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lobudgt
Participating Frequently
July 28, 2014
Answered

Videos display only as white background in Firefox

  • July 28, 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 4444 views

I have read for days, and followed every lead I found to correct this problem. When on Youtube or any other video site that uses Flash, upon selecting a video to watch, it only displays a white background where the video should be playing. Right clicking in the white field, will not display a dialog box, therefore I can not even choose the settings for Flash. Since I can't get into the settings, I can't check to see if enable hardware acceleration is checked or not. If I go here, http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/flash-player-64-bit-operating.html below this:

Flash Player information

If Flash Player is installed on your browser, the following box displays the version of Flash Player and your operating system. If Flash Player is not installed, an error message is displayed.

All I see is a blank area.


When I was given the problem to correct, this laptop was running Firefox 20, and Flash Player 14. I upgraded to Firefox 28.0, and a clean install of FP 14, no change. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Flash according to the most strict instructions. I have even dug up an old version and tried that, but no joy. I have the exact same setup running on other machines, and they play video, although on one in particular, Flash Player does crash more than I'd like. I digress....my specs are as follows:


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Firefox 28.0.1

Flash Player 14.0 (latest version as of 7/28/2014


If Flash is installed, it does work in Internet Explorer. If I uninstall Flash, Youtube videos will play in IE and Firefox, using the HTML5 versions automatically. Once FP is installed, I can't play video in Firefox at all, and IE uses Flash Player as if nothing is wrong.


Please HELP!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer jeromiec83223024

    I try not to name vendors in the public forums, but Comodo is one of the frequent offenders.  They try to intercept the communication between Flash and Firefox, which trips our security protections and causes Flash and Firefox to be unable to communicate.

    You can try shutting Comodo down, but I don't think that will do it.  It's easy, so you might as well try it first.  Make sure Comodo is not running, and then restart Firefox.  If that doesn't work, try uninstalling Comodo completely, restart and there's a pretty good chance that Firefox will magically start working again.

    Do you have any other privacy/security stuff in play?

    2 replies

    A
    Anonymous
    August 24, 2014

    I have exactly the same issue : none of the proposed solutions worked, I can watch videos with everything except Firefox, I see only a blank area and I can't click on it, but it's not because of Comodo (I don't have it). I'm french and I don't have any answers on the french forum. I hope you will help me.

    Thanks.

    L
    lobudgtAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    August 25, 2014

    Excellent English, and especially so from someone whom it is a second language! I only wish some of my fellow native English speakers could master it so well!

    Hopefully someone who is as knowledgeable as the person who helped me, will respond to you too.

    In the meantime, I will ask a question of you. What kind of security protection software do you have installed? You have already said it is not Comodo, but that doesn't mean whatever you use in place of it couldn't be causing the problem. Before I was advised to completely remove Comodo, I knew from other past problems, that this kind of software, while necessary, can cause problems at times. Usually disabling them temporarily will be enough to see if they are to blame, but as I learned this time, I had to completely uninstall and remove all traces before I knew it was to blame.

    Best of luck!

    A
    Anonymous
    August 25, 2014

    It's my third language actually, I made the wonderful choice to learn German as a second language in middle school (I don't know how to make a sentence since 8 years of learning) but thank you, and thank the amazing american and British series and 9 GAG who helped me to reach that level.

    Yes, I hope but it's very nice to you to respond to me. I wrote a message a month ago in the french forum and nobody respond to it even if 53 people saw it.

    I use Avast, the free version. I will disable it and reedit my message to tell you the result.

    Thank you again, Jeff, I presume,

    Hi again ! Well I deactivate it and nothing change. I was on Youtube to testing but even on the welcome page, it tells me that the plug in Flash Player has crashed.

    I'm very bad at conjugation (so bad that I didn't know how to say this word until ten seconds) so excuse me if some of the sentences have temporal paradox or things like that.

    jeromiec83223024
    Community Manager
    jeromiec83223024Community Manager
    Community Manager
    July 28, 2014

    Please work through the video troubleshooting guide, here:

    Video playback issues

    In a reply, please detail the steps you took, and the result for each.  This is extremely valuable in determining a root-cause.

    Also, can you go to a simple non-video Flash site, like http://www.homestarrunner.com/ and tell me what you see there?

    Finally, in Firefox, you can start up with all other plug-ins and add-ons disabled.  There's a couple classes of malware and some security/privacy/"save Flash video to your computer" kinds of software from smaller vendors that attempt to insert themselves as a shim between Flash Player and Firefox; however, with the addition of Protected Mode for Firefox on Windows back in Flash Player 10.3, we'll see that we're not communicating directly with the Firefox process and will stop.  If the issue is being caused by a legitimate plug-in, starting up in protected mode *may* prevent this from happening.  If Flash magically starts working, then you'll need to enable your other add-ons one by one until you find the offender.

    To do this in Firefox, chose Help > Restart with Add-Ons disabled.

    Thanks!

    L
    lobudgtAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    July 29, 2014

    Thank you for trying to help me, Jeromie. I hope we will find success together!


    I have read through and followed everything possible from within the "Video Playback Issues" link you gave me. Actually, I had done them all before, but I did them again, including following all related links on each subsequent page.


    • I can play HTML5 videos without problem
    • Item #1 under "Solve Video Playback Issues" , "Try disabling hardware acceleration" is impossible to do as far as I can tell, since right clicking on the white background where the video is supposed to be in Firefox, does not open any dialog or drop down type box as it should. I have opened the settings via Internet Explorer. I unchecked "Enable Hardware Acceleration". The results - No change.
    • Regardless of the last item, I checked the driver for my video hardware, and Windows reports it up to date.
    • Here is what I see when I click the link to view a Non-HTML5 video:





    Flash Player Help/ Video Playback Issues - Additional Information - Latest Version of Flash Player Doesn't Display Video:

    • I confirmed proper installation of the latest player.
    • Refreshed the website page.
    • Ensured that Adobe Flash Player is the default player.
    • Verified that the website is allowed to play Flash content on my system.
    • Ensured that no browser security is causing video to not play, although the problem is not in Internet Explorer, it is in Firefox.
    • Thoroughly checked for any firewall or virus/malware protection Flash Player prevention issues, and even tried disabling it all temporarily.



    Flash Player Help/ Video Playback Issues - Additional Information -Video Does Not Display:

    • This content is Internet Explorer specific, and therefore not relevant.
    • I proceeded to report the problem here, as suggested next.


    Quote:

    Also, can you go to a simple non-video Flash site, like http://www.homestarrunner.com/ and tell me what you see there?


    On Firefox, I see an empty black page. With Internet Explorer, I see an armless dufass wearing a propeller hat and red sweater with a white star. "come on in" "watch intro" (which playes fine on IE).


    Disabling all my plugins except Shockwave Flash 14.0.0.145 was the first step I took.


    Could there be some malware at play? Certainly. I did however, run a full system scan using an up to date Comodo Internet Security Premium. No infections were found.


    Still no joy.


    Please advise further. I will take whatever steps you suggest I take.


















    jeromiec83223024
    Community Manager
    jeromiec83223024Community ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    July 29, 2014

    I try not to name vendors in the public forums, but Comodo is one of the frequent offenders.  They try to intercept the communication between Flash and Firefox, which trips our security protections and causes Flash and Firefox to be unable to communicate.

    You can try shutting Comodo down, but I don't think that will do it.  It's easy, so you might as well try it first.  Make sure Comodo is not running, and then restart Firefox.  If that doesn't work, try uninstalling Comodo completely, restart and there's a pretty good chance that Firefox will magically start working again.

    Do you have any other privacy/security stuff in play?

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