YouTube Videos Not Accessible

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04 Jan 2016, 2:53 pm

I've just started using the Mozilla Firefox browser, and while its performance is a huge improvement on Internet Explorer (which I had been using), I find that embedded YouTube clips in the WP forums won't work. The box is blank, with the message 'A plugin is needed to display this content'. If I revert to IE, the videos are fine.

Does anyone know which 'plugin' is referred to?

Earthling
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04 Jan 2016, 2:54 pm

You have Flash Player, yes?

DeepHour
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04 Jan 2016, 2:58 pm

I've always assumed so - how could I check?

By the way, YouTube videos play perfectly on Firefox when I watch them directly on the Youtube pages.

Earthling
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04 Jan 2016, 3:02 pm

Well, if vids work on Youtube, that means you have it I guess...
When you are on a site where there are embedded videos, do you get a symbol on the left of the URL bar that says something like "this site is using Flash player"?

DeepHour
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04 Jan 2016, 3:17 pm

Can't find a message of that sort anywhere.

Just played embedded videos on the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph sites (using Firefox) without problem.

Features like 'Show which programs are installed on your computer' make no mention of Flash Player, but, like you, I would have thought I had it.

Last edited by DeepHour on 04 Jan 2016, 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Earthling
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04 Jan 2016, 3:21 pm

That's really weird.
Apparently (obviously duh :lol: ) your browser is selective about where it can play embedded videos.

alex
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04 Jan 2016, 3:22 pm

Earthling wrote:

youtube uses html5 videos as well as flash so just because videos play on youtube, it doesn't mean you have flash.

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Earthling
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04 Jan 2016, 3:24 pm

^ Crap. Actually you're right!

Well DH, try going to https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ and see if it does anything for you.

DeepHour
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04 Jan 2016, 3:27 pm

Yep, that seems a logical next step. Thanks for your help, Earthling and Alex.

dcj123
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04 Jan 2016, 5:10 pm

alex wrote:

Earthling wrote:

youtube uses html5 videos as well as flash so just because videos play on youtube, it doesn't mean you have flash.

Yeah I have this problem on Linux cause I choose to not install flash so I can confirm that this is the cause.

Last edited by dcj123 on 04 Jan 2016, 5:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Earthling
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04 Jan 2016, 5:25 pm

In case anyone wants to use HTML5 for Youtube: Go to https://www.youtube.com/html5 and enable it.
One good thing about HTML5 is that you can make videos run at different speeds, such as x0.5, x1.25, x2!

DeepHour
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04 Jan 2016, 6:14 pm

Update: I installed Adobe Flash Player and, guess what, the embedded videos have become playable, though doing so seems to cause the PC to freeze up sometimes, and the pages tend to scroll a bit less smoothly. All perfectly manageable though.