrome://global/content/bindings/videocontrols.xml Line: 394

In the chrome component for the video element, that block of code is:

               get dynamicControls() {
                   // Don't fade controls for <audio> elements.
                   var enabled = !this.isAudioOnly;
                   // Allow tests to explicitly suppress the fading of controls.
                   if (this.video.hasAttribute("mozNoDynamicControls"))
                       enabled = false;
                   // If the video hits an error, suppress controls if it
                   // hasn't managed to do anything else yet.
                   if (!this.firstFrameShown && (this.video.error || this.video.networkState == this.video.NETWORK_NO_SOURCE))
                       enabled = false;
                   return enabled;
               },


Browser: Chrome: The video player's controls show up, but it will not play AT ALL.

Browser: Opera: Everything is fine.

Browser: Firefox on Windows: Everything is fine.

The firefox build that i'm using is from the Remi repo.

I have done NO updates of my system in about a week, so that can't be it, as this was FINE yesterday.

My server is returning the correct mime type. I've rebooted my server, just in case, and it made no difference.

I've also checked out other webm video examples on the internet, and it seems like they won't play at all in firefox suddenly, but SOME of them DO play in chrome.

Chrome on windows: controls show up, but video doesn't work at all.

Ok, evidently this just happened over night. I don't know what is going on, and after googling for hours, i'm not finding anyone else with the SAME issue. My site uses the webm video and audio format. Today i woke up to find that it was no longer working*. Here's what's going on: Example video: http://thesocialexpo.com/?a=SMMM_Multimedia_Display&id=12984049790379189 Browser: Firefox: The video will play, if you right click and select "play", but the video CONTROLS do not show up, unless you tell the video to go wide or full screen. If you mouseover the video element, you can see javascript errors in firefox's chrome module for the video element. The error is: Error: this.video is null Source File: chrome://global/content/bindings/videocontrols.xml Line: 394 In the chrome component for the video element, that block of code is: get dynamicControls() { // Don't fade controls for <audio> elements. var enabled = !this.isAudioOnly; // Allow tests to explicitly suppress the fading of controls. if (this.video.hasAttribute("mozNoDynamicControls")) enabled = false; // If the video hits an error, suppress controls if it // hasn't managed to do anything else yet. if (!this.firstFrameShown && (this.video.error || this.video.networkState == this.video.NETWORK_NO_SOURCE)) enabled = false; return enabled; }, Browser: Chrome: The video player's controls show up, but it will not play AT ALL. Browser: Opera: Everything is fine. Browser: Firefox on Windows: Everything is fine. The firefox build that i'm using is from the Remi repo. I have done NO updates of my system in about a week, so that can't be it, as this was FINE yesterday. My server is returning the correct mime type. I've rebooted my server, just in case, and it made no difference. I've also checked out other webm video examples on the internet, and it seems like they won't play at all in firefox suddenly, but SOME of them DO play in chrome. Chrome on windows: controls show up, but video doesn't work at all.

Modified by ionisis

All Replies (4)

more options

No problems here on Linux with the controls on that video.

Did you try the right-click context menu?

more options

Yeah, the option is there when you right click, but that's not the problem. Most users will not think to right click because the controls should be showing up.

Are the controls showing up for you, on page load, without ANY extra effort? If so, what is your OS (i'm guessing it's Ubuntu)?

more options

Ok, this also works in IE9, Chrome, and Firefox on Windows with no problems. Again, Chrome Linux is like Russian Roulette, and Opera is pretty good, but Firefox will NOT show the controls until / unless the video is resized first. So, it appears that this is a firefox-linux only issue...

more options

> Browser: Chrome: The video player's controls show up, but it will not play AT ALL.

Also seeing this problem on Chrome 11, Mac OS 10.6