[webapp-container] [regression] can't play embedded youtube videos on desktop

[David Barth]

With the new URL containment in place, it is not possible to play embedded youtube videos on a G+ wall.

[Matthew Gregg (mcg)]

It doesn't appear to be able to play Youtube videos at all, no flash and the HTML player isn't working.

[Alessandro Viprati (vipri-alessandro)]

I'm not able to play videos on Youtube, Facebook and G+ webapps, it seems that HTML 5 doesn't work with webbrowser-app in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

A fix for is really needed. 14.04 it's a LTS release, if users can't play videos they will not use webapps.

[Alessandro Viprati (vipri-alessandro)]

Additional infos:
 - ads work: despite you can't play youtube videos, ads (advertising videos showed before the video you want to see) work as expected.
 - icon previews work: moving your mouse over the progress bar of the video, you are able to see preview images of the video.
 - when I say video doesn't work I mean: it is loading but never plays

Maybe updating the webbrowser-app with a newer one inside the trusty repository can solve the problem?
Hope it can help

[David Barth (dbarth)]

This could be the same bug in the user-agent string override, which is not
applied and result in the client app being sent flash video instead of
h264. Is the same video playing fine when viewed directly on Youtube ?

On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Alessandro Viprati <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Additional infos:
> - ads work: despite you can't play youtube videos, ads (advertising
> videos showed before the video you want to see) work as expected.
> - icon previews work: moving your mouse over the progress bar of the
> video, you are able to see preview images of the video.
> - when I say video doesn't work I mean: it is loading but never plays
>
> Maybe updating the webbrowser-app with a newer one inside the trusty
> repository can solve the problem?
> Hope it can help
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1304378
>
> Title:
> [webapp-container] [regression] can't play embedded youtube videos on
> desktop
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/webbrowser-app/+bug/1304378/+subscriptions
>

[Alessandro Viprati (vipri-alessandro)]

Yes, I can play the same videos without problems with Firefox (if I understood well).
Additional infos (again):
 - using webbrowser-app I can't see the "download progress bar" (I mean the grey one) when trying to play videos. It seems that the browser is not downloading the video at all;
 - if I click on "pause", I'm not able to start the playback again.

I'm sorry I can't give you more useful informations, I'm not a "power" user, but if you need something specific I'm at your disposition.

[Alessandro Viprati (vipri-alessandro)]

I don't know what chaged, but after the installation of some updates today, now I'm able to play videos on Youtube and G+ webapps.

The only webapp I use that still requires adobe flash player is FacebookMessenger, but I suppose that it's a Facebook problem, not a webapp or webbrowser-app problem.

So, thank you so much whatever you did!

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (original stack, 3.13.0-52-generic kernel), fully updated system.

[Alessandro Viprati (vipri-alessandro)]

It worked only for 3 or 4 days. Now it's still not working, with the same problems expressed before.

[Alessandro Viprati (vipri-alessandro)]

Now the video playback is working again on both the G+ and Youtube webapps, in Ubuntu 14.04.

At this point the only thing I can suppose is that it isn't a webbrowser-app or an Ubuntu bug.

[Alessandro Viprati (vipri-alessandro)]

I think this bug report can be closed.
I can actually play videos on FacebookMessenger, G+ and Youtube webapps on Ubuntu 14.04 without problems.

[David Barth (dbarth)]

+1 i can confirm that as well.