Firefox 49.0.2 dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled;true

[Dave Pyles]

In Firefox 49.0.2 dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled is set to true by
default. This setting breaks the video rendering on this page:
http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/c19r7u/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-october-20--2016---mike-colter-season-22-ep-22012

The video player loads but the video image area is just white. Changing
the setting to false renders the video properly. I'm using Firefox
49.0.2 64bit on Windows 10 ver 1607.

Dave Pyles

[WaltS48]

You probably need to file a bug report.

This browser is troublesome. <http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14717372#p14717372>

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Ubuntu 16.04LTS

[John McGaw]

On 10/21/2016 10:10 AM, Dave Pyles wrote:

Same problem in 50.0b8 so the next version is presumably not fixing that yet.

[Dave Pyles]

I filed a new bug report.
Dave Pyles

[WaltS48]

Works using Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:50.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/50.0 Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:50.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/50.0 Version: 50.0b8.

Doesn't look like I'll get to do any Win10 work again today, but will try and remember to check tomorrow.

[VanguardLH]

Before I could even see a player within that web page, I had to allow
scripts (in uMatrix which is a better NoScript on controlling scope of
scripts) from mtnservices.com. Then I got the player displayed for the
Flash plugin. After allowing Flash (because it is configured to "Ask to
activate"), then I saw the Flash video. No blank white spot.

I'm using Firefox 49.0.1 on Windows 7 Home x64. The setting
dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled is set to False. False is the
default, not True. I have never changed that setting directly (in
about:config) or via setting in Firefox or an add-on. In fact, that
setting is shown non-bolded. If it were changed from its default then
it would be bolded. So False is the default, not True.

After performing an image backup, I will upgrade to Firefox 49.0.2.
However, I'm on Windows 7, not Windows 10. I will then check if False
is still the default for dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled, or if
Mozilla changed it to True.

[VanguardLH]

(Because of lag or absence of submissions due to moderation, I cannot
reply to my own prior reply to show this one as an update.)

Okay, I updated from Firefox 49.0.1 to 49.0.2 (64-bit version). The
setting was and is:

49.0.1: dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled = false
49.0.2: dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled = true

Both are non-bolded which means the setting is at its default value in
each version of Firefox. So Mozilla changed the default from False to
True and now some Flash-based content doesn't show the video.

I see you opened a bugzilla ticket, which is:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1312043

I will restore from my image backup to return to Firefox 49.0.1 and not
upgrade Firefox until see how this issue gets resolved. Hopefully they
don't take too long on this one. You might want to add a comment that
"In 49.0.1, the default for dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled was
false. Now in 49.0.2, it is true and causing Flash video problems."

The issue was also reported the same day (today) in another bugzilla
ticket at:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1311990
(but was issued against "Core" instead of "Firefox")

So yours or theirs might get flagged as a duplicate. So far, both
tickets have status UNCONFIRMED. This was actually discussed back in
May 2016; see:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2060066

With hardware acceleration in Firefox enabled or disabled, in FF 49.0.2
with the new default of True for dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled, I
also get the white video for the link you gave (there is audio but no
video stream to replace the white placeholder for the player).

10/19/2016 - Beta - Flash Player 23.0.0.198
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2224252
(dated just 2 days ago)

As reported at http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/, I have
version 23.0.0.185 of the Flash plugin, which is later then the above
article about their 23 beta version where they made changes to their
AsyncDrawing support; see "Mozilla NPAPI AsyncDrawing Support". Perhaps
Mozilla changed dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled based on Adobe's
announcement but Adobe didn't get it right or sites aren't implementing
the feature correctly.

The above article states:

AsyncDrawing is supported in NPAPI Plugin on Windows desktop platforms
only. It is currently available from FP version 23.0 in Firefox
Nightly 51.0a1, the Firefox versions supporting the feature is yet to
be announced.

So Mozilla jumped the gun by changing the default before FF 50.0a1.

