VDH Drop-down menu flashes and goes away

[Radar]

I’m having a problem with VDH on many websites.  When I click on the VDH icon, the drop-down menu, that shows the different files that are available to download, flashes open for a split second and then closes and is replaced with the drop-down that says “No media to process in the current tab”

 I have attached a 2 second video showing what I’m trying to describe and also attached a screenshot of the drop down that flashes away too quickly to be used.

Thanks for the help

 url displaying the problem:   https://infinitytrader.com/z-spreads/?inf_contact_key=56b838b85a6cc5bfaa206c2d24b6f7e8

 MS Edge (latest version)

VDH version 7.6.0.0

VdhCoApp 1.6.3

Windows 10 Pro x64

[John Taylor]

Like Wild Willy I don't work for VDH, I am just another user.

I am on a PC using Firefox in Win 10 and I just tried it and it worked fine/downloaded and converted for me.

It may be any number of things from just being Edge to your location.

Sorry I am not of any help but just wanted to share that info.

JT

[Wild Willy]

Similar results to John's here, although I didn't bother trying to download the video
since that didn't really seem to be the issue here. I'm on Windows 7 64-bit, just for
comparison, Firefox 101.0.1 64-bit, VDH 7,6,3a1 beta, CoApp 1.6.3. I'm catching at
straws here. Are you maybe using a VPN or firewall that takes a moment to realize you're
doing something & then it blocks the site? Since John was able to download the content,
I'd say it's clear it's not DRM protected. What happens if you don't use the mouse to
drop down the VDH menu? The standard keyboard shortcut for opening the VDH menu is
Alt+UpArrow. Does that help any? I really hope it doesn't because I don't think that's
even relevant.

Maybe try this. Go to the page. Open the VDH menu. I'm assuming it will flash like
you've been describing. With the VDH menu still open, reload the page. I assume F5 does
that in Edge the same as it does in Firefox. When I hit F5 with the VDH menu open, the
VDH menu stays open while the page reloads. Does that make anything appear & stick in
the menu?

How about actually launching playback on the page. Just a few seconds would be enough, &
then you can pause it. What shows up in the VDH menu after that? Anything?

I'm not on the latest beta of VDH. There are a couple of betas newer than 7..6.3a1 but
they appear not to have the livestream fixes Michel included in 7.6.3a1. I really hope
he is working on porting those livestream fixes forward to some new beta that includes
the other fixes plus the livestream fixes. To me, the livestream fixes are critical.
The other stuff is minor. This isn't really relevant to the topic here but since I
mentioned what release of VDH I'm on, I figured I'd take the opportunity to be a pest
about this again. I intend to continue to pester Michel about this until we get a new
beta that has everything in it, the other fixes AND the livestream fixes. Maybe Jérôme
could poke the boss & get some movement on this issue.

[dave madsen]

This has happened to me on multiple times in both Chrome and Firefox. I have licenses for both.

While it is unpredictable as to when it happens, when it happens it happens all the time on that URL (for at least that particular browser session).  I can close that tab and re-open and it still doesn't work. 

I have not tried a different browser when it does happen, nor do I remember whether a new browser session later fixes it or not. I know for certain that even if I refresh the page it still doesn't work.

If I right click on the video, the VDH selections *usually* work in this scenario, but sometimes that doesn't work, either.

Most of the time, I can eventually (after a day or so of trying) get it to work one way or another, but sometimes it refuses no matter what.

It does not seem to necessarily be website related; many times a website will have multiple videos in a series, and it may happen on some of the videos but not others.

Willy, I'm sorry this is vague, but this is from memory -- it hasn't happened within the last few weeks or longer, and I cannot force it to happen at will.

When it does happen, it's extremely frustrating because I know very well there's a video that's there that I just can't get.

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[Wild Willy]

Sometimes my own slowness leaves me astonished. I should have thought of this before. I
went back to Radar's original URL & did my trick for finding a manifest. (Search this
forum for my thread entitled "VDH can't download it? Maybe ffmpeg can.") It turns out
there is a master manifest for an HLS stream here. It describes 5 Programs of various
resolutions. Each Program consists of 3 streams. Three. What? A video consists of 2
tracks: video & audio. THREE streams? Come on now. How many times recently have I
pointed out this nasty type of extraneous data that VDH hates? You know what it is.
Let's all say it together now.

timed_ID3 data

This video has timed_ID3 data. This is known to be a problem for VDH. Various different
versions of VDH have had varying problems with timed_ID3 data. Back when I first started
griping about it, VDH would simply fail to download the video. Then VDH started at least
downloading the video but it would be full of skips, jumps, jerkiness. I suppose we can
add one more symptom: the VDH menu disappears. Radar, what happens when you upgrade your
VDH to at least 7.6.3a1 beta? I would also recommend that for you two, John & Dave. I
think VDH is a little more resilient to timed_ID3 data in the more recent betas than it
is in the standard public release. But we have recent posts in here from people
complaining about it still. I've recently observed problems myself when this beta
encounters timed_ID3 data. Still, it does seem like it handles timed_ID3 data better
than older releases.

