FireFox Dropping Support for VLC Plug-in

[userabc]

The new Release 52.0 of FireFox is dropping support for plug-ins (except for Flash. Silverlight, Java, Acrobat). How will the loss of the VLC FF plug-in affect my use of VLC? What will I no longer be able to do?

Thank you
[Running Windows 7 Version 6.1]

[Lotesdelere]

The new Release 52.0 of FireFox is dropping support for plug-ins (except for Flash. Silverlight, Java, Acrobat).

Flash is the only exception. All other plugins are being dropped.

How will the loss of the VLC FF plug-in affect my use of VLC? What will I no longer be able to do?

There will be an alternative to the VLC plugin in the next months.
Meanwhile you can use the ESR version of Firefox which will still support plugins until spring 2018:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/faq/

[Mikiwis]

Hi, I am somewhat stressed and blindsided. As I have been successfully using the VLC plugin to enable RTP multicast live streaming service. Will the alternative include RTP and is it being scoped to work on Chrome etc.

Can I help in testing and where can I track the development.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

On Chrome, there might soon be a VLC PPAPI plugin. I guess that nobody would fund the VLC port to PPAPI it until recently - which is to say until it was way too late for a smooth transition. In theory, that could support multicast.

On Firefox, there are no possible alternatives. Maybe there will be WebAssembly some day - again if and when somebody funds it.

Meanwhile the alternative is HTML5. Obviously, that won't include multicast streaming.

[Mikiwis]

As a ball park, what funding do you think will be needed to be raised to ensure mature plugins for both Chrome and Firefox. I think we should we crowd fund this. The plugin is an important element of VLC. Losing the Chrome plugin was difficult and now to lose Firefox is . VLC is a great example of a community developed app that must be maintained and not lose components such as the plugin. I felt the pain of all the original developers. All the best from downunder in NZ

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

It's hard to estimate while WebAssembly is so immature. I guess it would take a few hundreds of thousands of euros.

TBH, I don't think crowdfunding would work.

[userabc]

Lotesdelere wrote:
There will be an alternative to the VLC plugin in the next months.
Meanwhile you can use the ESR version of Firefox which will still support plugins until spring 2018:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/faq/

I don't quite understand which ESR release is supposed to be used to continue support VLC. The table, which I can't figure out how to copy here, shows multiple ESR releases on two rows. Even using the bottom row, are you saying that the ESR Releases 52.x will support VLC plug-in even though the regular Releases 52.x won't?

[Lotesdelere]

are you saying that the ESR Releases 52.x will support VLC plug-in even though the regular Releases 52.x won't?

Yes, exactly.

https://mike.kaply.com/2017/02/02/plugi ... irefox-52/

[pharao]

On Chrome, there might soon be a VLC PPAPI plugin. I guess that nobody would fund the VLC port to PPAPI it until recently - which is to say until it was way too late for a smooth transition. In theory, that could support multicast.

On Firefox, there are no possible alternatives. Maybe there will be WebAssembly some day - again if and when somebody funds it.

Meanwhile the alternative is HTML5. Obviously, that won't include multicast streaming.

So somebody is actually had donation for developing this for Chrome (PPAPI Plugin)? And somebody is actually developing this right now? This feature is important.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

I don't know. I guess so from the fact that patches were recently posted by consultants.

That does not necessarily mean that multicast will be included.

[Mikiwis]

Could someone assist me to contact anyone who is developing the new VLC PPAPI plugin replacement. Best regards M

[Oliver2]

Yop, Think we're quite many users around, who REALLY needs such a VLC PPAPI based plugin replacement for e.g. running VLC A/V Streams embedded within also the current Chrome Browser by today - (Possibly towards also a ChromeCast Device / TV !?)

Thus, there seems to be a lot discussion about this issue at various Forums etc., but pt. it seems a little hard to conclude anything about any concrete plans etc., + what might actually be going on in this regard!?

So can anyone here (hopefully) help a little w. some updated info about the actual VLC PPAPI Plugin situation by today!?

Thx a lot in advance, if possible!

[userabc]

I have not seen anything coming out for the VLC Firefox plugin support. As recommended above, I am still on FF 51.0.1 but I am having some FF incompatibilities (non-VLC) and need to upgrade to the current FF release. Would someone kindly explain what I will not be able to do with VLC if I upgrade to FF 55.0.2 (current release)? Will VLC still work when for general use (e.g. dragging files to the VLC screen)? Thank you.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

The VLC (NPAPI) plugin within Firefox will not work at all.

The standalone desktop application will continue to work as before, as will any other application directly based on LibVLC.

[userabc]

Thank you Rémi Denis-Courmont for your clear answer and explanation.

[MymsMan]

Is there any realistic hope of a replacement for the VLC plugins for Firefox and Chrome before he Firefox 52 ESR ends?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

For Firefox, the answer is a definite no.

WebAssembly will not be production ready any time soon, and then it will take some time and considerable funding to port VLC on top of WebAssembly.

[marty110]

There is an alternative to the plugin that I've been using with this addon for firefox 52:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... src=search

Whenever you go to a youtube page or right click a link the addon recognizes the video from the context men and it opens vlc and plays. You just have to make sure the youtube.luac file is up to date since Google is famous for breaking things:

https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/ma ... outube.lua

The easiest way is to click on the raw link and copy that into your youtube.luac file when necessary.

Note this works with a portable or installed version depending on where you direct the addon to open.

For the newer firefox versions there's a compatible addon although it doesn't recognize the VLCPortable link, you have to go directly to vlc.exe :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... src=search

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Somebody needing the VLC browser plugin is probably not after YouTube support, so this is not really helping, TBH.

[marty110]

If the plugin was used for youtube it helps. Other sites like dailymotion not so much since the links have to be manually added to the player.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

The main use cases for the plugin are RTSP (web cams), multicast (IPTV) and plain HTTP or FTP (non-HTML5 audio/video files).

Why would somebody use the browser plugin for YouTube, when they can just watch YouTube directly in the browser.

[grey_rat]

Firefox 68.10esr
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/n2j ... vlc368.jpg

Firefox accepts VLC as Flash Player
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ubi ... lc4f68.jpg

to create
plugin.load_flash_only - false

to change
plugin.scan.plid.all - true
plugins.http_https_only — false
dom.ipc.plugins.sandbox-level.flash — 0
dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode — true
media.resume-bkgnd-video-on-tabhover — false
plugins.favorfallback.mode — never
plugins.favorfallback.rules —
plugins.flashBlock.enabled — false
plugin.state.flash — 0

Modified userscript https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/tu9 ... be.user.js

http://sebaro.pro/contact/
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic ... post-39395

[grey_rat]

71 - last Firefox where VLC plugin works

in 72+ new settings
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hxc ... 2/78fl.jpg

[grey_rat]

Firefox 78
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/pbs ... /78vlc.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/gcs ... fl-vlc.jpg

[Hitchhiker]

You might want to consider installing Waterfox Classic

There are two versions of Waterfox now namely Classic and Current. The former supports NPAPI plugins and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future according to the developer. I'm using the Classic version myself because I like tabs below the location bar among other things.

Mozilla has removed legacy addons from the AMO site, but these can still be installed by downloading the Classic repository dbase from Github: https://github.com/JustOff/ca-archive/ It's about 29MB I believe and creates a toolbar icon with which you can install any legacy addon.

The Classic version although aimed at users who don't want to be restricted to just using WebExtensions also supports those as well. However, legacy extensions can't be installed if multi-process is enabled. Just remove the checkmark in Preferences --> Startup menu to disable it.

Hope this helps.