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**claydoh** · Jul 03, 2018, 05:52 PM

The examples above do not play in Chrome, either, or on my phone (with 3 different browsers), or on my Chromebook, all show the same error message.

I don't think it is a FF problem. It is not a Flash video, so that is not the issue. The site's player is borked, I'd guess.

**pemartins** · Jul 03, 2018, 06:41 PM

The 2nd and 3rd videos (the ones from mmajunkie) both show the video player and play fine using Tor, which is the only browser aside Firefox I have installed in Kubuntu. Here are printscreens:

2nd one:

3rd one:

**Rod J** · Jul 04, 2018, 05:07 AM

Here in Chrome 67.0.3396.99 (64-bit) the first link shows the player but when clicked on to play I get the same message "VIDEO ERROR Audio/video not supported"

The other two links show the player and both play fine.

I get the same results on Firefox 60.0.2 (64-bit).

This is on K18.04 too.

**chimak111** · Jul 04, 2018, 07:03 AM

Minor point: instead of inxi -F use $ inxi -Fz.

Code:

-z, --filter
      Adds security filters for IP addresses, serial numbers, MAC, location (-w), and 
      user home directory name. On  by  default  for  IRC clients.

**pemartins** · Jul 04, 2018, 01:36 PM

@chimak111 thanks for the heads up, I corrected the first post.
off topic: why is Kubuntu 18.04 being identified in inxi as "Distro: Custom Live CD"? This is an installation of Kubuntu 18.04 on my laptop and not a live cd session.

@Rod J do you remember installing anything, any package that might be browser related? Something like some codecs or similar?
In example there's this Firefox addon Read Aloud that will not work in Kubuntu 18.04 but works mostly everywhere else and this being because Kubuntu 18.04 does not have installed by default the package "sound-dispatcher"; after it is installed the addon works just fine. Is there a chance you installed something video related?
Because it's really strange, in a clean install of Firefox I do not get a video player in the second and third links but in Tor I do... Using logic at most it should be the opposite!

**Goeroeboeroe** · Jul 04, 2018, 02:47 PM

On your first link Firefox and Chrome don't play the first video with 'audio/video not supported'. But this is not a message from Firefox or Google Chrome, it's a message that's written in the code of the site mmaimports.com. It is very well possible Firefox (or Chrome) can play the video, but the site blocks it for some reason and gives this (wrong) message.
I tried to play it on Tor. Tor is based on Firefox, so if Tor can play it, Firefox can too, without add-ons or plug-ins necessarily. I tried about six times One time I could play it, five times I got the same error. Every time I choose 'New Tor-circuit for this website' (or something like that, I translated it from Dutch). If Tor can play it even only one time, it has nothing to do with codecs or something like that.

My guess: it has to do with DRM (copyright). If Tor makes a new circuit, you may enter the site from a different country. That could explain it played one time, and five times not.

The other two sites I couldn't find any video in the code, only images. So I didn't see a videoplayer. Not in Firefox, not in Chrome and not in Tor. To me that looks just like links under a thumbnail.

Something different: mmaimports is using Canvas Fingerprinting, a way to track visitors. For that reason alone I Would never visit that site again. You can read more about Canvas Fingerprinting on https://www.propublica.org/article/m...sible-to-block.

**Rod J** · Jul 04, 2018, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by pemartins View Post

off topic: why is Kubuntu 18.04 being identified in inxi as "Distro: Custom Live CD"? This is an installation of Kubuntu 18.04 on my laptop and not a live cd session.

I wonder, did you check the downloaded ISO image for corruption and also check the burned CD/USB that you installed from prior to installing? It makes me wonder if the ISO was modified in some way. Where did you download it from? I usually download my ISO's via torrents so I'm always particular to check the SHA256 checksum for the image from the Kubuntu site. I've never had any issue downloading them that way (to date).

Originally posted by pemartins View Post

@Rod J do you remember installing anything, any package that might be browser related? Something like some codecs or similar?
In example there's this Firefox addon Read Aloud that will not work in Kubuntu 18.04 but works mostly everywhere else and this being because Kubuntu 18.04 does not have installed by default the package "sound-dispatcher"; after it is installed the addon works just fine. Is there a chance you installed something video related? Because it's really strange, in a clean install of Firefox I do not get a video player in the second and third links but in Tor I do... Using logic at most it should be the opposite!

The only thing I did when installing 18.04 was to check the box that downloads the third-party stuff and uncheck the download updates while installing box as I prefer to do the install first then update afterwards.

Maybe you need to install the kubuntu-restricted-addons if it's not installed already. Oddly enough, I see in my system the kubuntu-restricted-extras package is NOT installed, but I would have expected it to be installed as well at install time? I don't remember installing any other codec related packages since I installed K18.04.

Another thing to check would be the DRM setting in Firefox maybe? It's on the Preferences page.

I don't use Firefox any more as my day-to-day browser as I didn't like the changes they were making to it that killed off a couple of add-ons I liked so much, plus some of the changes before that big change caused problems in my old K14.04 install (local file navigation, mouse issues, somewhat draconian security (IMHO), etc). I use Chrome stable now quite happily. I would have used Chromium but it can't do DRM content (I like to watch some TV On Demand frequently).

