I-Firefox Community Forum

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)

Reposting until I get help from someone. Windows/desktop. On Google Chrome, any streaming website I used with autoplay enabled would KEEP full screen mode ON after changing episodes. It would automatically go to a new page with the following episode and remain full screen. Why doesn't Firefox have this feature?? I'm seriously considering going back to Google Chrome for this one small feature. Every time I had any streaming service playing with autoplay enabled, I didn't have to manually select the full screen option every time. I am having to stand up and manually click full screen function. Every. Single. Time. Somebody please help me if there's a way to active that function.

When I listen to music via Firefox, my computer goes into sleep mode after 15 minutes (windows close and password is required)^)^. I've looked everywhere to find a solution to this problem, but I can't find one... Can you help me?

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.

Issue Description: I’m experiencing a problem with fullscreen mode while using YouTube on Firefox on Windows 11 with a dual-monitor setup. When I enter fullscreen, the video does not cover the entire screen. Instead, I can still see parts of the Windows desktop or background around the edges of the display.

This issue only happens on Firefox and only when using fullscreen mode on one of my monitors. I have already checked my display settings, scaling, alignment, and hardware acceleration, but the problem persists.

System Details:

Windows 11

Dual-monitor setup

Browser: Firefox (latest version)

Issue: Fullscreen video shows borders and does not fully cover the screen

Expected Behavior: The fullscreen video should completely fill the selected monitor without showing any part of the Windows desktop.

Please advise on how to resolve this issue.