Web-bugs: v.pptv.com - video or audio doesn't play

[webcompat-bot]

URL: http://v.pptv.com/show/icWM9uibBXPnzfXcU.html?rcc_src=B3

Browser / Version: Firefox 58.0
Operating System: Windows 10
Tested Another Browser: Yes

Problem type: Video or audio doesn't play
Description: the video feed does not start
Steps to Reproduce:
I try to watch a Chinese drama fr om the browser, it did work on FF ver. 55, but not work on FF ver56 and FF Nightly built ver.58. I tried it on latest Chrome and it workd.

_From webcompat.com with ❤️_

[MDTsai]

@bli-mozbj could you help to test this issue? I know it needs Flash Player, but I can't play video even if enable Flash player.

[karlcow]

[xuyuehang]

I made a regression, and found this issue due to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1279218
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/json-pushes?changeset=2ee0b5a0560a0c9f6dfd023dfe8a26c738994bb9&full=1

[karlcow]

The code sent is different depending on the user agent. For example if you send the Safari iOS user agent it will send a video element with a link (unfortunately HLS).

The player is initialized by
http://player.aplus.pptv.com/jsplayer/pid/5701.js

They try to detect flash

    v = function () {
      try {
        return new ActiveXObject('ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash')
      } catch (e) {
      }
      try {
        return navigator.plugins['Shockwave Flash']
      } catch (e) {
      }
      return !1
    },

They detect the useragent

  agent = window.navigator.userAgent,
  encode = encodeURIComponent,
  isMobile = !!agent.match(/(iPhone|iPod|Android|iPad|BlackBerry|webOS)/i),

which they use here:

    this.playVideo = function (e) {
      if ('' !== e && void 0 !== e || s.playVideo(), 'number' == type(e) && p.playList[e]) {
        d = e,
        o._willPlay = !0;
        var t = p.playList[d];
        return s || log('player null.'),
        s.playVideo(t)
      }
      'object' == type(e) && o.resetList([e])
    },
    this.checkPlayerType = function (e) {
      return e = + e,
      100000 > e || 950000 > e && e > 300000 ? 'live' : 'vod'
    },
    this.goToAndPlay = function (e, t) {
      var a = + new Date,
      n = t || {
      },
      i = n.ctx && n.ctx.stime > - 1 ? 'live' : this.checkPlayerType(e);
      if (log('当前播放类型 goToAndPlay ===>', i, isMobile, e, n), n.cid = e, mix(n, n.ctx), this.lastTime) {
        if (a - this.lastTime < 1000) return;
        this.lastTime = a
      } else this.lastTime = a;
      if ('live' == i) {
        var r = + new Date / 1000 >> 0,
        l = n.ctx || {
        };
        l.etime && r >= Number(l.etime) && (n.isVod = 1)
      }
      return n.swfUrl ? (this.loadSWF(n.swfUrl), void (n.swfUrl = null))  : void (!s || isMobile ? s = this.create(this.config)  : this.getConfig().playerType != i ? this.switchPlayer(mappid[i], e)  : o.playVideo(n))
    },
    this.switchPlayer = function (e, t) {
      s = null,
      PPTVPlayer = null,
      Loader.load({
        url: l.replace(/\[pid\]/i, e),
        type: 'js',
        userCall: !1,
        callback: function () {
          log('switchPlayer ===> ', e, t),
          o.getVideoData(t)
        }
      })
    },

If they detect flash, they send object and embed.

[karlcow]

All of that is done through an iframe.

<iframe id="ifr_player" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.aplus.pptv.com/corporate/proxy/proxy.html#id=12179709&amp;autoplay=0&amp;w=100%25&amp;h=100%25&amp;pageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fm.pptv.com%2Fshow%2FicWM9uibBXPnzfXcU.html%3Frcc_src%3DB3&amp;pageRefer=&amp;videoType=vod&amp;ctx=complete%3D1%26poster%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fv.img.pplive.cn%252F63%252F91%252F63911e4964c579df1a194bc0b25bed56%252F3.jpg%26kk%3D85a666038480a4050fb50bb1cfe60005-d622-59ddcbb4%26o%3Dm.pptv.com%26isVipMovie%3D0%26isSport%3D0%26msiteSourceSite%3D&amp;adConfig=chid%3D10031555%26clid%3D0" scrolling="no" height="100%" frameborder="0" width="100%"></iframe>

[karlcow]

Pushing to needscontact and @MDTsai though honestly I don't think they will change anything for NON HLS. Maybe they are preparing for a flashless world and it would be worth to attempt to contact them and encourage them to adopt different formats.

[bli-mozbj]

We'll try to contact with PPTV, also to see whether they have plans to drop flash.

[bli-mozbj]

Already fixed and verified on Firefox 56&58
PPTV is still in the process of switching to HTML5 player, but no timeline for the launch yet.

[MDTsai]

Let's close this issue as fixed, thanks for the help of @bli-mozbj