4 ms·

I'd say the worst part is that Firefox has a feature for blocking auto playing video. But it never works.

by rstat1 5y ago

gruez 5y ago
I suspect that's because you can programmatically start video playback from within event handlers. That's necessary because otherwise any site that use custom playback controls will break. However, that also means malicious sites can implement "autoplay" by adding a onmousedown/onscroll/touchstart event handler and starting playback from there. Video playback will start the moment you try to interact with the page in any way.
- boring_twenties 5y ago
  > any site that use custom playback controls will break Is that actually a bad thing? I have no idea about video playback controls, but in every other instance I've noticed where sites implement their own custom versions of browser controls, it's been absolutely terrible. Custom scrollbars, or lack thereof. Custom drop-down lists, which never support keyboard input properly. And so on. And even if I'm wrong, and custom video playback controls are somehow desirable, why should they be supported for any event except onclick?
  - gruez 5y ago
    >why should they be supported for any event except onclick? obvious example would be articles with scrolling effects (eg. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-...), and need to autoplay videos when they scroll into view. That said, even if you restricted it to onclick, I don't imagine it's too hard for a page to receive a stray click (eg. if you're randomly selecting stuff) to trigger playback.
    - inetknght 5y ago
      > articles with scrolling effects That is not a legitimate example of a good thing. That's a legitimate example of something that shouldn't be a thing
      - sdoering 5y ago
        In your opinion. Being someone who hates these autoplay videos on news sites I can also see that examples like OP's are a valid and when done well interesting new firm of story telling. It is imho very valid to experiment with new forms of multimedia mixed stories. And just because some people abuse features that enable this we should not try to stifle innovative ideas as a whole imho. I just don't use sites that do this anymore. I mean the abusal part.
    - drdeca 5y ago
      Why, as a user, would I want a page to begin playing a video as a result of scrolling?
- Firadeoclus 5y ago
  That seems solvable, for example by blocking programmatic control of playback until you allow it for a given video element. That way it only "breaks" when the user wants it to be "broken".
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jeroenhd 5y ago
With some ad blocking I can at least get the videos to stop playing. The black rectangles are only slightly less annoying, though.
grishka 5y ago
I don't understand why there isn't a browser feature that would simply disable all and any support for <video> and <audio> elements, or ask you a permission before a website can create any. It's really that simple. No need to try, and fail, to figure out which videos are "safe" to autoplay and which aren't. Let the user decide.
- hiccuphippo 5y ago
  Makes me miss the days of Flash because I could block everything video, audio and animation related with FlashBlock.
- onion2k 5y ago
  I've seen sites that autoplay video by implementing a JS h264 decoder that renders to a <canvas> element. Developers will go to significant lengths to work around browser permissions.
  - grishka 5y ago
    That's... actually viable? You can decode h264 in real time in JS with a single thread that also runs the UI?! Sometimes I have this crazy thought that we maybe, just maybe, should undo all the JS performance optimizations in browsers. So JS again becomes the macro language for hypertext documents it's meant to be, not an "application platform".
    - zrm 5y ago
      Or just have browsers disable javascript by default and require explicit permission to use it. 90+% of web pages shouldn't need it for anything.
      - wruza 5y ago
        Or make a dead-slow subset that doesn’t eat cpu cycles, but schedules 10-20 ops every 1ms. And then enable full-speed if the user asks. Ads guys would then resurrect a demoscene spirit out of it. Ah, dreams.

I'd say the worst part is that Firefox has a feature for blocking auto playing video. But it never works.

by rstat1 5y ago

I'd say the worst part is that Firefox has a feature for blocking auto playing video. But it never works.

I suspect that's because you can programmatically start video playback from within event handlers. That's necessary because otherwise any site that use custom playback controls will break. However, that also means malicious sites can implement "autoplay" by adding a onmousedown/onscroll/touchstart event handler and starting playback from there. Video playback will start the moment you try to interact with the page in any way.

boring_twenties 5y ago
> any site that use custom playback controls will break Is that actually a bad thing? I have no idea about video playback controls, but in every other instance I've noticed where sites implement their own custom versions of browser controls, it's been absolutely terrible. Custom scrollbars, or lack thereof. Custom drop-down lists, which never support keyboard input properly. And so on. And even if I'm wrong, and custom video playback controls are somehow desirable, why should they be supported for any event except onclick?
- gruez 5y ago
  >why should they be supported for any event except onclick? obvious example would be articles with scrolling effects (eg. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-...), and need to autoplay videos when they scroll into view. That said, even if you restricted it to onclick, I don't imagine it's too hard for a page to receive a stray click (eg. if you're randomly selecting stuff) to trigger playback.
  - inetknght 5y ago
    > articles with scrolling effects That is not a legitimate example of a good thing. That's a legitimate example of something that shouldn't be a thing
    - sdoering 5y ago
      In your opinion. Being someone who hates these autoplay videos on news sites I can also see that examples like OP's are a valid and when done well interesting new firm of story telling. It is imho very valid to experiment with new forms of multimedia mixed stories. And just because some people abuse features that enable this we should not try to stifle innovative ideas as a whole imho. I just don't use sites that do this anymore. I mean the abusal part.
  - drdeca 5y ago
    Why, as a user, would I want a page to begin playing a video as a result of scrolling?
Firadeoclus 5y ago
That seems solvable, for example by blocking programmatic control of playback until you allow it for a given video element. That way it only "breaks" when the user wants it to be "broken".

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jeroenhd 5y ago

With some ad blocking I can at least get the videos to stop playing. The black rectangles are only slightly less annoying, though.

grishka 5y ago

I don't understand why there isn't a browser feature that would simply disable all and any support for <video> and <audio> elements, or ask you a permission before a website can create any. It's really that simple. No need to try, and fail, to figure out which videos are "safe" to autoplay and which aren't. Let the user decide.

hiccuphippo 5y ago
Makes me miss the days of Flash because I could block everything video, audio and animation related with FlashBlock.
onion2k 5y ago
I've seen sites that autoplay video by implementing a JS h264 decoder that renders to a <canvas> element. Developers will go to significant lengths to work around browser permissions.
- grishka 5y ago
  That's... actually viable? You can decode h264 in real time in JS with a single thread that also runs the UI?! Sometimes I have this crazy thought that we maybe, just maybe, should undo all the JS performance optimizations in browsers. So JS again becomes the macro language for hypertext documents it's meant to be, not an "application platform".
  - zrm 5y ago
    Or just have browsers disable javascript by default and require explicit permission to use it. 90+% of web pages shouldn't need it for anything.
    - wruza 5y ago
      Or make a dead-slow subset that doesn’t eat cpu cycles, but schedules 10-20 ops every 1ms. And then enable full-speed if the user asks. Ads guys would then resurrect a demoscene spirit out of it. Ah, dreams.