HTML5 video player seems to be broken

Hi,

in latest FF there are problems with on-site videos, which refuse to play in HTML5 player:

No video has been loaded

Error Code: PLAYER_ERR_NO_SRC

Embed videos like YouTube works, and on-site videos play in Flash flavor, e.g. in Edge. Could someone take a look at that, it's pretty annoying bug, thanks.

Does someone responsible read it here, or is it just a place where we can shout against the wall? Your HTML5 player doesn't work on desktops in general, is that an intention or a bug?

rofl

@RenMc: Which video were you trying to watch? Could you post the link?

@wemmick Hello. Any video hosted on GS (external like YT works, as it has own player). To make it easy, today GS News: http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-call-of-dutys-poor-console-performance-new/2300-6428137/ It doesn't work in desktop browser, if it doesn't have Flash plugin, it doesn't switch to HTML5 variant and throws the error mentioned above (and in many other posts around this forum). But on Windows Mobile for example, where Flash doesn't exist at all, it nicely streams HTML5 like everything is OK. It's a bug in the player's selector or an intention to force Flash variant on desktop, hard to say from outside. In any case it is extremely annoying and it lasts for ages now.

@RenMc: Do you have an ad blocker running? Those sometimes cause issues with our video player.

@wemmick: Nope, check this:

Gamespot has no HTML5 player any videos that use HTML5 are extrernal videos from the likes of youtube

@RenMc: We're looking into it. Have you seen that anywhere else, or just this video?

@wemmick: Thanks. As I mentioned, ANY video hosted directly on GS, thus using your player fails this way. It's been a while now, in the meantime I'm using Edge with build in Flash as a workaround but it's not really comfy.

@RenMc: Could you try clearing all cookies from GameSpot, or try it in incognito?

@wemmick: Yes, I did. I even made that screenshot above, showing Firefox running in Private mode.

@RenMc: I'll have the team look into this. Please double-check that you don't have an ad-blocker running - there's normally a banner in that big white space below the video player. Also, I understand you're trying to use HTML5 - what exactly are you doing to force that? It seems like there may be something specific to your browser config causing this.

@wemmick: That's pretty weird, isn't it? There's no way how to run add-ons in private mode I am aware of, that's why I used it to test it so I am sure there is no ad-blocker running. To force HTML5 player I simply don't have Flash installed. And also Edge browser, which can run both and easily switch between both.

@RenMc: Just letting you know we haven't forgotten about this - we're working with a vendor to try to resolve it, and I'll keep you updated.

@wemmick: Glad to hear that, thank you.

Hello there. Same for me. Actually, the videos run but kind of "stoping" like every two seconds on Chrome. On Firefox it doesn't even load the videos. Any of them.

@RenMc: Our vendor is working on a fix for this, but it will be a couple of weeks until they can it tested and released. : \ Sorry for the trouble!

@wemmick: Thanks, these are good news anyway, I can wait. I'm using separate Flash enabled browser for visiting GS in the meantime.

@wemmick Hi, it's been quite a while but nothing changed since. What's the outlook?

@RenMc: Are you seeing the exact same error? Could you include another screenshot?

@wemmick: Absolutely same as on the screenshot above, no change. This is how it looks for...idk, months, years now? Basically since Flash died and you implemented HTML5 player.

@RenMc: Well, to be clear, Flash is still widely supported and it is our main video player at the moment. If you re-enable Flash, everything will work. Or, if you turn off your ad-blocker, it should also work. That said, I will ask the vendor again as they were supposed to have fixed it.

Come on, this again? There is no ad-blocker for Edge, and no ad-blocker can run in private mode of Firefox (and PM is generally used to debug issues). Do you think we would be here if it would be as easy as disabling some plugin in a first place?

Industry doesn't really share that positive view regarding Flash but we are not here to argue about web standards, I guess. I would really appreciate if you'd let me know what vendor have on this, thank you.

@RenMc: Indeed, Flash doesn't have a bright future, but at this point it still works just fine for most folks (who don't disable it...hehe.)

Can you provide more details about your system? OS version, browser versions, browser plugins, etc? If you happen to have Charles, a log from that would be fantastic in helping us debug, as we haven't been able to replicate so far.

@RenMc: If you don't want to post that info here, you can email it to community@gamespot.com.

Sorry for delay, I'm back now. No problem posting here, unfortunately I do not run Charles (I guess you mean the proxy, right?).

I have following: Windows 10 (latest = 1511 + actual patches), latest Firefox (45.0.1 at this time), for debug reasons I usually run it at private mode to avoid plugins influence. I also use Edge. I do not have Flash installed at all, but Edge's built-in version works for your videos just fine. The moment I try Firefox or Edge with disabled Flash, I receive the error described: No video has been loaded, Error Code: PLAYER_ERR_NO_SRC

@wemmick: I also noticed one more weird behavior which I forgot to mention so far. Sometimes, but not always, I receive the same error when using Flash enabled Edge also, but in that case the error disappears after clicking ok button and I get an ad followed with a video as expected.

@RenMc: Alright, I've passed these on to our vendor. Hopefully this will help them track down the issue. Thanks!

The HTML5 detection also does not work correctly on XBOX one. It is not possible to play any videos hosted on GS in Edge running on XONE.

The Edge on XONE does not support Flash at all. There is not even an embedded Flash player.

It is quite sad you cannot watch a review on gamespot from console. You can do that on competing sites, such as IGN but that is obviously not the thing GS wants right?