Some HTML5 YouTube videos don't work in Chromium

[Ty Young]

Some HTML5 YouTube videos crash when attempting to watch them. Refreshing the page will result in the video still be broken but will switch to flash if it is installed.

Description: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Release: 16.04

chromium-browser:
  Installed: 49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233
  Candidate: 49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233
  Version table:
 *** 49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: chromium-browser 49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Tue Apr 26 19:32:21 2016
Desktop-Session:
 'gnome'
 '/etc/xdg/xdg-gnome:/usr/share/upstart/xdg:/etc/xdg'
 '/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop'
DetectedPlugins:

Env:
 'None'
 'None'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-23 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160421)
Load-Avg-1min: 0.20
Load-Processes-Running-Percent: 0.1%
MachineType: Acer Aspire M3970G
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=2da20df4-bd28-4c09-8338-2c5344abe045 ro nopat quiet splash vesafb.invalid=1
SourcePackage: chromium-browser
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/25/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P02-A3
dmi.board.name: Aspire M3970G
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP02-A3:bd11/25/2011:svnAcer:pnAspireM3970G:pvr:rvnAcer:rnAspireM3970G:rvr:cvnAcer:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Aspire M3970G
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
gconf-keys: /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec = b'firefox\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager = b''/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager = b''/desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme = b'gnome\n'/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme = b'Clearlooks\n'
modified.conffile..etc.default.chromium-browser: [deleted]

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

Hi Ty,
  Please provide a link to a broken video

[Ty Young (bluegoliath)]

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeliKB6_lG0

[Ty Young (bluegoliath)]

After switching back and forth between the Chromium builds in the default repository and the one from here: http://chromium.woolyss.com/ , I can confirm that this bug is causes by a bad chromium build. Chromium 50.x from the repository linked has no issues playing any HTML5 videos.

[Bruce Pieterse (octoquad)]

HI Ty, I can open and view that video fine with the exact same version of Chromium on 16.04. Could you maybe try and disable (or enable if disabled) "Use hardware acceleration when available" under Settings > Advanced Settings > System, restart chromium and let us know if the result is the same?

I recently had video playback issues in Firefox, but resetting the profile seemed to have fixed it. Perhaps in chromium you can create a new profile and test if the video playback works ok if the above doesn't work and letting us know what the outcome was.

Thanks

[Ty Young (bluegoliath)]

Unfortunately, no neither of those things worked. In both cases I still receive a crash in Chromium 49.

[mpb (mpb)]

I am not sure if this is relevant or related, but I am running 49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1113 on amd64.

A couple days ago I upgraded to 50.x, possibly it was 50.0.2661.102-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1117.

After this upgrade, no videos would play on YouTube. I think there was audio playback, but the video display rectangle was just black, maybe with a couple grey lines.

I am running Ubuntu 14.04 on a motherboard with Intel integrated graphics.

I then downgraded back 49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1113. Luckily I was able to find the correct .deb files for the downgrade.

[mpb (mpb)]

An update to my above (2016-06-19) comment.

Today I upgraded from:
49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1113 to:
51.0.2704.79-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1121.

Youtube video plays correctly in version 51. Yay!

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

mpb,

We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner.

It seems that your problem was fixed with the release of Chromium 51. However, we're closing this bug report by marking it as "Invalid" as it was never confirmed by another user.

Thank you for helping make Ubuntu better.

Paul White
[Ubuntu Bug Squad]

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

@Ty Young,

We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner. You reported this bug some time ago and there have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time.

Presumably this problem is no longer an issue? We'll keep this report open awaiting any input from you. However, if it is still an issue please upload updated logs by running one in a terminal:

apport-collect 1575436

and add any additional information that you think relevant.

Thank you for helping make Ubuntu better.

Paul White
[Ubuntu Bug Squad]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for chromium-browser (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Ty Young (bluegoliath)]

I didn't even know this bug was even open until it was marked as expired.

Honestly Paul, there is a difference *BIG* between not having the capacity and just not caring. Every release of Ubuntu Gnome that I've used from 13.10 to 16.04(and 18.04) has been full of bugs that never get fixed even if the bug is fixed upstream. This feels like your just trying to get rid of bugs that canonical or the developers behind Ubuntu Gnome couldn't be bothered to fix.

About 6 months I waited for fixes to the 12(?) or so bugs that I reported and some of the bugs were pretty serious like the shutdown/restart dialog box. Years later now and the bugs that are still open haven't been resolved. Easily 80% of the updates that were sent out were security patches in that time... I know this because I was reading the changelog whenever I ran updates.

And things clearly haven't gotten better. I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on a secondary computer and the dock/launcher showed up and was usable on the lock screen. Like, people really wonder why the 'Year of the Linux Desktop" hasn't happened yet? Christ, stop drinking the Richard Stallman coolaid and wake up. 16.04 and 18.04 are LTS releases that are recommended by people who claim it to be the "perfect" Windows alternative. God have mercy on your souls if somehow Linux's marketshare actually becomes something notable and the quality is still this horrible.

To make a comment now on this two year old bug and claiming you don't have the capacity just comes off as disingenuous, you realize right? Asking me if this bug still affects me is like asking if I still have a cold or the flu two years later from telling people I have it. I don't even use Ubuntu anymore because not even the most basic of quality testing is ever done to prevent the bugs from happening in the first place or to backport the fixes from upstream. I have no way to verify if it's fixed or not besides somehow hunting down that specific chromium build with Ubuntu installed. Even then I have a different computer so who knows if it'll even happen again?

If you want to fix a bug then you can fix the graphical corruption bug that I've also reported 2 years ago. It also affects Antergos(Arch Linux) and happens on even Intel graphics. I'm not going to play the "Lets blame proprietary companies for our buggy ass code" game though that people in the Linux world like to play... I just won't do my part to help get it fixed. I'm not playing your stupid games when the bug is *clearly* a problem with the Xorg server or whatever prelocates GPU memory for the windows/desktop.

If you aren't going to do that much then please just close all of the bugs that are still open and don't open them anymore. I've tried to help make Ubuntu better by submitting these bug reports and communicating via mailing lists and it was all just a waste of time. Please atleast have the decency to not waste any more.