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How to play HTML5 videos on video.pbs.org under Linux?

  • 3 replies
  • 7 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by wsha

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With Firefox in Linux, when I try to view a video on video.pbs.org, I see a black rectangle with the message "Error loading player: No playable sources found." I do not have Flash installed in any form on my computer and the videos play fine under Chromium or GNOME Web, so it seems like they are using HTML5 and I am not missing a codec. I tried using a new profile with Firefox 40 and Firefox 42 (Nightly) (with and without Safe Mode) but the behavior was the same as the above. I have the H264 plugin installed. From looking in Chromium, it seems the videos use JW Player. Is there anything that can be done to get these videos to play under Firefox? If not, is there a bug tracking the problem and if not what information would be helpful to provide in opening a new bug report about this?

With Firefox in Linux, when I try to view a video on video.pbs.org, I see a black rectangle with the message "Error loading player: No playable sources found." I do not have Flash installed in any form on my computer and the videos play fine under Chromium or GNOME Web, so it seems like they are using HTML5 and I am not missing a codec. I tried using a new profile with Firefox 40 and Firefox 42 (Nightly) (with and without Safe Mode) but the behavior was the same as the above. I have the H264 plugin installed. From looking in Chromium, it seems the videos use JW Player. Is there anything that can be done to get these videos to play under Firefox? If not, is there a bug tracking the problem and if not what information would be helpful to provide in opening a new bug report about this?

All Replies (3)

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Hi wsha, How does the JWplayer work with the codecs that you are watching? EDIT: apologies I found it: http://support.jwplayer.com/customer/portal/articles/1403635-media-format-reference It relies on Flash and HTML5 player, but knowing an example where this is happening might be helpful. However it may be best to try it in a new profile and add the steps to reproduce to a bug in bugzilla.mozilla.org and http://support.jwplayer.com/

Modified by guigs

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I have this problem with all videos on the site. I know that some videos are not available outside the US but since I'm in the US it is hard for me to tell which videos will not work internationally. According to this page http://www.pbs.org/about/faq/troubleshoot/watching-online/, the videos here should work internationally: http://video.pbs.org/feature/86/

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video.pbs.org updated to JW Player 7 and now videos play in Firefox on Linux without Flash.