H264 streaming in Flash Player throws error, but only on the watch page

[TheBigFatOof]

The default Flash Player works fine in FLV mode, but when switching to H264 mode, I get "An error occurred, please try again later," on any video I try.

However, if I load the player directly through "/watch.swf?video_id=[whatever]/mp4", then it streams in H264 MP4 mode just fine (except with no option for HQ/HD). So it's not that the Flash Player's incapable of streaming in H264 mode; it just won't do it on the normal watch page.

Flash version is 32.0.0.371, running under Windows XP SP3. I've tried these browsers: Firefox 3.6.28, Firefox 52.9.0 ESR, Chrome 49.0.2623.112, and New Moon 27.10.0. All give the same results.

EDIT: Tried much earlier Flash version from July 2009 (10.0.32.18). Nothing at all changed.

[ftde0]

try using the compatibility fixes available at /toggle_f.

[TheBigFatOof]

Thank you, how'd I overlook that? I must've been in /toggle_f a dozen times, with that staring me in the face, and my stupid brain just screened it out.

It seems that toggling "no quality list" fixes the error. Of course, the quality list is one of the reasons I wanted H264 playback, so that's a little disappointing. Is it known why some systems can use the quality list and some can't?

[ftde0]

sorry for the late reply, h264 playback is entirely up to the setup you're using. it might be the OS you're using, it might be your browser or even your flash version.

[TheBigFatOof]

sorry for the late reply, h264 playback is entirely up to the setup you're using. it might be the OS you're using, it might be your browser or even your flash version.

Yeah, but what I mean is, are there specific setups that are KNOWN to cause these incompatibilities (versus ones that reliably work)? As mentioned, I tried a few different browsers and Flash versions (and maybe OS versions too, I don't recall), with similar results.

[ftde0]

from my (and others') testing, the issues are mainly with the VERY old and tricky browsers, such as ie8 (although ie6 can work as well). flash players 8 and lower don't do h264. a setup like windows xp, chrome version 4 and up and flash player version of at least 9 should work. you should get something like flash player 13 if you intend to use later players though.