HTML5 / Flash battle on Youtube

[Scottyboy99]

Hi guys

I finally updated IE9 to latest IE11. Whilst not a total convert to IE11 it's perhaps not as bad as I thought. However an annoying issue has cropped up. On youtube I have always had HTML5 as the preferred player where possible. But since updating to IE11 flash is now always being used. I checked the link below and it is set to use HTML5 whenever possible. How is it that flash is winning the war to play every youtube video? Before updating it was never like this. I tried deleting cookies, re-applying the below several times but it still doesn't work. If I then disable the flash add on IE11 will finally comply and play all the youtube videos I select in HTML5 super smooth but I don't think I should be needing to do this every time should I? I also have Mozilla Firefox on my laptop and this doesn't suffer in the same way so it's specifically IE11 doing this

https://www.youtube.com/html5

Cheers
Wayne

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
The easiest way to make youtube show in html5 is to disable flash in manage add-ons
You might be surprised on how many play with flash disabled,
Even on ie10 which I'm still on personally,
ie11 has improved a bit but I'm not liking developer tools at all,
And there's still a bit of dpi issues when using to much and too much page zoom,
Cheers.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Cheers mate. That works as you suggested fine to make most play in HTML5 but I just find it frustrating that I have to disable the add on. Before when I ran IE9 a fair proportion of the youtube videos would play in HTML5 even with flash enabled. I tested my wifes user account on the same laptop and she doesn't exhibit the same issue, ie. her vids play mainly in HTML5 instead of flash without the need to disable the add on for flash. Trouble is just cannot see how to force / make it work on mine. The cookie is enabled and everything

Cheers
Wayne

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Probably a bug in flash,
I would guess your assessment is correct on Adobe preferring users to use flash and not html5
Not sure how to correct the issue ?
You might test using ie10 ?
Cheers.

 

[Scottyboy99]

I hope your right and it's just a flash bug. It's annoying though - I reset internet explorer 11 but it didn't help. I just think it's strange my wife's user account on the same computer plays html5 over flash but mine is the other way around despite the relevant cookie being enabled. Maybe the next round of flash updates could alleviate this - unless anyone has any ideas

Cheers

 

[Scottyboy99]

I guess it's worth adding if I visit a site like videojs.com the demo vid plays straight away in html5 first time smooth as silk so it seems very specific to youtube. I know I can workaround it but I feel this is yet another glitch to add to the many!

Cheers

 

[UsernameIssues]

Hi guys

I finally updated IE9 to latest IE11. Whilst not a total convert to IE11 it's perhaps not as bad as I thought. However an annoying issue has cropped up. On youtube I have always had HTML5 as the preferred player where possible. But since updating to IE11 flash is now always being use...

I'll point out a minor and perhaps useless point that YouTube loads Flash to show you adverts (even when Flash is not needed for the videos). Other video websites don't do this in IE11.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Hi mate

Yeah I do understand that youtube wants to fire alot of adverts at us. And as such flash will never completely go away on this site. But it's every single one, usually the majority of vids playback in html5 - I just cannot get any to play in this way unless I actually disable the add on for flash. If I do that it's great as html5 plays and does a wonderful job. Obviously youtube in IE11 is paying no attention to the cookie set that tells it to use html5 where possible. I am just scratching my head, no such issue in Firefox or the other user account. I was hoping there is a really simple fix

Cheers
Wayne

 

[Scottyboy99]

Well I tried another laptop and it's doing the same with flash always playing instead of html5. It's obviously something up with the youtube / IE11 combo. But I still find it strange that Mozilla is fine and even stranger the separate user account in the same system is playing html5 mainly

 

[UsernameIssues]

This separate user account that you tested with - is it an admin account?

Did you restart and then test with this second account as the only one logged on?
(If not, please try that.)

Or did you use Switch user?

 

[Scottyboy99]

Yes it's also admin acc. I switched initially but then also logged on with second acc only after a restart. Strange issue really. But the fact I got another laptop and saw same behaviour on that makes me think it could be a youtube issue now. The only real diff between the two laptops is the other one has no extra user accounts, just a single login

 

[Scottyboy99]

Do you or others see similar?

 

[UsernameIssues]

Yes - I see YouTube always load Flash in IE11. I've not tried to force HTML5. I figured that Flash loaded for the adverts, so IE11 uses Flash for the videos too. Vimeo and a few other video websites does not load Flash in IE11.

I was asking about the second user because I'm going to test that too.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Are all of the computers using "64bit tabs" (EPM)?

When you test using your account - use only one IE11 tab.

Then test using the other account & use only one IE11 tab.

I'm puzzled by the differences that you see between accounts.

Let's test with this one link - in one tab.
No other IE11 tabs open.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56R3hU-fWZY
(I've not watched it. I just grabbed it from the home page.)

 

[Scottyboy99]

All computer are using the 32 bit version of IE. And all the times I have run anything has always been with the one single tab open. I will test that link you have provided later when I return home and advise on the results.

Thanks,
Wayne

 

[UsernameIssues]

For IE10 and above, a 64bit computer will have one 64bit "parent" IE process. That parent IE process will launch either 32bit "children" or 64bit "children" - depending on your settings and the website being visited.

 

[Scottyboy99]

I tried the link and on my user login it plays as flash. On my wife's user login it plays as html5!

I've never used Vimeo before but out if curiosity I created a login and run some vids in my user login to see what played and this was HTML5. So it's totally specific to youtube. Happens on our other laptop too with IE11 where it plays flash despite the cookie. On this one we have had ie11 for ages and it always used to do it as HTML5 so I guess the youtube quirk is a relatively recent thing

Did you test in your machine and find flash is prevailing on youtube ?

Cheers
Wayne

 

[UsernameIssues]

I could not stop Flash from playing videos on YouTube. I had to disable it to get it to stop loading. This was true for the few computers that I tested and for every account tested.

Maybe Google is just being a pain to IE users.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Ok thank you so much for taking the time to do that. It makes me happier knowing it's a google side issue rather than my own machine. Maybe they'll sort it out soon

Cheers
Wayne

 

[UsernameIssues]

If only we knew why that link played using HTML5 on your wife's user account.

Maybe Google knows who not to mess with