[WaltS48]

On 10/21/2016 12:17 PM, Dave Pyles wrote:
> On 10/21/2016 10:36 AM, WaltS48 wrote:
>> On 10/21/2016 10:10 AM, Dave Pyles wrote:
>>> In Firefox 49.0.2 dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled is set to true
>>> by default. This setting breaks the video rendering on this page:
>>> http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/c19r7u/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-october-20--2016---mike-colter-season-22-ep-22012
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The video player loads but the video image area is just white.
>>> Changing the setting to false renders the video properly. I'm using
>>> Firefox 49.0.2 64bit on Windows 10 ver 1607.
>>>
>>> Dave Pyles
>>
>>
>> You probably need to file a bug report.
>>
>> This browser is troublesome.
>> <http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14717372#p14717372>
>>

> I filed a new bug report.
> Dave Pyles

I can confirm using 49.0.2 on Win10, so what's the bug number.

--
Visit Pittsburgh <http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/>
Coexist <https://www.coexist.org/>

Windows 10

[WaltS48]

On 10/21/2016 11:49 AM, John McGaw wrote:

Same problem in 50.0b9 and with today's 52.0a1 Nightly.

[Dave Pyles]

The default for dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled was changed to true
in 49.0.2, which is why I was quickly able to pinpoint the problem.
Dave Pyles

[Dave Pyles]

On 10/22/2016 11:11 AM, WaltS48 wrote:
> On 10/21/2016 12:17 PM, Dave Pyles wrote:
>> On 10/21/2016 10:36 AM, WaltS48 wrote:
>>> On 10/21/2016 10:10 AM, Dave Pyles wrote:
>>>> In Firefox 49.0.2 dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled is set to true
>>>> by default. This setting breaks the video rendering on this page:
>>>> http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/c19r7u/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-october-20--2016---mike-colter-season-22-ep-22012
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The video player loads but the video image area is just white.
>>>> Changing the setting to false renders the video properly. I'm using
>>>> Firefox 49.0.2 64bit on Windows 10 ver 1607.
>>>>
>>>> Dave Pyles
>>>
>>>
>>> You probably need to file a bug report.
>>>
>>> This browser is troublesome.
>>> <http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14717372#p14717372>
>>>
>
>> I filed a new bug report.
>> Dave Pyles
>
> I can confirm using 49.0.2 on Win10, so what's the bug number.
>

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1312043
Dave Pyles

[WaltS48]

Um, uh, thanks! You may have noticed I found it.

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[WaltS48]

On 10/22/2016 11:18 AM, WaltS48 wrote:

On 10/21/2016 11:49 AM, John McGaw wrote:

On 10/21/2016 10:10 AM, Dave Pyles wrote:

In Firefox 49.0.2 dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled is set to true by
default.  This setting breaks the video rendering on this page:
http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/c19r7u/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-october-20--2016---mike-colter-season-22-ep-22012


The video player loads but the video image area is just white.  Changing
the setting to false renders the video properly.  I'm using Firefox 49.0.2
64bit on Windows 10 ver 1607.

Dave Pyles

Same problem in 50.0b8 so the next version is presumably not fixing that yet.

Same problem in 50.0b9 and with today's 52.0a1 Nightly.

But with that pref set to true, works fine in both Linux versions. What did Microsoft screw up in that last update?

-- 
Visit Pittsburgh <http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/>
Coexist <https://www.coexist.org/>

National Popular Vote <http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/>
Ubuntu 16.04LTS

[Christian Riechers]

On 10/22/2016 05:58 PM, WaltS48 wrote:
> On 10/22/2016 11:18 AM, WaltS48 wrote:
>> On 10/21/2016 11:49 AM, John McGaw wrote:
>>> On 10/21/2016 10:10 AM, Dave Pyles wrote:
>>>> In Firefox 49.0.2 dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled is set to
>>>> true by
>>>> default. This setting breaks the video rendering on this page:
>>>> http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/c19r7u/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-october-20--2016---mike-colter-season-22-ep-22012
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The video player loads but the video image area is just white.
>>>> Changing
>>>> the setting to false renders the video properly. I'm using Firefox
>>>> 49.0.2
>>>> 64bit on Windows 10 ver 1607.
>>>>
>>>> Dave Pyles
>>>
>>> Same problem in 50.0b8 so the next version is presumably not fixing
>>> that yet.
>>
>> Same problem in 50.0b9 and with today's 52.0a1 Nightly.
>>
>>
>
> But with that pref set to true, works fine in both Linux versions. What

> did Microsoft screw up in that last update? 😱

Microsoft?
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/49.0.2/releasenotes/

[WaltS48]

Broken on Windows, works on Linux. Just replied to a post on mozillaZine
about USA Today videos not playing. There the box is black, toggling the
pref fixes the video.

