Solved Problems with Gifs

Leothwyn

I've recently switched to Vivaldi (from Chrome), and I'm really loving it. The only problem I'm having now is that gifs won't play for me.
I saw people mentioning to turn hw acceleration off, but that didn't change anything for me.

Here are a couple of examples...
On this one, I see a still image, and the progress bar moves from start to finish repeatedly as if it's playing/looping.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/sbbg1c/this_electrical_tower_neatly_folding_in_on_itself/

On this one, the spot where the gif should be is blank.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/rxx8v2/nudibranch_taking_a_bite/

It's not just reddit. Gifs don't work on an sites for me.

These work in other browsers for me. For now, I have to go back to Chrome when viewing reddit.

Thanks!

Leothwyn

@pathduck That was it - thanks!!
Apparently I installed some shark007 codec pack. I don't remember why. I removed it, and all is working.

Thank you everyone! I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to this stuff, and I never would have figured it out.

Pesala

@leothwyn Both GIFs play fine for me.

What OS and Vivaldi versions are you using?

Leothwyn

@pesala
I'm on Windows 10 Home 64 bit & Vivaldi 5.0.2497.48 (Stable channel) (64-bit)

Pathduck

@leothwyn Those are actually videos not GIFs, even if tagged as such.

So something is up with video playback on your system, might be due to GPU drivers, using the ad/tracker-blocker, extensions, blocking cookies or many other causes.

Please try the troubleshooting steps:
https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/troubleshoot/troubleshooting-issues/

Leothwyn

@pathduck Thanks. I'll try the troubleshooting. I have noticed that other embedded videos (ones that aren't called gifs) do work though.

This one works just fine.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/scl88p/adding_printed_designs_on_objects_with_water/

Leothwyn

I don't know what it could be. I went through all of the troubleshooting, and it's still the same - all gif videos just won't play.

I tried on another pc, with Vivaldi set to sync everything between them, and the videos work fine there. That makes it seem like something wrong with this computer... but everything works fine in other browsers on this pc.

Ayespy

@leothwyn Not necessarily anything "wrong" with the computer. Could be nothing more serious than a driver mismatch.

Vivaldi only uses opensource codecs or the local system to reproduce videos, NOT the same ones that are used in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc., as these are proprietary and prohibitively expensive. Therefore, if a video is coded to require proprietary codecs and Vivaldi's fallback to local system firmware runs into driver mismatch, Vivaldi will not play the video. Here, that is essentially never. My system picks up and plays everything that opensource codecs can't handle.

Maybe make sure all of your graphics drivers are up to date.

Pathduck

@leothwyn So even in a clean profile the same happened?

Have you set any experimental flags under vivaldi://flags ?

Do these videos play?

https://ttm.sh/iP_. [oxc1uz
https://ttm.sh/iPp.mp4
https://ttm.sh/iPA.mp4

What about these, do any fail?
https://tekeye.uk/html/html5-video-test-page

When trying to playback a failing video, open a new tab with URL:
vivaldi:/media-internals
Then find the video in question, it helps if you have only one video tab open so close any other. Select it and scroll down, find any error and warnings.

DoctorG

@leothwyn If you use Windows 10 N or KN, update software Windows Media Feature Pack if videos fail.

Vivaldi uses the Windows video codecs, it has not its own like Firefox or Chromium.

And use latest graphics/chipset driver from chip producer's website.

Leothwyn

@ayespy Thank you. I'll check into my driver, and codecs.

Leothwyn

@ayespy I have the flags back to default. I had tried changing one (something about hw acceleration) after reading that it could be a solution. It wasn't.

The 1st three don't play.
On the last link, videos 2 and 3 play, but no others.

Leothwyn

@doctorg Thank you. I don't think I have those versions of windows. It just says windows 10 home edition. I will check into the driver.

Pathduck

@leothwyn Have you installed any codec packs on your system? Codec packs are notorious for breaking media playback.

Leothwyn

@pathduck That was it - thanks!!
Apparently I installed some shark007 codec pack. I don't remember why. I removed it, and all is working.

Thank you everyone! I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to this stuff, and I never would have figured it out.

Pathduck

@leothwyn Glad it's working

It's strange it was working in Chrome, but I guess Vivaldi is more dependent on the local OS for media playback it's also more prone to break when installed codecs interfere.

Vivaldi does use FFMpeg for decoding so in theory it should be able to handle anything being thrown at it.

I use Zoom Player for local media playback, and it has a neat Install Center that lets me install some codecs/filters like LAV, FFDShow, MadVR, AC3filter and so on for handling different video types. It also checks for updated versions of these when needed. These together should handle most audio/video types there are.

But these massive codec packs are IMO dangerous, they install all kinds of weird stuff and its up to the user to actually keep them updated.

DoctorG

@leothwyn Over the years with testing and helping i learned that extra codec packs are nice in Windows but can cause issues with images/audios/videos.