Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Cuireadh an snáithe seo sa chartlann. Cuir ceist nua má tá cabhair uait.

Youtube gives me an error that says I can't view html5. When I click on the faq, I get the Firefox home page.

haveforkwilltravel
haveforkwilltravel
more options

I am running an old computer using XP. All I want to do on this computer is view Virtual Railfan live streaming videos. When I try to view a video, it says that my browser doesn't recognize any of the video formats available. Then it points me to a html5 faq. When I click on that I go to Firefox home page and it wants me to download Firefox. I already have downloaded the latest Firefox. Is there a workaround for this?

I am running an old computer using XP. All I want to do on this computer is view Virtual Railfan live streaming videos. When I try to view a video, it says that my browser doesn't recognize any of the video formats available. Then it points me to a html5 faq. When I click on that I go to Firefox home page and it wants me to download Firefox. I already have downloaded the latest Firefox. Is there a workaround for this?

Réiteach roghnaithe

OK Jefferson, thanks. I was afraid of that. I've already transferred all the data files from that PC to the one that is running win10. I'll wipe that drive and do a clean install of win10. The kids at Microsoft like to do these kinds of things. But it's easier to play along instead of writing a good OS, and as an octogenarian, easy is what I am looking for. I appreciate your help.

Cheers!

Paul

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

As you probably know, Firefox does not included the patented software required to decode H.264/MP4 video. It uses components supplied by Microsoft (Media Foundation) which were never released for XP, only Vista and later. So unless YouTube has the video in another format such as WebM, you are out of luck. To confirm that your Firefox can indeed play WebM VP8 video, you can test using this page (I cribbed Google's old code):

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/sumo/html5-video.html

The problem with LIVE is that it may not yet be available in WebM video until a few hours later.

Maybe you can grab the stream using VLC? I'm not familiar with how people do it.

haveforkwilltravel
haveforkwilltravel Úinéir na ceiste
more options

Réiteach Roghnaithe

OK Jefferson, thanks. I was afraid of that. I've already transferred all the data files from that PC to the one that is running win10. I'll wipe that drive and do a clean install of win10. The kids at Microsoft like to do these kinds of things. But it's easier to play along instead of writing a good OS, and as an octogenarian, easy is what I am looking for. I appreciate your help.

Cheers!

Paul