You can play some types of audio and video content on web pages without a plugin. This article explains which media formats you can play and how to control, save, and open them.

Supported formats

Because the use of many audio and video file types is restricted by patents, a third-party application or plugin is required to use them. Firefox, however, is able to play natively open media and some types of patented media and some types of patented media.

Open media

Firefox can play the WAV container format (.wav, .wave file types) containing uncompressed audio in PCM at 8 or 16 bits per sample.

Vorbis audio, Opus audio, Theora video, and VP8 video are free audio/video compression formats for use without patent restrictions. They can be viewed in Firefox if they are embedded in the following container formats: Ogg (.ogg, .oga, .ogv, .ogx, .spx, .opus file types) or WebM (.webm file type).

Firefox also supports FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) playback (.flac file type).

Audio and video controls

Control bar

When you visit a website that includes supported media, you will see controls for managing playback when you hold the mouse pointer over the media on the page.

• Play button: Starts playback.
• Pause button: Stops playback once it has started.
• Position slider: Indicates how much time has elapsed since the beginning of the file. Drag the slider left or right to go back or forward.
• Volume control: Click to mute or unmute. Hover and drag the slider up or down to adjust the volume.

  

• Fullscreen button: Toggles fullscreen when in default size.
• Default size button: Restores the default size when in fullscreen.

Context menu controls

Keyboard controls

After you click on the media on a web page, to give it focus, you can control the playback with your keyboard.

Saving media files

To save an audio file from a web page to your computer:

1. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click on the audio controls and select Save Audio As….
2. Select a location on your computer to save the file.

To save a video file from a web page to your computer:

1. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click on the video controls and select Save Video As….
   • Select Save Snapshot As… if you only want to save the video snapshot.
2. Select a location on your computer to save the file.

Opening saved files

The media files you save from web pages may not play in your normal media player. To open these types of files:

1. Open Firefox.
2. Click Ctrl + Ocommand + O.
3. Navigate to the folder that contains the file you want to play and click Open.

Troubleshooting

If you are having problems with audio or video files, see:

• Fix common audio and video issues
• What to do if Firefox won't play any sounds