In any case, I was able to download this video with ffmpeg at 1920x1080. This approach
lets me ignore the timed_ID3 data. I just don't download it. This approach completely
bypasses VDH.

For some reason, I decided to actually watch this video, which is very much not my habit
when I'm investigating problems here. I don't want to get into a flame war with anybody
but this guy is not describing anything revolutionary. A "Freedom Doc" is neither a
secret nor a revelation. It's just a term he invented to describe a standard
relationship between an investor & an investment adviser. It's the way I have managed my
own retirement fund for decades. It's a standard investing approach that any reputable
Certified Financial Planner will take. He's also using classic techniques to try to rope
gullible, unsuspecting people into thinking he's going to give you something special for
free & make you an international superstar. Throughout his spiel, I was constantly
thinking, "Snake oil." He knows the world is full of fools who would just love to be
separated from their money, & he's here to be your separator. Caveat emptor.

[Wild Willy]

I just realized. You guys are using Chrome & Edge in addition to Firefox. If you're on
Chrome or Edge, you don't have any betas to install. Michel makes betas only for
Firefox. If you're on the other browsers, your only recourse is ffmpeg. Even on
Firefox, leaving VDH behind in these particular cases in favor of ffmpeg is probably the
only way to really get around the problem. We are at the mercy of Michel implementing a
complete fix for timed_ID3 data. As far as I can tell, if you tell ffmpeg to download
timed_ID3 data, it simply ignores your request. I believe VLC similarly ignores
timed_ID3 data. Since I have never managed to find a way to download raw timed_ID3 data
& look at it, I have no idea what's in it. You can go through the futile exercise of
visiting id3.org. Yes, it's a real site. Apparently, it's meant to promote the
technology. Maybe you'll get more out of the site than I did. All I know is every time
I've ignored timed_ID3 data, what I get is a perfectly playable object, whether that be
mp4, mkv, webm, whatever. What Michel needs to do is completely reject & ignore
timed_ID3 data in VDH. Like I said above, there has been improvement over time in the
way VDH reacts to timed_ID3 data, but it's not yet perfect.

In passing, I found it interesting to discover that Radar's video is hosted on Wistia.
Wistia is a site that has been reported on here every so often as causing problems. This
is the first time we've had a proper problem report that has allowed me to actually
investigate something on that site. No other users have ever followed up on my requests
(and requests from others) for more information on Wistia. They've all been drive-by
problem reports. I know it's a stretch to extrapolate a generalization from a single
data point, but it's the only data point I've got. So I'm going to say to all those
people having trouble with Wistia, try ffmpeg. Look at what ffprobe tells you. If you
see timed_ID3 data, tell us about it. Then use ffmpeg instead of VDH to get that object.
The more reports we get on here saying, "I've hit timed_ID3 data & it's caused VDH to
fail in some way," the closer we'll be to convincing Michel there is something he needs
to do about this.

[Radar]

Thanks all, especially Wild Willy.  I've never heard of ffmpeg, but I'll give it a try.  I appreciate your sharing your knowledge on this issue.

radar

[Steve Ward]

Hi Radar,

I was just experiencing the same problem as I was wrtiting a post for another bug.

What I found was that when this happens, if you click on the settings gear then close the settings tab that opens,

the next time you click on the VDH icon, it will behave as normal allowing you to select and download the videos.

My guess is opening settings probably resets something in one of the cookies where they're stored.

I couldn'y say what's causing the issue in the first place.

Steve

[Radar]

Steve,

THANKS, but that didn't seem to work for me.  

I'm using Edge.  I did try Firefox and VDH does work in Firefox.  It would really be nice if the Edge version of VDH got some love and was updated to fix this annoying problem

[Wild Willy]

Radar, I have just added some new content to the thread about ffmpeg. I'm hoping it's a
clearer explanation of the process. I would be most grateful if you were a guinea pig
for it.

[mjs]

I'm on Windows 10 so I gave it a test in Edge and it had no issue on the link up the top. I clicked on the button and the menu stayed open.

Maybe it could be other addons or software interfering. Try also removing the extension and re add it. Edge allows other profiles so 

maybe that is an option to try and see if the same thing happens.