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Firefox 120+ and HEVC


olympus1
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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 by olympus1
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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

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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.

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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 by olympus1
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8 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, I would either undo this:

5c9b141743595_Untitled.png

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.

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12 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, I would either undo this:

5c9b141743595_Untitled.png

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 by olympus1
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13 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, I would either undo this:

5c9b141743595_Untitled.png

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.

 

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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.

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  • 8 months later...
olympus1
On 12/27/2023 at 9:01 PM, Luke said:

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.

Hi Luke,

After some months I've tried the latest Firefox nightly (132.0a1).

I am on Emby server 4.8.8

Firefox developers seem to have fixed all issues regarding HEVC direct playback:)

Many people don't know that Firefox can now direct play HEVC in media servers properly because Firefox has only Firefox's media engine enabled by default.

But if you set "media.wmf.media-engine.enabled" to 1 (playback enabled for media engine and MFT) Firefox can use Microsoft's MFT engine and direct HEVC playback works now in media servers.

There is only 1 issue and it has to do with Emby and Emby's web player. It is not a Firefox issue.

When playback starts if you move your mouse, the video turns black.

If you wait for a while it comes back. If you move your mouse it turns black again.

This is an issue of Emby ONLY. This isn't something Firefox has to fix.

It has to do with Emby's web player and how it handles video streams coming from MFT.

Jellyfin and Plex do not have this issue, everything works fine there, the screen turns black only in Emby.

Thank you in advance for any reply.

Edited by olympus1
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Quote

There is only 1 issue and it has to do with Emby and Emby's web player. It is not a Firefox issue.

Hi, what makes you think this? I guess it's natural to assume that when you move the mouse in another player, the screen stays normal, therefore when it happens in Emby it must be an Emby issue.

As a developer. it sounds more to me like a firefox defect that is created when combining certain features together. Like for example, the blur effect that we frequently use. 

Anyway, we'll keep an eye on this, and if it's still an issue by the time it hits the beta channel then we'll figure out some kind of workaround. Thanks.

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olympus1
10 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, what makes you think this? I guess it's natural to assume that when you move the mouse in another player, the screen stays normal, therefore when it happens in Emby it must be an Emby issue.

As a developer. it sounds more to me like a firefox defect that is created when combining certain features together. Like for example, the blur effect that we frequently use. 

Anyway, we'll keep an eye on this, and if it's still an issue by the time it hits the beta channel then we'll figure out some kind of workaround. Thanks.

Thank you Luke for your reply.

I assume it is an issue of Emby's web player because it happens only there when MFT playback is enabled (happens in all files, H264 and HEVC).

I've tested the same files in Jellyfin and Plex web players and they don't have this issue.

It doesn't happen in YouTube's player, in Dailymotion's player, in any web player I could think of with MFT playback enabled.

I could be wrong, you obviously know way better than me how Emby's web player works.

You are right that we should wait until version 132 is released, all these fixes Firefox developers made are fixes made in version 132.

HEVC direct playback doesn't work at all in the latest stable release of Firefox (version 130) and in Firefox beta (version 131).

It's too soon because we are talking about nightly releases. I am just impatient because I had been waiting for months and months for Firefox developers to make direct HEVC playback to work in media servers:) 

Thank you again for your reply.

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olympus1
On 9/22/2024 at 3:28 AM, Luke said:

Anyway, we'll keep an eye on this, and if it's still an issue by the time it hits the beta channel then we'll figure out some kind of workaround. Thanks.

Hi Luke, I have good news about HEVC direct play in Firefox.

The latest nightly 132.0a1 (2024-09-27) is capable to direct play HEVC in Emby.

Without having to change the "media.wmf.media-engine.enabled" to 1 (playback enabled for media engine and MFT).

They fixed all issues in the default value which uses only the media engine and there is no reason to enable MFT anymore.

So... people will be able to enjoy Emby in Firefox without having to transcode when version 132 stable will be released.

And it will work without having to change any setting.

Finally:)

Edited by olympus1
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  • 1 month later...
  • Solution
olympus1

Firefox 132 released and it includes the fixes.

Warning.... I think the stable release has "media.wmf.hevc.enabled" set to 2.

Make sure you have "media.wmf.hevc.enabled" set to 1 and "media.wmf.media-engine.enabled" to 2.

The result... Emby direct plays HEVC.

The screenshot is from Firefox 132 stable which just released.

firefox_GMMEC61yJX.jpg

Edited by olympus1
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