In all browsers (including Opera) and all other programs having a scroll bar, the right side of the GUI is reserved for the scroll bar. This allows the user to simply move the mouse to the far right very fast, knowing that it will land on nothing but the scroll bar. The scroll bar is on the far right side. There is nothing after it. So the user can move the mouse without checking where it is.

In the latest version of Opera, this has been disrupted. Now, there is this very thin column on the right side of the scroll bar.

This narrow interface column is totally useless and serves no purpose (other than to make the user crazy).

Now, every time the user moves the mouse to the right end of the interface, she will actually land it on that narrow column, instead of the scroll bar. And thinking that it is on the scroll bar, she will try to drag the scroll bar up or down. Now, every time she drags it (to relocate the scroll bar), it is the whole interface that gets re-positioned. Very ridiculous and counter-intuitive design. Sometimes, the webpage stops working and gets frozen by this dragging. I need to duplicate the tab and continue on the new tab.

This reminds me of the new design of Gmail, where such a narrow and ridiculous column exists after the scroll bar (on its right).

Old versions of Opera (until Opera 12, when it was not based on Chrome) used to be extremely advanced; in some aspects, it was much more advanced than Opera 104 (despite the fact that it was created about 15 years ago).

One of the features I enjoyed a lot on old Opera versions was its proxy / VPN settings. Opera's proxy did not depend solely on Windows proxy settings. Opera could use system proxy, but it also could use a second proxy set by the user. Moreover, it could also ignore system proxy and connect to the net directly. Lots of flexibility, intelligence, and power.

Today, only Firefox keeps such Windows-Independent proxy settings. All Chrome-based browsers lack it, and depend totally on Windows' proxy. Very dumb. Please be so kind as to implement this feature back into the Chrome-based Opera.

ps. I do know that all Chrome-based browsers can connect directly to the internet and bypass Windows' proxy using the --no-proxy-server command. But in Firefox and old versions of Opera (until v12), this can be done simply by clicking a simple option. Besides, in Firefox and old Opera versions, it is possible to turn it on and off while browsing. However, this --no-proxy-server command is not available in the middle of browsing. Very dumb still.

pps. Now, there is a very related power-user, super-awesome feature that is limited to old versions of Opera. Even Firefox lacks it. I will create a follow-up thread for that one. I asked it here: https://forums.opera.com/topic/67484/gui-toggle-button-for-turning-on-off-the-internal-proxy-vpn-settings-of-opera

@leocg changed the settings but nothing happened again. Again, I think it is a bit too late for this test. I should check this out in the next installation of Windows and Opera (when the issue exists again).

@burnout426 thanks; it seems promising should learn how to use it and test it though.

@leocg I tested 4 of the previously failed videos. To my surprise, 2 of them played smoothly this time (without me doing absolutely anything)!! But 2 others still fail to play.

I tested one of the failed videos with opera://media-internals info. It gave these 4 errors:

render_id: 9
player_id: 3
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.377763 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?************
kFrameTitle: *************** - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/success.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x19ec
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]



render_id: 9
player_id: 2
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.376677 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?**************
kFrameTitle: ********************* - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/open.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x1817
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]



render_id: 9
player_id: 1
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.375643 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v*****************
kFrameTitle: ******************** - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/no_input.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x1b29
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]


render_id: 9
player_id: 0
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.374205 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?***************
kFrameTitle: *********************** - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/failure.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x1981
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]

@burnout426 I was surprised to see that I had previously installed Proxy SwitchyOmega on my Vivaldi, but had disabled it and forgotten about it (for unknown reasons. Perhaps it didn't work fine before, or Vivaldi didn't grant it its needed permissions to work at that time).

Anyways, I tested it on Opera, Vivaldi, Edge, and Firefox. It worked like a charm in all of them, though it had a few minor bugs, which I reported here: https://github.com/FelisCatus/SwitchyOmega/issues/2437

@leocg For future reference, the codec of the failed video is this (from Stats for nerds):

Video ID / sCPN **************/ EZ61 J81N W9WM 3699 2W3G
Viewport / Frames 777x437 / 0 dropped of 600
Current / Optimal Res 256x144@30 / 256x144@30
Volume / Normalized 100% / 100% (content loudness -0.1dB)
Codecs avc1.4d400c (160) / opus (251)

@burnout426 it says it has both of them. However, I have now installed the codecs externally. I wish I had checked this before installing the codecs so that I could see whether my Opera lacked codecs for them or not.
Anyways, now I can watch all previously failed videos. Though it still lacks some codecs like h.265:

opensuse.org says:

video element
Yes ✔
Subtitles
Yes ✔
Audio track selection
No ✘
Video track selection
No ✘
Poster images
Yes ✔
Codec detection
Yes ✔
Video codecs
MPEG-4 ASP support
No ✘
H.264 support
Yes ✔
H.265 support
No ✘
Ogg Theora support
No ✘
WebM with VP8 support
Yes ✔
WebM with VP9 support
Yes ✔

@leocg All reports are for the same video. is it possible that Youtube has changed the codec of the said video from AAC to H.264?

