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Open video files (MP4) with an external application in Ubuntu

  • 3 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by ienne

ienne
ienne
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I have exactly the same problem described here 

  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/959889

and here 

  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/959839

that is, exactly what the title of the question says. The problem is that I am under Linux/Ubuntu and the solutions reported in the links above do not seem to apply (there is no media.windows-media-foundation.enabled in about:config since, as the name says, it is a Windows option). I noticed here 

  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20061175/mp4-not-supported-in-firefox

that native Firefox support for MP4 was disabled until version 26 under Linux/Ubuntu. From the release dates available here 

  https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/

it looks I have been screwed up by an update a couple of days ago--which matches my experience, as until a few days ago everything was perfectly fine (I want to use VLC to open .m4v files).

Anyone knows some magic knob to revert? Shall I reinstall Firefox 25, if I manage? I played randomly with a few options in about:config (with names suggesting possibly some appropriate behaviour) but nothing good happened....

Thanks in advance for any help!

p.

I have exactly the same problem described here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/959889 and here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/959839 that is, exactly what the title of the question says. The problem is that I am under Linux/Ubuntu and the solutions reported in the links above do not seem to apply (there is no media.windows-media-foundation.enabled in about:config since, as the name says, it is a Windows option). I noticed here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20061175/mp4-not-supported-in-firefox that native Firefox support for MP4 was disabled until version 26 under Linux/Ubuntu. From the release dates available here https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/ it looks I have been screwed up by an update a couple of days ago--which matches my experience, as until a few days ago everything was perfectly fine (I want to use VLC to open .m4v files). Anyone knows some magic knob to revert? Shall I reinstall Firefox 25, if I manage? I played randomly with a few options in about:config (with names suggesting possibly some appropriate behaviour) but nothing good happened.... Thanks in advance for any help! p.

Chosen solution

On Linux you can look at the media.gstreamer.enabled pref. You need to have the proper GStreamer plugins installed.

  • Bug 794282 - Enable GStreamer in official builds
Read this answer in context 👍 3

All Replies (3)

ienne
ienne Question owner
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Ok, installed back 25.0.1 and everything works like a charm! Never, never update--when will I learn?!...

p.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

On Linux you can look at the media.gstreamer.enabled pref. You need to have the proper GStreamer plugins installed.

  • Bug 794282 - Enable GStreamer in official builds
ienne
ienne Question owner
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cor-el, thanks! It is perfect: I have no idea what the GStreamer plugin is, but simply by setting media.gstreamer.enabled to false I can have VLC open .m4v files and everything is back working fine even with 26.0 now. One wonders why this kind of options are not visible to all humans in the Options > Applications menu where normal people would look for them, instead of being so hidden and obscure that only some wizards can magically locate them....

p.