Resolved YouTube Videos won't play in Firefox but play in IE

I can't get any videos to play in YouTube in Firefox 3.5.3, but they play with no problem in IE6 (soon to be discontinued). My installed add-ons are: Adblock Plus 1.1.1 Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper 1.0.6 BitDefender QuickScanner 0.9.7.4 CoolPreviews 2.7.6.0623 Distrust 0.8.1 Enhanced History Manager 0.5.8.05.1 Fasterfox 3.0.4 Forecastfox 0.9.10.1 Greasemonkey 0.8.20090920.2 History Submenus 1.35 Inline Google Definitions 1.0 Inline Translator 0.6 IsAdmin 2.1 Java Console 6.0.13 Java Console 6.0.14 Java Quick Starter 1.0 Nice Translator 0.3 Nightly Tester Tools 2.0.2 NoScript 1.9.9.07 Organize Status Bar 0.6.3 QuoteURLText 1.0.9b RAMBack 1.0 Read it Later 0.9947 Screengrab 0.96.2 StatusbarEx 0.2.19 Stylish 1.0.6 Tab Mix Plus 0.3.8.2pre.091007 Unofficial Google Translate Firefox extension 1.4 Wayback machine toolbar button 0.1 Yet Another Smooth Scrolling 2.0.22 I just updated to the latest versions of Flash, Java and Javascript and I've tried running Firefox in Safe Mode but it doesn't make any difference. The video box just doesn't appear at all in FF. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. Frank D BTW: Starting today I can't format the text I type into this BBS's posts (my second of the day). Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

Above is the version of this post that I entered in Firefox. Below is the version I entered in IE6:

I can't get any videos to play in YouTube in Firefox 3.5.3, but they play with no problem in IE6 (soon to be discontinued).

My installed add-ons are:
Adblock Plus 1.1.1
Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper 1.0.6
BitDefender QuickScanner 0.9.7.4
CoolPreviews 2.7.6.0623
Distrust 0.8.1
Enhanced History Manager 0.5.8.05.1
Fasterfox 3.0.4
Forecastfox 0.9.10.1
Greasemonkey 0.8.20090920.2
History Submenus 1.35
Inline Google Definitions 1.0
Inline Translator 0.6
IsAdmin 2.1
Java Console 6.0.13
Java Console 6.0.14
Java Quick Starter 1.0
Nice Translator 0.3
Nightly Tester Tools 2.0.2
NoScript 1.9.9.07
Organize Status Bar 0.6.3
QuoteURLText 1.0.9b
RAMBack 1.0
Read it Later 0.9947
Screengrab 0.96.2
StatusbarEx 0.2.19
Stylish 1.0.6
Tab Mix Plus 0.3.8.2pre.091007
Unofficial Google Translate Firefox extension 1.4
Wayback machine toolbar button 0.1
Yet Another Smooth Scrolling 2.0.22

I just updated to the latest versions of Flash, Java and Javascript and I've tried running Firefox in Safe Mode but it doesn't make any difference. The video box just doesn't appear at all in FF.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Frank D

BTW: Starting today I can't format the text I type into this BBS's posts using Firefox (my second post with this problem of the day). Any suggestions? Thanks.

Looks like FF 3.5.3 is giving me problems in more ways than one!

 

I have WinXP, and have been using IE8 for, at least, one year. And, I am using Firefox3.0.14, and 3.5.3. I prefer 3.0.14, because it is not such hog, but none give me any problem with YouTube. Can you give a link to one of the failing views?
You may want to consider creating a new profile . You may have some widespread problem, and profiles are at fault 9 times out of 10.

 

Westside, Here's a link to a video page (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQCe6N_m6cg) that is typical of all that I open -- no video at all (just closed-up text with no trace of a video) for me to view, yet thumbnails of other videos on the same page are all visible. If I click on any of those thumbnails, a new page will open, but there will be no video frame. In addition, when I go to view my Picasa web albums, there are no albums visible on my page although I have around 50, and I get the following message: "You are using a browser that is not fully supported. Some features may not work too well, but you are welcome to have a look around." What? This is Picasa 3.5.3 -- how could it not be supported? This all seems to have happened in the last few days or so because I was working on a Picasa web album successfully no more than a week ago. I'd like to try your suggestion and create a new profile, but can you tell me if I'll lose anything in doing so? Thanks. Frank

 

My previous post shows what I just typed in Firefox, the text below shows what I typed in IE6:

Westside,
Here's a link to a video page (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQCe6N_m6cg) that is typical of all that I open -- no video at all (just closed-up text with no trace of a video) for me to view, yet thumbnails of other videos on the same page are all visible. If I click on any of those thumbnails, a new page will open, but there will be no video frame.

In addition, when I go to view my Picasa web albums, there are no albums visible on my page although I have around 50, and I get the following message: "You are using a browser that is not fully supported. Some features may not work too well, but you are welcome to have a look around." What? This is Picasa 3.5.3 -- how could it not be supported?

