Some media on Twitter do not work

A Former User @leocg

@leocg i d/l slimjet 64 bit portable to that win 8.1 laptop and it plays both vids..

A Former User @leocg

@leocg I was going to try Chromium Portable itself, but Sourceforge is down right now. Will check it later.

I've tried Steam browser and it has the same problem.

It seems to me like this has something to do with new codecs (possibly used on some new devices) - such broken videos started appearing only recently. But I didn't find any good information about it. Everything is fine on https://www.youtube.com/html5 for me.

A Former User @leocg

@leocg I've tried ChromiumPortable_75.0.3738.0_Dev_32_64_bit.paf. It does not work.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

Maybe a Chromium issue with Windows 8.1 then.

A Former User @leocg

@leocg Ok, so that's it? Shouldn't Opera devs take care of it? As a user I should not care what kind of 3rd party piece of software Opera uses.

Opera devs could either issue a bug report to Chromium or solve the issue themselves (seeing Chrome is not affected). Or should I contact Chromium project and hope they solve this?

A Former User

Might this be an issue with 'portable' versions of opera?

I'm using opera 60 on windows 7 and that video plays fine.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

They will probably read this but you can make a bug report.
Don't forget to post the bug ID here for reference.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

Portable installation is no different than regular ones.

A Former User @Guest

@piwygin I've also checked on Windows 7 VM and it plays fine. The problem seems only related to how browsers output video content under Windows 8.1. Which is rather strange because it's only true for some browsers and my experience says Windows 8.1 is equal to Windows 7 in enough number of departments that should guarantee the same level of features support when it comes to basic software like web browsers.

Portable versions are totally fine, I only use them to isolate from anything that could be installed in local profile for the browser and could potentially change its behavior, e.g. plugins or extensions.

@leocg thanks for your replies.

A Former User

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=951705

Opera problem. Not related to Chromium.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest

@liandri said in Some videos on Twitter do not work:

This is a direct link to video:
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1115643600719818757/pu/vid/640x352/BEEPEYSFlB9xNTDZ.mp4

Opera uses the Windows Media Foundation (as opposed to ffmpeg like Chrome) to play h.264 videos like this. For it to work in Opera, it needs to work in Windows Media Player first and be supported by WMF (a DirectShow plug-in on Windows won't do it). Then it should work.

If you have an "N" version of Windows 8, you might need https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2929699/media-feature-pack-for-windows-8-1-n-and-windows-8-1-kn-editions-april.

However, I don't know Opera's status of support for Windows 8.1 and WMF. Maybe it only works for Win7 and Win10.

Test to see if the video works in Windows Media Player first.

You could also test in Vivaldi for another comparison. You just can't compare with Chrome or Chromium built with "all codecs".

A Former User @burnout426

@burnout426 My version of Windows 8.1 is not N. It's Corporate.

If I try to install Media Feature Pack you linked, I get error "This update is not applicable to your computer".

The video file plays fine in Windows Media Player. However I have LAVFilters installed. It doesn't play without that.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest

@liandri said in Some videos on Twitter do not work:

The video file plays fine in Windows Media Player. However I have LAVFilters installed. It doesn't play without that

Some Opera users of Windows 10 Enterprise have problems like this where h.264 is not supported by default and there's no media pack for it. You could be experiencing the same issue with Win8. Maybe there's a package in "Programs and Features" under Windows setup that's not installed by default. Or, you might have to search for a way to add a Windows Media Foundation h.264 transform to your Windows 8 Enterprise. Next chance I get, I'll test in Opera with regular Windows 8.1 to see how things works for me.

A Former User @burnout426

@burnout426 From what I see, there is no option for that in "Programs and Features". There is only an option for Windows Media Player itself, I guess it includes all the relevant codecs but it was already installed from the start.

Is there a serious enough reason for Opera to not use the same codecs Chrome uses?

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest

@liandri said in Some videos on Twitter do not work:

Is there a serious enough reason for Opera to not use the same codecs Chrome uses?

Yes. Licensing issues prevent Opera from using ffmpeg for proprietary codecs.

A Former User @burnout426

@burnout426 said in Some videos on Twitter do not work:

Yes. Licensing issues prevent Opera from using ffmpeg for proprietary codecs.

Then is it okay for resources like Twitter to use such codecs with problematic licensing to encode their content at all?

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest

@liandri Maybe not morally.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest

@liandri said in Some videos on Twitter do not work:

Example: https://twitter.com/AmosDonalo/status/1115643641568157700
I've verified this on latest Opera 60 Portable.
I'm on Windows 8.1 x64.

I had a chance to test that video on Win 8.1 x64 with 64-bit Opera 60.

Everything is fine on https://www.youtube.com/html5, but it doesn't play in Opera. The errors in opera://media-internals on the Twitter page all say that there are no supported streams in the file.

I downloaded the mp4 file and tried to play it in Windows Media Player, but it couldn't play it either (at first). However, after trying to play it multiple times, WMP said it was downloading a codec and updating itself. Then the video started playing in WMP just fine. However, that didn't make any difference for Opera (even after a restart).

My guess is that Windows 8.1 has no Windows Media Foundation h.264 and aac transforms that Opera can use to play the Twitter video. Therefore, I'm guessing you're SOL unless you update to Windows 10 (or maybe downgrade to 7).

Just for good measure, I tried playing the mp4 file locally in a tab in Opera, but it made no difference.

A Former User @burnout426

@burnout426 Thanks for testing.

Not going to downgrade or upgrade for now. It's Opera problem, and devs chose to ignore it. If it starts to annoy me enough I'll just switch to a different browser.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest

@liandri said in Some videos on Twitter do not work:

It's Opera problem

Yes.

devs chose to ignore it

In this case, it's a licensing issue. Opera can't use ffmpeg for proprietary codecs like h.264 and aac like Chrome does without facing legal issues. As a workaround, Opera attempts to use the system's media playback facilities. But, this is limited and requires that Windows supports things properly. With a lot of work, Opera could probably make use of DirectShow filters or something instead though for cases like this. But...