Firefox Community Forum

For the last two years the issues with video stutter have been worse and worse for me. I don't know if it is because of a different codec the video is using, but if it was I would expect the fans to ramp up from trying to decode it. Instead, my laptop stays always silent, but the video laggs like crazy when I want to play it at native 1440p.

I cannot view or change the video codec, since the current issue happens on a platform (herohero.com) other than youtube.

Particularly on US news sites, inline / spot videos still auto-play despite the FF preference set to block audio and video. Mercifully, audio isn't playing. This seems to be a fairly recent problem since the last couple / few updates; not really certain.

Hello everybody, i hope you are having a great day!. I have a problem with Youtube about the frames drops, in 1080p60fps i have drops but in 1080p normal don't. For system operative i'm using Fedora 43. And the Firefox version is the 145.0.1 64 bits. My specs are low: Intel i5 6200u with his integrated graphics (Intel HD 520) Already installed the extension h264ify, and i think i have all the correct drivers and codecs from the rpmfusion (ffmpeg, mesa freeworld) If u need more detail and information i can give it to you. Thanks for anyone that is interested in help me.

I've noticed that Youtube videos on Firefox are far more washed out when compared to Google Chrome. HDR is enabled on my Monitor and in Windows 11; however, the issue is present for standard SDR videos as well. Any idea what is going on here?

There's already a decent help article about how to block videos from autoplaying:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-autoplay

The problem is, it works haphazardly. Even if my default for all web sites is "Block Audio and Video", on some web sites (not all) embedded videos still start playing as soon as they scroll into viewport.

Some have adviced to delve into about:config and set media.autoplay.blocking_policy to 2 (default is 0) and, based on quick testing, that actually seems to help but why exactly does it help? If privacy settings already have a setting to block autoplay, why does that particular configuration change make it work as it is supposed to work?

Running Floorp 12.5.0 (Firefox offshoot) on Win11, if that helps.

Hello,

I am having an issue with my Bluetooth headphones (Sennheiser HD 450BT) in Firefox on Windows 11.

The headphones are properly connected to Windows and work correctly with other browsers (Edge, Chrome).

Windows shows the headphones as the default output device (stereo), and test sounds play through them.

However, in Firefox, the audio does not go through the headphones. Instead, it plays very loudly through the laptop speakers.

The problem started today; there were no issues for about a year.

I have tried reconnecting/reinstalling the headphones, but it did not help. Drivers are also up to date.

Could you please advise how to make Firefox correctly use my Bluetooth headphones as the audio output device?

Thank you for your assistance.

Context

While playing YouTube videos in Firefox, intermittent crackling appears after a few minutes of playback. This report documents detailed testing that demonstrates the issue is not related to the DAC, USB interface, or system hardware, and is exclusive to Firefox.

2. System Configuration

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X @ 43 °C

RAM: 64 GB DDR4 dual-channel (16-20-20-38 @ 1572 MHz)

Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 (AM4) @ 54 °C

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (audio drivers disabled, audio hardware off)

Monitors: LG HDR WFHD 2560x1080@60Hz and IPS236 1920x1080@60Hz

Storage: Multiple SSD and HDD SATA drives (500 GB – 2 TB)

Audio: Realtek High Definition Audio disabled; iFi nano/UNO DAC connected via USB with power filtering, using Exclusive Mode / ASIO

3. Tests Performed 3.1 DAC and USB Validation

Continuous playback of PCM 384 kHz/24‑bit and DSD256 via Roon/ASIO.

Duration: over 25 minutes of uninterrupted DSD256 playback.

Result: no crackling, pops, or errors.

Conclusion: DAC, firmware, USB cables, ports, and power supply are fully operational; heavy data load does not cause errors.

3.2 Browser Comparison

Chrome (YouTube, identical conditions): continuous playback without crackling.

Firefox (YouTube, identical conditions): crackling progressively appears minutes into playback, temporarily disappearing when the video is paused.

3.3 Isolation of Variables

USB motherboard ports and original drivers fully tested.

GPU audio drivers and hardware disabled.

Windows Shared Mode off, Exclusive Mode enabled.

Predefined audio formats set according to DAC preferences.

USB power management disabled.

DAC temperature stable; no overheating observed.

4. Technical Conclusion

Hardware: DAC, USB, cables, power, firmware, and GPU are not the cause of the crackling.

Operating System: Windows 11 is correctly configured; Exclusive Mode / ASIO works without errors.

Browser: Firefox is the only element consistently reproducing the issue.

Most Likely Cause: Firefox’s buffer management and audio sandboxing interacting with Windows, causing intermittent interruptions in audio flow.

Summary: All hardware and OS factors have been tested and validated: DAC, USB, cables, power supply, firmware, GPU, and temperature do not produce crackling. The only consistent factor is Firefox, making this a software-bound issue.

Engineering Note: This diagnosis conclusively demonstrates that the intermittent audio crackling on YouTube is caused exclusively by Firefox on Windows 11, independent of DAC or USB hardware. The issue should be investigated at the browser level, specifically how Firefox handles continuous digital audio streams and buffers on Windows.

In Firefox, I have audio and video autoplay blocked globally, and added an exception for one particular website (Discord). However, Discord now only autoplays videos once, but doesn't loop them as it should (they implemented GIFs as videos, but now they don't loop).

Of course this could be interpreted as a bug in Discord's web client. However, there shouldn't be a difference between a website that got an exception and autoplay being globally allowed. Therefore i suspect that there is a bug in firefox where some property, state, or hint is set differently depending on whether a page has been added to exceptions or autoplay is allowed globally.

Is there anything i can do to work around this? I really want an autoplay exception to actually work as expected (the website doesn't need to know that it's special)