Mp4 Playback Choppy In Firefox But Not In Chrome

[Bruce Wayne]

I created an MP4 video a while ago and tested it in both browsers, both locally from my hard drive and from my Dropbox account. In Firefox, there's often an A/V sync issue and the video sticks a lot, so badly that it looks more like a series of still frames than a video. In Chrome, however, there's absolutely no problem with it, and it plays through perfectly, both just once and on a continuous loop. So what's the problem with Firefox? I've disabled hardware acceleration both in Firefox and in Flash, which is up-to-date. If I "web optimize" the file using Handbrake, it plays much better in Firefox, although not perfectly, still a bit jerky and sticky. But I don't want to have to "web optimize" it. If it plays perfectly in Chrome, it should play perfectly in Firefox.

[jagabo]

If it plays perfectly in Chrome, it should play perfectly in Firefox.

Why? Different programs, different programmers, different libraries, different abilities.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/377924-Why-Is-Chrome-So-Bad-At-Handling-Animated-Gifs

[Bruce Wayne]

If it plays perfectly in Chrome, it should play perfectly in Firefox.

Why? Different programs, different programmers, different libraries, different abilities.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/377924-Why-Is-Chrome-So-Bad-At-Handling-Animated-Gifs

I was hoping the animated gif thing would be a one-off. Didn't think there'd be a whole load of things that one browser can handle but the other can't.

[poisondeathray]

You should be using "web optimize" for MP4's destined for web. The reason is it moves the moov atom to the beginning - without it playback won't start until the entire file is downloaded. You're going to piss a lot of people off (again) if you don't use it . With it at the beginning, playback can start almost immediately without the entire file downloaded. It actually shouldn't affect playback smoothness like you observed, if the file was already local

Are you playing it directly with the browser's player ? Or though a front end, such as HTML5 player or a specific flash player ? Unlike GIF's , most sites use a player embedded in the browser, not through the browser native player directly

[Bruce Wayne]

You should be using "web optimize" for MP4's destined for web. The reason is it moves the moov atom to the beginning - without it playback won't start until the entire file is downloaded. You're going to piss a lot of people off (again) if you don't use it . With it at the beginning, playback can start almost immediately without the entire file downloaded. It actually shouldn't affect playback smoothness like you observed, if the file was already local

Are you playing it directly with the browser's player ? Or though a front end, such as HTML5 player or a specific flash player ? Unlike GIF's , most sites use a player embedded in the browser, not through the browser native player directly

Turns out it was the VLC Web Plugin. I just happened to uninstall it because I didn't really use it that much, and as soon as I did, Firefox's performance SHOT up to perfect. Nearly everything about it has sped up and improved. GIF loading, scrolling. The VLC Web Plugin is apparently ****.

EDIT: Copied and pasted from another thread.

"PROBLEM SOLVED! It was hardware acceleration. I'd turned it off. I tried turning it back on again but no effect. But then I closed and restarted Firefox, opened up an MP4, and it played perfectly. So it's to do with hardware acceleration. If that's turned off, on a machine like mine at least, videos will play choppily, in slow-mo, and freeze a lot. I'm now gonna try reinstalling VLC Web Plugin to see if that had actually been having any effect or if it was all to do with hardware acceleration.

EDIT: It had nothing to do with the VLC Web Plugin. I just need to keep hardware acceleration on."