This all seems to have happened in the last few days or so because I was working on a Picasa web album successfully no more than a week ago.

I'd like to try your suggestion and create a new profile, but can you tell me if I'll lose anything in doing so? Thanks.

Frank

Quick thought: I'll download a fresh copy of the latest FF and install it over the current one to see if that makes any difference.

 

Reinstalling a fresh copy of Firefox 3.5.3 over itself did nothing. Same problems. I'll now try the new profile procedure. >>> Frank D

 

Not too tech savvy but I have similar symptoms from time to time. I discovered, in my case, that all I had to do was open No Script and click on "Temporarily Allow . . ." and You tube works quite well. Just tried it with no problems. Or have you gone thru that already?

Using XP SP2, FF 3.5.3

HTH,

Bob

 

Bob seems to have it right. I, never, thought much of some addons, which are of little advantage, and a lot of trouble. I am listening to the music, and can watch the video.
Of course, I don't use No Script. I have five addons installed, and any time there is something funny, I blame the addons, not the browser. I wish that more people would limit the number of addons, and look at them for what they are not, i.e. part of Firefox.

 

Bob,

Thanks for your suggestion. I have always had NoScript set to always allow everything on the YouTube website, so yes I've gone through that. Thanks!

Frank

 

Westside,
I can see your logic in trying to keep it lean. However, IMO it can't be my add-ons that are causing the problems, because I tried running Firefox in Safe Mode, which turns off all add-ons, and it made no difference. The problems were still there. Thanks.

Frank

 

OK, everyone, now to cut to the bottom line. I apologize to everyone because, after what I've just done, I've probably erased all evidence of what was causing some of my problems in Firefox.

I was all ready to do the new profile procedure when I stopped short and did what I should have done in the first place: I restored my FF profile from a backup (which I forgot I did on 9/30/09 [12 days ago]), and two out of three of my problems are gone.

I can now format my text in FF again and I can see all my web albums in PicasaWeb. However, I still can't see any videos in YouTube in FF. So I'm 2/3rds happy.

Can anyone supply the missing link and help me figure out why two things were fixed but YouTube still won't work?

Frank

 

For any interested parties, here is a clue:

Knowing that YouTube videos will play on my PC in IE6, on a hunch I installed the FF add-on Coral IE Tab, then restarted FF. I went to a YouTube site and tried to play a video normally, but the page showed up with no video frame. I then switched to the IE rendering engine by clicking on the status bar icon. The video frame still didn't show up, but a message appeared and said that I needed to install Flash, so I followed the prompts and installed the latest version of Flash. I then refreshed the YouTube page and still got no video, so I clicked on the status bar icon again to switch to IE. VOILA!!! This time, In Firefox, using the IE engine, my video frame appeared and the video played just as it should.

Bottom line: I can't get videos to play in Firefox using the native rendering engine, but they will play using the IE rendering engine.

This ploy may work for now and be a workaround to my problem, but it may not solve my problem if IE is discontinued. Does anyone know what will happen if it is?

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Frank D

 

Surely, if you started Firefox in Safe Mode, addons should disabled. But, are they all disabled? I may have missed something important, but I got the music (and the video) of the provided link. to play in the native rendering engine in FF3.5.3. As well as any video.

 

Westside,
That's a question I can't answer. I have to assume (not being a programmer, etc.) that if FF says they are all disabled, they are.

Yes, I admit that you can get videos to play in the FF rendering engine, but I can't. Therein is my problem. However, at this point, with the Coral IE Tab add-on installed in FF all I have to do is click on its status bar icon and the video plays normally. So I'm happy.

Frank

 

Hi Frank, I just checked both FF 3.5 & IE8 and Youtube runs perfectly in both. I use ImToo if I want to Download to PC. Neil.

 

Neil,

Thanks for checking. I wish I could get my YouTube videos to play in FF, but... As long as I can see them in IE, I'm fine.

Frank

 

As they used to say in those 1930's English movies, "By George, I think I've got it!!! "

I had a little brainstorm: using Coral IE Tab, I got a video playing in an IE window and I right-clicked in the middle of the frame. The Flash Player menu appeared. Just to see what it might do, I thought I'd try changing a setting or two. The first tab was Display and on that was a single check-box with "Hardware acceleration" next to it. It was unchecked, so I checked it. This made no difference and the video continued playing. Then, just to see what might happen, I clicked on the Coral IE Tab icon on the task bar to switch back to Firefox. After the window redrew, LO and BEHOLD! The video frame appeared in the Firefox window! And when I clicked on the Play button the video started playing!!!

At this moment, it looks like all my troubles were caused by video acceleration being turned off. Whoopee!!!

Thanks to all for your suggestions! I'm going to mark this one solved.

Frank D