**pemartins** · Jul 04, 2018, 05:50 PM

Thank you so much for your help guys. I really appreciate it.

Yes @Goeroeboeroe the first link error issue may be a localization issue and the video probably plays just fine in a specific country but not everywhere, which has plenty of logic because that video contains copyrighted UFC material. Most probably the video is only allowed to be reproduced somewhere specifically.
Thank you so much for the heads up on that Canvas Fingerprint thing, I had no idea of what it was neither that mmaimports was using it. I'll put that site on my 'blacklist'.

Regarding the 2nd and 3rd links, can it be a security related issue?
Speculating, they show the video players and play on Tor because Tor is based in a older Firefox version, and probably newer browser versions have security filters that are blocking those video players. That would explain the video players not showing up in most of the browsers tested.

---

@Rod J I have no idea where I downloaded Kubuntu's iso from...

Either it was via torrent, Kubuntu's website or (most probably) from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/
And no, I did not check it... I never do.

Unfortunately I'm always too lazy to check it. But I'll have to change that behavior.
I download and test distros as a hobby and Kubuntu 18.04 was just another one I downloaded to test in a virtual machine and delete right after I had played with it for a bit. I had no idea I was gonna get wowed and not able to let it go and make it my main operating system the next day.
Because I download so many distros I have no idea where specifically I got the one I installed from.

I always check the third-party stuff while installing (and with network connection) and also have both kubuntu-restricted-addons and kubuntu-restricted-extras installed, I just checked. And I have DRM content checked (on) in Firefox.

I try to stay with open source browsers so I do not plan on using Chrome. And today I just read that Google allows engineers to read our Gmail's e-mails so me and Google probably won't be friends any time soon!

**Goeroeboeroe** · Jul 05, 2018, 07:05 AM

The 2nd and 3d links don't show for me in Tor either. (Tried only one time, not with different connections). But maybe this has to do with DRM too?

As for the disappearing. Since Firefox improved to Quantum I myself improved to an alcoholic depressive somberman. It uses an unbelievable lot of memory and cpu and becomes unresponsive quite often.
Since Quantum I did notice some content is indeed not shown because of security reasons. But without any notice. If a site has a https-connection and on that site are some third-party elements with a http-connection, sometimes that elements are simply not shown. Without any warning or message or whatever. I found that out when I once clicked on the green padlock, made some clicks for more information and finally it said some elements were blocked. And if I wanted, I could let them show up.
Ridiculous, since it's simply impossible to click on every site on the padlock to see if maybe something is hidden.

I really hate it, but if this changing Firefox to an inferior clone of Chrome continues, I may have to switch to Chrome too. (Chromium etc. won't work for me.)

Edit: ha!. Even on this forum some content is blocked by Firefox without any message or warning. Click on the green padlock and follow the instructions to show the hidden content.

**GreyGeek** · Jul 05, 2018, 09:21 AM

My host file is 34MB and blocks every ad and tracking cookie. Sometimes it blocks content on a site but the Internet is bug. An article blocked on one site is usually open on another. This is especially true of news sites the block content until you register or subscribe. That’s why, among other reasons, most of them support Article 13.

**Goeroeboeroe** · Jul 05, 2018, 09:59 AM

Yes, I've a hosts file too. (Smaller then yours, mvps hosts file.) But in this case Firefox itself is blocking content for some reason. Even in this thread on this forum.
DRM is another issue, but a browser blocking content without even displaying a message is something really should not happen, in my opinion.
If I look in Firefox in developer tools in the network tab, I can't see what is blocked. If I look in Chrome (also blocks things without message) I can at least see what's blocked. That's what I mean with Firefox becoming more and more an inferior clone of Chrome. They both block content without any indication, but in Chrome I can at least see what's blocked.

**pemartins** · Jul 05, 2018, 11:07 AM

What a royal mess this is, there's not one single reason but multiple ones instead.

I just got frustrated because all of a sudden both the 2nd and 3rd links I posted on the first post started showing videos in Firefox out of the blue (before today's update to Firefox 61). At first I thought that someone from the website had seen this tread and corrected some issue but then @Goeroeboeroe I read your post about the green padlock.

I logged out and back in on my system and went to check another link with a non-showing video player:

Code:

https://mmajunkie.com/2018/07/ufc-wrestle-like-a-girl-team-up-for-empowerment-camp-and-clinic-at-ufc-performance-institute

but still no luck, no video player was being showed.
I clicked the green padlock and nothing, no message of Firefox blocking content was being displayed...
And then I switched my vpn to Japan and every video player started showing up!

So... Firefox blocks stuff, dns blocks stuff... and of course adblock blocks stuff, Privacy Badger and similar addons block stuff... I give up, I won't be solving a murder case and investigating 5 or 10 suspects every time I detected some content missing on a web page.

I'm marking this one as solved.
Guys thank you all so much for your awesome help!

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