Issue with video picture/sound "sync" in Firefox 37.0.1.
So I have been using Firefox to watch various videos on my PC for a while, and never had any issues. Earlier in the week I ran into an issue with the picture on the videos I will be watching freezing at a certain point. Usually when this occurs, the sound will continue to run, but the picture on the screen will just stay frozen. And to clarify, it is just the picture in the video that freezes, no issues with Firefox freezing. Also, it is important to note that at times the sound will hop to the end of the video (while the video continues the play at the point it was at), and I have even seen the picture freeze with the sound hopping to the end of the video.
To clarify, when the video picture freezes, there is no way (that I have found at least) to move beyond that point in the video. In essence, the video is useless after this issue pops up: something such as buffering does not solve the issue.
I noticed this issue only after my PC upgraded to Firefox 37.0.1. While I am not 100% certain the issues started after the upgrade, I am fairly certain, as I ran a video in chrome and it worked without any hitches. That led me to believe it is a Firefox issue, hence why I am asking it here. I prefer Firefox to chrome, so I hope someone can help me out in resolving this issue so I can stick with Firefox.
Any remedies?
Thanks in advance for all the help :)
Can I provide any more info to spark some answers? Let me know if I left any gaps that make resolving the issue challenging.
Modified by johnnyjohnny2015
Chosen solution
Solution: Uninstall Firefox 37.0.2 from my PC then reinstall the older 36.0.4 version. Works like a charm now. I also disabled automatic updates via the following link: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1003777
Cheers.
Sadly I will have to let go the "why" of this issue. Life is too short.
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (7)
A few that I would recommend trying:
Some problems with Flash video playback can be resolved by disabling hardware acceleration in your Flash Player settings. (See this article for more information on using the Flash plugin in Firefox).
To disable hardware acceleration in Flash Player:
- Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
- Right-click on the Flash Player logo on that page.
- Click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
- Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
The image "fpSettings1.PNG" does not exist.
- Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.
- Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
- Restart Firefox.
This Flash Player Help - Display Settings page has more information on Flash Player hardware acceleration, if you're interested.
Does this solve the problem? Let us know.
Modified by guigs
Something I should have noted in my question is that I have the shockwave flash add on disabled (it has been like that for a while).
Being as I have the add on disabled, the link that you suggested does not show an adobe logo. I turned on flash and the logo showed up, but my thought is that enabling the (vulnerable) flash add on when the videos have had no issue in the past is pointless.
I was discussing the Firefox 37.0.1 update with a friend today and he has also seen issue with it. Maybe it was just doomed from the start with bugs. Any other ideas?
Thanks for getting back to me, it is much appreciated.
Modified by johnnyjohnny2015
Quick update: Turning off hardware acceleration in Firefox, via options, in the advanced panel (first link in the response) has helped somewhat remedy the issue. Now strangely after turning this off, the videos would still not play, but I found that after turning hardware acceleration back on, I can get through videos with no issue, assuming I do no fast forwarding. Time will tell how this remedy holds up, but hopefully I have no more issues. I am thinking the new version of Firefox has a bug somewhere messing with stuff, but I doubt I will ever know for sure.
If there are any more thoughts on the situation I would love to hear them. I will give it a few days and if I feel confident in the fix, then I will close out the issue so we can all sleep at night knowing my issue was fixed. Thanks.
It might have been an update that fixed an issue with the driver, however I will wait for your reply to make sure :-)
A driver update causing the issue would certainly make sense, but I don't see how that could account for the "resolution" after turning hardware acceleration on and off. To clarify, once I turned hardware acceleration off (I only tried to fast forward, didn't let a video run, and it got stuck) and back on, I then let the video run and had zero issues. I just gave fast forwarding a shot, and while it lasted longer without issues than it did when the problem started, it eventually got stuck on a certain frame with the sound still running. I will know on Friday if I can get through a video WITHOUT fast forwarding, and if I am successful I will most likely drop the issue, as our lives have more important things to tackle, but my inner techie still is begging to know why this is happening.
What makes you think the driver could be the issue?
Sadly the issue lives on. Better then it was when I posted the question but still evident. Firefox is usable so I will leave this open for a few more days and hope someone has another fix, but if not I will close out the question and move on with the revelation that Firefox is very much out to annoy me :)
Chosen Solution
Solution: Uninstall Firefox 37.0.2 from my PC then reinstall the older 36.0.4 version. Works like a charm now. I also disabled automatic updates via the following link: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1003777
Cheers.
Sadly I will have to let go the "why" of this issue. Life is too short.