Live streaming: Flash - Firefox - Windows 10

[holz75]

Hi there!  I'm at a loss with this issue.  I've searched the forums and couldn't find the exact answer, so I decided to start a new discussion!  🙂  First of all, I'm on Windows 10, Firefox 47.0.1, and Flash 22.0.0.192.  My machine is a Razer Blade Stealth touchscreen.  For whatever reason, live streaming does not work with Firefox on my machine?  Specifically, Facebook and Nest.com.  With Facebook, it's simply when someone goes live.  I push play, and then see a black screen with no audio.  With Nest.com, I have 2 cameras set up at my house, and whenever I try to turn them on, I just see a spinning wheel like it's trying to load the live stream.  It's funny though...  I've tried this at home, and I can see the camera actually turn on!  It's just that I'm not getting any picture.  This only happens with Firefox.  Live streaming works fine with Chrome, Edge, and IE.  Last week, I actually got it to work ONCE.  With all my troubleshooting, I had noticed I had two versions of Flash installed, so I uninstalled both and reinstalled one.  BAM!  It worked!  Well, the next time I turned on my computer, it stopped working.  I then tried to uninstall and reinstall Flash, and it hasn't worked again since.  I've also tried a fresh copy of Firefox with no other settings or plugins, and it just does not work.

Any thoughts?  🙂  Thanks!

I should also mention that regular Flash videos play.  It's just the live streams that don't.

[Carm01]

Try checking out the guide I have here:

Guide to Manually updating Flash Player - Windows

This is a two step process to manually updating your Flash player

A also have this fully automated there is a link in my profile here will get you there.

Also in that guide you might want to update to a 64 bit version of Firefox if your machine is a 64 bit operating system as it is much more stable

Hope that Helps

Best regards

Please mark my post helpful or answered if I have assisted you

Thanks

[holz75]

Hey!  Unfortunately, that did not work.  And actually, I had crucial files in those two folders that caused my Flash player in Edge and IE to stop working even though Flash was checked as enabled!  I'm glad I created a restore point.  🙂  So, we're back to square one.  I installed the latest Flash (.209), but it still doesn't work with Firefox.  I'm already using the 64 bit version.

Any other suggestions?

[Carm01]

There are multiple types of flash player.

Run windows updates to make sure you have the most recent activeX versions

Also, go to add remove programs and under uninstall programs see if this is here:

You need to make sure NPAPI version is installed as well

Hope that Helps

Best regards

Please mark my post helpful or answered if I have assisted you

Thanks

[holz75]

Yes, I have the NPAPI version installed.  Should I have another version installed as well besides the ActiveX versions?

[Carm01]

Try a different Firefox profile; assuming that you have NPAPI installed

Go in the search box and type

firefox.exe -p

Create a new profile and test flash. We can then determine if this is a profile related issues.

Hope that Helps

Best regards

Please mark my post helpful or answered if I have assisted you

Thanks

[holz75]

Unfortunately, that didn't work either.  When I installed a fresh copy of Firefox, I had re-labeled my previous copy's folders, so the new one would install into a new directory with no settings or profiles.  I'm at a loss!  😞

[Carm01]

Let me make a suggestion if you care to try it. Its a project I created over a year ago, and have no complaints.

Click on my profile and go to myURL and give it a read, it might help , it might not help.

Best Regards

Please be sure to mark my post here helpful or answered if I assisted you

Thanks

[holz75]

I haven't gotten a chance to try that yet, but I will.  Let me ask you this though...  What would be causing this?  If I do just a clean uninstall and reinstall of Flash, the first time I try something like www.facebook.com/live, it works.  BUT, when I close the browser and open it again, that site stops showing live feeds.  How do I troubleshoot that?

[Carm01]

1) is it unique to facebook, or does this happen with all sites

2) Are you getting any error messages ?

3) you could try clearing your flash cookies.

4) please verify that you are using the 64 bit Firefox version:

Settings - the the question mark symbol at the bottom - then troubleshooting information.

the user agent line should look or contain :

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:48.0)

Best Regards

Please be sure to mark my post here helpful or answered if I assisted you

Thanks

[holz75]

Yes, I've verified I'm using the 64 bit Firefox version 47.0.1, and my user agent settings look just like that.  This is the test I just did:

1.  Opened the Flash settings panel and deleted all data and settings

2.  Cleared all cookies related to Adobe, Flash, Macromedia, etc.

3.  Used the Flash uninstaller program to uninstall Flash

4.  Rebooted my computer

5.  Downloaded the current, correct Flash version and installed

6.  Immediately opened facebook.com/live, and the first live streaming video on left started playing!

7.  Closed the browser and reopened it, went to facebook.com/live, and all I see is a frozen picture.  If I click on that frozen picture, it brings   me to a new screen where there a '>' play button.  I click it, and it just gives me a black screen with the red 'LIVE' symbol on the top left.  No audio either.  Like I mentioned previously, this also happens with nest.com when I try to view live streams from my cameras at home.

I give up!!!!  Hahahaha.

[Carm01]

a few posts up i mentioned the profile manager, can you create a new FF profile? Nothing will happen to the old data. You can always revert back.

also try ccleaner and there is an option to delete old prefetch data. I noticed this was an issue in the x86 version of Firefox causing issues mostly crashes.

Also maybe disable click to play is causing a problem, and set to always activate. Settings - addons, then plugins and set to always activate.

Im starting to run out of ideas from what I have mentioned. ugh ..

Best Regards

Please be sure to mark my post here helpful or answered if I assisted you

Thanks

[jeromiec83223024]

My recommendation would be to work through the video troubleshooting guide. 

In particular, see the part about disabling hardware acceleration.

https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html

If disabling hardware acceleration doesn't fix the black screen problem, are you using any third-party 'internet protection" packages or software firewalls, or maybe an ad-blocker or anti-tracking plugin?