Firefox 120+ and HEVC

[olympus1 32]

Hi, first of all thank you for this amazing application.

I am using Mandarake chromium builds as a web player because it supports software hevc decoding.

But since version 120, Firefox also supports hardware hevc decoding like Chrome, Edge etc.

I am on Firefox 121 and I am sure it supports hevc.

I have enabled hevc support in Firefox with "media.wmf.hevc.enabled" set to 1 (hevc enabled for media engine and MFT)

http://ott.dolby.com/codec_test/index.html

reports Firefox can play hevc

https://tools.woolyss.com/html5-audio-video-tester/

also reports Firefox can play hevc  and all hevc samples there play in Firefox

also Firefox can even play local mp4 hevc files, I have tested them with this player

https://mediaplayer.chromecrxstore.com/

There is no doubt that I can play hevc in Firefox, but Emby can't play hevc content in direct play, I get Playback Error No compatible streams are currently available.

I am using Emby server 4.7.14.0.

It would be awesome if Emby could direct play hevc in Firefox too, now that it supports hardware hevc decoding.

Then there will no web browser left that I won't be able to use as a web player for Emby.

Thank you in advance for any reply.

Edited December 24, 2023 by olympus1

[Luke 37110]

Hi, it should already be able to because the hevc support detection is generic and not browser-specific.

 

Let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[olympus1 32]

4 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, it should already be able to because the hevc support detection is generic and not browser-specific.

 

Let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

Thank  you Luke for your reply.

I deleted all existing logs and tried to play a hevc video. Here are the newly created logs.

 

logs.zip

[Luke 37110]

13 hours ago, olympus1 said:

Thank  you Luke for your reply.

I deleted all existing logs and tried to play a hevc video. Here are the newly created logs.

 

logs.zip 255.88 kB · 0 downloads

Did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it wasn't direct playing? Firefox does not support the mkv container.

[olympus1 32]

35 minutes ago, Luke said:

Did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it wasn't direct playing? Firefox does not support the mkv container.

Hi Luke.

What I have noticed.

When Emby shows the window Playback Error No compatible streams are currently available,

if I press the button "Got it" continuously, after about 10 times of pressing it... playback starts.

It plays the hevc video in direct play!

Firefox is using a different way to support hevc, it uses Windows Media Foundation for it, chromium based browsers including even Edge don't use WMF.

Maybe it needs some kind of different approach because of WMF (for not having to try so many times for playback to start).

stats for nerds show this after playback starts after pressing "Got it" multiple times.

Stream
MKV (728 kbps)
HLS (2 mbps)
Converting to compatible container
Video
720p HEVC
Main 120 728 kbps 23.976 fps
Direct Play (728 kbps)
Dropped Frames
143
Corrupted Frames
0
Audio
English AAC stereo (Default)
192 kbps 48000 Hz
Direct Play (192 kbps)

Edited December 26, 2023 by olympus1

[Luke 37110]

Hi, I would either undo this:

Or try Chrome or Microsoft Edge and see how that compares.

[olympus1 32]

8 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, I would either undo this:

Or try Chrome or Microsoft Edge and see how that compares.

I am using Mandarake chromium builds as my main web player because it supports software hevc decoding.

Emby works great in Chrome, Edge etc too for direct playback of hevc content.

I was just trying to see how it works in Firefox now that they say it supports hevc through WMF.

I will keep using Mandarake chromium builds, but I was hoping direct hevc playback may worked in Firefox now as good it works in chromium based browsers.

Unfortunately it doesn't, probably Mozilla needs to fix various stuff on it.

Shame, because I can play all these hevc samples but I can't use this new feature for something usable for my needs like Emby.

Let's hope they make their hevc support to work better.

Thank you again Luke for your reply.

[olympus1 32]

12 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, I would either undo this:

Or try Chrome or Microsoft Edge and see how that compares.

Some updates Luke.

Firefox apart from MFT can use hevc with its own new media engine.

If I enable that

"media.wmf.hevc.enabled" set to 1 (hevc enabled for media engine and MFT)

"media.wmf.media-engine.enabled" set to 1 (enabled)

Emby direct hevc playback starts in Firefox. No, playback errors, nothing, playback simply starts.

The problem is that the video is out of sync and gets blank if you touch the mouse.

This happens in h264 videos too, in all videos, not only in hevc.

But it's an issue of Firefox's new media engine, not an Emby issue.

Eventually when they fix it, Emby will be able to direct play hevc in Firefox too.

Edited December 27, 2023 by olympus1

[olympus1 32]

13 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, I would either undo this:

Or try Chrome or Microsoft Edge and see how that compares.

More about Firefox...

Luke I don't think there is an issue with Firefox's new media engine to be fixed by Mozilla.

I've been testing the new media engine of Firefox in various sites and all work properly.

No out of sync audio or blank screen after moving the mouse.

So, when Firefox enables the new media engine by default in a future version of Firefox (they will make the new engine the default engine the upcoming months), Firefox will not work properly for everybody as a web player in all videos with transcoding enabled or not.

Maybe Emby's ffmpeg procedure will need to be tweaked for making it work properly with Firefox's new media engine.

Thank you again Luke for any reply.

 

[Luke 37110]

We'll continue to keep an eye on it as it gets closer to releasing, but since firefox doesn't support mkv it will never truly direct play.