@burnout426
K-lite mega codec pack
Shark
CCCP

@leocg changed the settings but nothing happened again. Again, I think it is a bit too late for this test. I should check this out in the next installation of Windows and Opera (when the issue exists again).

@leocg There was no such an option. The only available ones were these:

AV1 settings
Auto (recommended)
Prefer AV1 for SD
Always prefer AV1

@burnout426
K-lite mega codec pack
Shark
CCCP

@leocg Thanks for explanation.

If you change your YouTube settings to use AV1 on low resolution videos, does anything changes?*

Apparently it needs me to sign into my Youtube account. I am using Opera without an account.

I logged into my account and set it to always use AV1. But no change happened. Please note that my problem was resolved a couple of days ago after installing external codecs; so we should have tested this AV1 setting beforehand.

@leocg All reports are for the same video. is it possible that Youtube has changed the codec of the said video from AAC to H.264?

@burnout426 it says it has both of them. However, I have now installed the codecs externally. I wish I had checked this before installing the codecs so that I could see whether my Opera lacked codecs for them or not.
Anyways, now I can watch all previously failed videos. Though it still lacks some codecs like h.265:

opensuse.org says:

video element
Yes ✔
Subtitles
Yes ✔
Audio track selection
No ✘
Video track selection
No ✘
Poster images
Yes ✔
Codec detection
Yes ✔
Video codecs
MPEG-4 ASP support
No ✘
H.264 support
Yes ✔
H.265 support
No ✘
Ogg Theora support
No ✘
WebM with VP8 support
Yes ✔
WebM with VP9 support
Yes ✔

@leocg For future reference, the codec of the failed video is this (from Stats for nerds):

Video ID / sCPN **************/ EZ61 J81N W9WM 3699 2W3G
Viewport / Frames 777x437 / 0 dropped of 600
Current / Optimal Res 256x144@30 / 256x144@30
Volume / Normalized 100% / 100% (content loudness -0.1dB)
Codecs avc1.4d400c (160) / opus (251)

@leocg I tested 4 of the previously failed videos. To my surprise, 2 of them played smoothly this time (without me doing absolutely anything)!! But 2 others still fail to play.

I tested one of the failed videos with opera://media-internals info. It gave these 4 errors:

render_id: 9
player_id: 3
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.377763 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?************
kFrameTitle: *************** - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/success.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x19ec
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]



render_id: 9
player_id: 2
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.376677 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?**************
kFrameTitle: ********************* - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/open.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x1817
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]



render_id: 9
player_id: 1
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.375643 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v*****************
kFrameTitle: ******************** - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/no_input.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x1b29
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]


render_id: 9
player_id: 0
created: 2024-07-14 10:45:34.374205 UTC
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
kFrameUrl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?***************
kFrameTitle: *********************** - YouTube
url: https://www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/failure.mp3
kTotalBytes: 0x1981
kIsStreaming: false
kIsSingleOrigin: true
kIsRangeHeaderSupported: true
kRendererName: RendererImpl
pipeline_state: kStopped
debug: Warning, FFmpegDemuxer failed to create a valid/supported audio decoder configuration from muxed stream, config:codec: aac, profile: unknown, bytes_per_channel: 4, channel_layout: MONO, channels: 1, samples_per_second: 44100, input_samples_per_second: 44100, sample_format: Float 32-bit, bytes_per_frame: 4, seek_preroll: 0us, codec_delay: 0, has extra data: true, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, discard decoder delay: true, target_output_channel_layout: NONE, target_output_sample_format: Unknown sample format, has aac extra data: true
info: FFmpegDemuxer: skipping invalid or unsupported audio track
error: [object Object]

@leocg yes, stats for nerds shows no codec for the failed video:

Viewport / Frames 777x437 / -
Current / Optimal Res 0x0
Volume / Normalized 15% / 15% (content loudness -1.5dB)
Codecs
Color

Disabling all the extensions and restarting Opera did not help.

@leocg yes in Opera One (version: 112.0.5197.24) the same problem happens.