[RESOLVED]Webm/video placeholder buggy/missing on some sites

[Guest]

I'm using Firefox 51.0.1. I noticed that in the past couple of days webms and similar web videos have started to act strangely. I have Noscript set up so that in order to enable them I need to click the nocript placeholder icon first. But on imgur when a video file is on the page, instead of a placeholder icon I simply get a blank video window. If I right click the window it shows the same menu as I would get right clicking a working video. If I refresh the page imgur senses that the video file didn't work, so it plays a gif instead and adds a placeholder icon for the video at the bottom. If I click that placeholder icon and enable it, the page refreshes again and this time it plays the video properly.

As a test I tried some other sites that uses webms, on 4chan I have images and videos set to expand instead of open a new page. When I click to open a webm it creates a small black box with an X and the words "Video format or MIME is not supported. If I refresh the 4chan page the box turns into the proper WEBM placeholder with the green triangle logo and Noscript overlay, but only for a split second BEFORE the page reloads itself. Once the page reloads and I try to open the webm again the same thing happens, very strange. Webm files linked on reddit also act like this. This doesn't happen on all websites/types of video, for instance youtube gives me the proper placeholder to activate video codecs like OPUS and allow videos to run. It seems to be limited to webm files specifically and the mp4 video format that imgur uses. I don't think the problem is Firefox either, because if I open webm files in a separate window I get the proper placeholder and the video works fine.

I'm fairly certain the problem has something to do with NoScript because it updated a few days ago when the problem appeared and the issue is only with the placeholder icons. The actual videos work fine if opened directly instead of being embedded.

[barbaz]

Links please?

[Guest]

Okay lets see...

Here's a typical 4chan thread post with attached webm, I have the page set to expand the webm window on the same page instead of opening a new browser tab, it might not do that by default. You may have to change the page settings, the button for that is at the bottom right corner of the page next to the Home link.

https://boards.4chan.org/tg/thread/52048391#p52048725

Here is the link to the webm itself, the placeholder on this works fine for me but the embedding doesn't.

https://i.4cdn.org/tg/1488838781145.webm

On Imgur things are a little different, here is a post with a video. The video screen loads, but the video itself is blank and doesn't do anything. If I reload this screen it replaces the video with a gif and adds an mp4 placeholder below and to the left of the gif. If I click on that placeholder and enable it the page refreshes and plays the video properly this time.

http://imgur.com/gallery/LTavs

This is the link directly to the same video posted on that imgur page. This works perfectly fine, the placeholder loads properly and the video works once enabled.

http://i.imgur.com/o7bKzF4.mp4

[barbaz]

The 4chan boards link appears to be blocked here. Not sure where or why.

However, the direct link to the 4chan video loads fine. I'm not seeing any problem there.

On Imgur things are a little different, here is a post with a video. The video screen loads, but the video itself is blank and doesn't do anything. If I reload this screen it replaces the video with a gif and adds an mp4 placeholder below and to the left of the gif. If I click on that placeholder and enable it the page refreshes and plays the video properly this time.

http://imgur.com/gallery/LTavs

As soon as I Temp-Allow imgur.com, the mp4 video starts playing.

Do you have selected NoScript Options > Embeddings, "Apply these restrictions to whitelisted sites too"?

[Guest]

Yes the "Apply these restrictions to whitelisted sites too" checkbox is ticked. Should I be disabling that option? The way I've use Noscript is that it blocks ALL videos with a placeholder, even on whitelisted sites. I prefer it this way because I tend to open tabs before I can look at them and this prevents the videos from playing automatically. The problem I'm getting now has only cropped up in the past few days. It seems like Noscript is failing to replace the videos with a placeholder before they load into the page. The videos don't work because I haven't given them permission through the placeholder yet so they just show a black screen, but at the same time the placeholder can't load because the video is already there.

Not sure what changed but I've been doing it this way for years and it's only now that the placeholders are failing to load.

[barbaz]

Ok, getting warmer, but still not quite there?

If I reload this screen it replaces the video with a gif and adds an mp4 placeholder below and to the left of the gif. If I click on that placeholder and enable it the page refreshes and plays the video properly this time.

With "Apply these restrictions to whitelisted sites too" ticked, I get this. That is, just the part I quoted.

But I'm still not reproducing this part -

The video screen loads, but the video itself is blank and doesn't do anything.

Instead, when I revoke temporary permissions and try again, I'm hitting this bug - viewtopic.php?f=10&t=22274

[Guest]

The only things that have changed in my Firefox during the last month is Firefox updating itself, and Noscript/Ublock Origin/Flash all updated about 2 days ago. I don't think Flash could do this and I tested things with Ublock turned off and got the same problem.

Here's a picture of how things look on my end. The placeholder does appear if the page is refreshed but only for a split second, this indicates that Noscript is capable of generating a placeholder it just isn't doing it properly, or the video window is hiding or covering it up some how. Rather bizarre.

[therube]

Sounds just like, 5.0rc2 & Video Being Blocked.

Though that said, 4chan seems to be working fine for me.

By default, left clicking a clip causes it to open in a new tab, where it starts to play - automatically.
Apply these restrictions, & I get the placeholder, click it, & it plays as expected.

Changing [SeaMonkey] settings to open the link in the current page, & I see the same.

[therube]

I'm not getting 4chan to fail.

As a test, create a new, clean Profile, install only NoScript (5.0, release) & test.

(Thinking could be some other video related Prefs you may have change are having an affect?)

[therube]

On Imgur things are a little different, here is a post with a video. The video screen loads, but the video itself is blank and doesn't do anything. If I reload this screen it replaces the video with a gif and adds an mp4 placeholder below and to the left of the gif. If I click on that placeholder and enable it the page refreshes and plays the video properly this time.

I'm getting the .gif immediately on the load of the page.
I also get the mp4 placeholder, below & to the left of the .gif.


If 'Apply these restrictions to whitelisted sites too' is enabled, I get .gif.
Disabled, I get .mp4.

[therube]

Three Stooges still fails for me - with 5.0rc2.

Works with 2.9.5.3rc6 & 5.0rc1.

[Guest]

I tried with a clean profile but there was no change. Win 7 64-bit using Firefox 51.0.1 32-bit. I used the profile manager to generate a new completely stock profile. I then installed Noscript 5 through the addon menu and tried the 4chan page and imgur. The exact same thing happened as last time.

With allow embedding for whitelisted sites turned OFF everything happens exactly the same as the pic I posted above.

With allow embedding for whitelisted sites turned ON the 4chan webms play immediately with no placeholder, and the imgur videos work on page load if I first enable the right domains.

So it can't have been any of the addons and I don't have anything else running on this computer other than Steam.

[Guest]

My noscript patched this morning to 5.0.1 and everything works again. I tested imgur and 4chan and both display webm/videos properly.

Still not sure what the problem was but it's gone now.

[barbaz]

Great! Thanks for reporting back.