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MP4 in Firefox/IE10

I've been poring over this forum and Mozilla's for weeks, trying to sort out why .mp4 files won't play in JW6 (cloud). It has become clear that the base problem is a silly patent issue that prevents Firefox from supporting .mp4, at least yet. Understand there is hope for FF 22.

Meanwhile, I'm also finding that IE10 also sometimes balks at loading .mp4.

The only solution I have found is to use "primary: 'flash'" to force the file to play in Flash rather than HTML5. This achieves success across all browsers.

But my question: Is it at the expense of enabling play in mobile devices, which was my primary reason for moving to JW6? If Flash is primary, will JW6 fall back to HTML5 if played on an iPhone or Android??

Alas, I have no mobile devices to test. Here is a simple sample page:
http://caves.org/commission/hq/video_tour.shtml

Alex

23 Community Answers

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JW Player

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Firefox 21 will play MP4's in HTML5, but only on Win7+ platforms. FF22 will supposedly extend that to Vista. No word on FF for Mac, but I'd be surprised if they let that one languish for more than another version or two. On WinXP, I don't think FF will ever support MP4's in HTML5.

I've seen no problems with IE10 handling MP4's without Flash.

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JW Player

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>I've seen no problems with IE10 handling MP4's without Flash.

Thanks for the quick response, EarlyOut. Here's my IE10 problem:

http://caves.org/commission/hq/video_tour.html

>Firefox 21 will play MP4's in HTML5, but only on Win7+ platforms.

Well, mostly. As you know, I've been having problems for weeks. Something must have changed in the cloud player to cause some iterations to start working, but I still can't figure this one out:

http://caves.org/luminaries/index.shtml

The files play, but there is no control bar!

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JW Player

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Well, I added "primary: 'flash'" to the players in /luminaries, and that resolved the control bar issue. And I now have confirmation that the files do still play in iPhones.

And it solves the IE10 problem, too, but by avoiding it.

So I guess that's the universal workaround, until Mozilla catches up their HTML5 support. And Android does as well.

And I found this solution in a post from way back last year, so how come none of you Longtails suggested it a long time ago? ;^)

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JW Player

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Your server is putting the wrong MIME type on the video - it's showing up as text/plain instead of video/mp4.

Here's a little demo... I grabbed your video and put it up on my host, in a very simple page. Try it in any browser:

http://earlyout.org/Caver/

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
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Setting primary to flash just kinda masks the issue, the real issue is that the mime type is not correct.

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JW Player

User  
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D'OH. You caught me making the same mistake twice. I forgot that this video is in a different folder from the one I added the .htaccess file to. I really need to run down my Admin and have that put in the root.

Thanks, guys!

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JW Player

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Wups. Still won't play in Safari unless primary is set to flash. Shouldn't it fall back from HTML5?

See
http://caves.org/commission/hq/video_tour.shtml [HTML5]
vs.
http://caves.org/commission/hq/video_tour.html [Flash]

MIME type set to video/mp4.

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JW Player

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Safari will play it in HTML5. Try my demo page, using your video.

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JW Player

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Nope. Your demo page, like my page, just spins and fails to load in Safari. Tried it on two machines. If it can't play the HTML5, why doesn't it fall back to Flash, which clearly does play?

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JW Player

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I don't have a Mac to test on, but that demo page displays in HTML5 even in old Safari for Windows, which is many versions behind "real" Safari.

Falling back to Flash on a Mac is not exactly a winning strategy, given Apple's hostility to Flash.

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JW Player

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I don't know what to say, other than to marvel at how fickle these browsers/apps are.

I'm running Safari 5.1.7 on my Win7/64 Desktop and on my XP Laptop. Neither will load my video or your reincarnation. Both play it immediately in Flash if that's set as primary.

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
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We tested on a Mac here and we see HTML5 in both pages in Safari on Mac. It works fine. We disabled Flash to test.

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
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I have Win7 as well, and I use Safari on Windows, same version, and it works as well with Flash disabled. Please note, Safari on Windows is a pretty fringe use case and a small % of the overall browser market share.

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JW Player

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You're right about Safari for Windows - I've pretty much stopped testing with it, since it's just about vanished in the wild. It's no longer a decent stand-in for real Safari, to which I don't have access, alas.

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
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Yeah, exactly. You also need QuickTime to be installed as well as a dependency on Windows for Safari on Windows, so maybe that was an issue here all along? I totally forgot about that one…

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JW Player

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I fell into that trap a couple of years ago, until Jeroen pointed out that I needed to install QT.

I did notice that Safari 5.1.7 loaded the video quicker when the order of the videos where mp4 was listed first bu tthis was back a few issues of the JWPLayer.

I now use just mp4, and webm formats for videos with that I cover all of the bases so to speak

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
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Yeah.

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JW Player

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Thanks for the discussion, guys! You're right that Safari for Win isn't worth worrying about, marketshare-wise. Or Safari/Mac, either, for that matter. My Safari total is only 15%. Curiously, Android is only 3%, and iPhone is less than 1%, so I'm probably premature in worrying about them.

I do have QT 7.7.4, so that's not the issue.

I've proven that when Flash is primary, iPhone users can still view the videos, which play in all 4 major browsers, so why should I worry about HTML5? Those who need it can still get it, right?

As far as why Safari won't work for me, I've suspected for some time that it's an OS or headspace problem locally. If you say it's fine, I'm good with it; I've spent way too much of my time (and yours!) on this already. Thanks again.

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JW Player

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<blockquote>"I've proven that when Flash is primary, iPhone users can still view the videos, which play in all 4 major browsers, so why should I worry about HTML5? Those who need it can still get it, right?"<blockquote>

Well, yes, but Flash is yesterday and HTML5 is today and tomorrow. These days, HTML5 should always be your primary, with Flash reserved as a fallback only for those who are using crippled, outdated browsers.

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JW Player

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If you make your videos (1) mp4's h.264 iso v2 (2) webm
you will cover all of the browsers as well as mobiles especially iPhone and iPad should also work with Android.

I would also list the mp4 first as for some strange reason Safari loads faster.

btw, HTML5 was yesterday and today is HTML5.1. A web site, in HTML%.1, validates as HTML5.1 will also validate as HTML5. Yet a web site in HTML5 will only validate as HTML5 and not as HTML5.1.

here is the link for info on HTML5.1
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
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It is true that setting Flash to primary for now will indeed work on most cases, since users on devices will still be able to view the videos as well.

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JW Player

User  
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Hi

I am trying to view your sample video at http://www.longtailvideo.com/jw-player/ on samsung galaxy tab running android 4.1.2 in firefox 22. the first time i click the play button the buffering animation keeps spinning infinitely but when i pause and try again it plays the video. why is this issue coming up?

thanks in advance for any help.

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
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This works for me?

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