Fx 49.0.2 was released Oct. 20th. My Windows 10 had an update on Oct. 18th.

--
Visit Pittsburgh <http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/>
Coexist <https://www.coexist.org/>

Windows 10

[Christian Riechers]

This appears to be related to Flash. I don't have Flash anymore on
Linux, and it's disabled on Windows.
The www.cc.com videos aren't allowed here, so I have yet to come across
a video where I'd see the problem.

[Brian]

doesn't work with bbc.co.uk/news here in the UK when set to default
'true'. Works when toggled to 'false'

[VanguardLH]

WaltS48 wrote:

> But with that pref set to true, works fine in both Linux versions. What
> did Microsoft screw up in that last update?

What version of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in do you have installed in
Firefox Windows versus installed in Firefox on Linux? I'm assuming you
have the same version of Firefox on both Windows and Linux (or match
with Pyles version of Firefox on Linux) but you might have a different
(older) version of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in on Linux.

According to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ for the latest
version available per platform and web browser:

Firefox on Windows should have Adobe Flash Player 23.0.0.185.
Firefox on Linux should have Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.637.

That's a big difference in versions. Adobe made a change in Flash
Player 23 regarding AsyncDrawing support; see:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2224252
Section "Mozilla NPAPI AsyncDrawing Support"

My guess is Mozilla made the change (from False to True) to the
dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled setting based on Adobe's
announcement. Adobe made the change in FP v23. There is probably no
change for this back in FP v11 (for FF on Linux).

[Christian Riechers]

Win7, FF 49.0.2, Flash 23.0.0.185
in Firefox: dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled is set to 'true'

Videos on bbc.co.uk/news work just fine.

I otherwise avoid videos on the BBC site, as they still haven't heard
about HTML5. Also their iPlayer is ridiculous.

[WaltS48]

You did more research on this that I'm willing to do. That explains why
Linux versions of Beta and Nightly aren't affected. Thanks!

[WaltS48]

On 10/22/2016 12:30 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

That Adobe forum article say the change in FP was made to 23.0.0.198 a
beta version. So Mozilla enabled the pref for a plugin only Flash Player
beta testers are using? No wonder things broke.

[Disaster Master]

Excellent detective work Vanguard, but...

On 10/21/2016 5:37 PM, VanguardLH <V...@nguard.LH> wrote:

I see you opened a bugzilla ticket, which is:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1312043

I will restore from my image backup to return to Firefox 49.0.1 and not
upgrade Firefox until see how this issue gets resolved.

I could understand if there wasn't a simple fix, but in this case, wouldn't it make more sense to just toggle the pref and track the bug?

Refusing to update seems... counter productive, at least to me.

You might want to add a comment that
"In 49.0.1, the default for dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enabled was
false.  Now in 49.0.2, it is true and causing Flash video problems."

Ummm... since you tracked this down, why not make that comment yourself?

[cad...@gmail.com]

Those bug are duplicate of this one: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1312293 which is open with priority HIGH, so it's should be fixed shortly. :)

[VanguardLH]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1312242
Fixed in Firefox v52+.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar
2017-03-07 for Firefox 52

4 months away until asyncdraw for Flash content gets fixed in a released
version. For now, I'll leave update check disabled and stay on 49.0.1
until then, and set a reminder for mid-March 2017 to manually check for
updates and, if okay, reenable the auto-check for updates in Firefox.

I could set dom.ipc.plugins.asyncdrawing.enable to True (from the prior
False default) to eliminate the problem now. However, I configure for
my preferences, security, and privacy, not for bugs.