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gifv is showed and saved instead of WebM

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

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When you have a .webm link (like this: http://i.imgur.com/tZCbS0T.webm), why is a .gifv file loaded instead of .webm and why cant I save a file as .webm in firefox to the hdd?

Firefox can play .webm files without problems if opened from the hdd, so the support is there (use FF v46).

It is really annoying because .gifv really sucks because it takes so insane much bandwidth and space. The gifv file Acrazy 60MB but the same file in .webm only takes neat 2MB.

In chrome the link plays the .webm file, but not in firefox. And in chrome when a .gifv file is saved, it is also saved as a .webm instead of .gifv which is also great. Why dont it work like this is Firefox too? When will it come?

When you have a .webm link (like this: http://i.imgur.com/tZCbS0T.webm), why is a .gifv file loaded instead of .webm and why cant I save a file as .webm in firefox to the hdd? Firefox can play .webm files without problems if opened from the hdd, so the support is there (use FF v46). It is really annoying because .gifv really sucks because it takes so insane much bandwidth and space. The gifv file Acrazy 60MB but the same file in .webm only takes neat 2MB. In chrome the link plays the .webm file, but not in firefox. And in chrome when a .gifv file is saved, it is also saved as a .webm instead of .gifv which is also great. Why dont it work like this is Firefox too? When will it come?

All Replies (8)

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When I load

http://i.imgur.com/tZCbS0T.webm

the site redirects to

http://i.imgur.com/tZCbS0T.gifv

(Screen shot attached)

To save the video in its native WebM format, try one of these:

  • right-click the player, then Save Video As
  • call up the Page Info dialog, click to the Media tab, select the video, click Save As

Page Info is available from the classic Tools menu, or by right-clicking a blank area of the page and choosing View Page Info.

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I'm using Firefox 44. Is Firefox 46 doing something different?

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jscher2000 said

When I load http://i.imgur.com/tZCbS0T.webm the site redirects to http://i.imgur.com/tZCbS0T.gifv (Screen shot attached) To save the video in its native WebM format, try one of these:
  • right-click the player, then Save Video As
  • call up the Page Info dialog, click to the Media tab, select the video, click Save As
Page Info is available from the classic Tools menu, or by right-clicking a blank area of the page and choosing View Page Info.

Yes, it is redirected to a gifv for some strange reason, which is the problem, even do .webm is supported. So it will consume much more bandwidth than necessary of your ISP GB quota (almost 30 times more for this file).

About saving... The normal way: right-click the player, then Save Video As only saves to .gifv for me. But the other way that I didnt know about, open Page Info/Media and then search for the .webm only saves the html file as a .webm file that is 7kb so that dont work either.

I think that the webm version should be loaded by default, not an .gifv, and normal saving work (right-click - save as).

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The site is responsible for redirecting Firefox, and the site selects the format to send.

I retested in a private window to bypass cache and cookies, and again got served WebM video despite the change of URL. (Screen shots attached.)

I can't find any indication that there's a new gifv feature in Firefox 46. Could it be one of your add-ons? Have you tested in Firefox's Safe Mode?

For quick reference: In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any difference? (More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode)

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This was confusing. So I downloaded a fresh copy firefox and installed it (44.0.2), 100% fresh, no addon at all and tested.

This is what I get... The .webm link is redirected to .gifv but in your screenshot this was the case too, but a .webm file is still loaded in the page, shown in your "inspector". And I checked and that is the case for me too. That is great. But because of the url I just assumed a gifv was loaded, but it is not. But strange firefox is redirected to .gifv in the url but not chrome and fools people to believe this, that the video would be a gifv when its not.

But saving is still a problem Tested a lot here and just get more and more confused. The strange thing I now noticed is that when saving, the first time a save dialog box is open a webm file could be save but when repeated only a gifv file could be saved (no reload or cache cleaned). With other words, for the same action different file format are chosen and it only gets correct when a webm could be saved the first time, all other times both with webm(via page info) and gifv, a 7kb file is saved that actually is a html file. When tested in a portable version of firefox (portablapps.com) the webm version in never shown the first time at all when I'm trying to save, for some strange reason.

So if I load a clean copy of the link (cache deleted). The first time I right-click on the video -> "save video as...", in the save dialog box, it says a .webm file would be saved (and it saves it correct), but if I close that dialog box and do the same thing directly again, without any reload, now the same save dialog box will instead save the video as a "(chrome html document) .gifv" file and when that is saved it will only be a 7kb big gifv file that is in fact a html file.

When trying saving true "page info/media" the same thing is valid, the webm file will only be saved correct when there is info about the file size, most time it will only say the file size is unknown or 0kb, when that is the chase, a 7kb webm file is save (actually html) instead of the video

If you try to save the file once again, will you get I correct webm video or a 7kb gifv or webm file?

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Yes, I see what you see, once it starts looping, or you reload it, the redirect from webm to gifv is very persistent.

Do you have better luck using the post page instead of the direct media link:

http://imgur.com/tZCbS0T

At least at the moment, right-click > Save Video As gets me webm.

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ok, it looks like there is some bug then with webm saving.

About the link without file extension, I get the same thing as before, webm works once and then only gifv (and in firefox portable the webm never works, which is odd that they dont work the same).

Thanks for all help anyways

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"Save Video As" in the right-click context menu offers to save the video as WebM for me in the current beta.

I see a 302 response for the WebM file:

GET /tZCbS0T.webm HTTP/1.1
Host: i.imgur.com
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Retry-After: 0
Location: http://i.imgur.com/tZCbS0T.gifv