We're calling on all EU-based Mozillians with iOS or iPadOS devices to help us monitor Apple’s new browser choice screens. Join the effort to hold Big Tech to account!

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

How do I get Firefox to support HCML5?

more options

I use Windows XP.

Youtube videos created with HTML 5 do not play.

I use Windows XP. Youtube videos created with HTML 5 do not play.

All Replies (1)

more options

Usually all of the formats EXCEPT H.264/MP4 can play. YouTube has a page to check that here: https://www.youtube.com/html5

If you do not at least have blue for HTMLVideoElement and WebM VP8, we'll need to have you check some settings.


(copy/paste) If you can play older videos but not new ones:

According to other users, YouTube recently dropped Flash formats, and now only uses an HTML5 video player. Firefox users on Windows XP are experiencing delays in when they can play new videos.

My theory on this is that the creator uploaded the video in a format that Firefox cannot decode on Windows XP (H.264/MP4) because Firefox requires the Microsoft Media Foundation and Microsoft only released it for Vista and later versions. However, Google transcodes videos to other formats in the background, so eventually a playable format becomes available.

There is a potential workaround for Firefox 52 Extended Support Release on Windows XP here (I haven't tried this myself): http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175591-enable-mp4-h264-aac-html5-video-in-firefox-on-windows-xp-without-flash/