Cannot play videos after most recent update

[HuoKnight]

After the most recent update which I received today, I am unable to play any videos except for public youtube videos (youtube livestreams and unlisted youtube videos also do not work). When I first launched vivaldi this morning (first time running with new update), there was a pop-up saying something about lacking something to play HTML5 video on linux, unsure if that is related.

Most videos just don't load, but youtube gives an actual error:

I had this problem with Opera on linux, which is one of the reasons that I switched to Vivaldi. I really don't want to go back to Firefox/Chrome (which both play all videos fine), so any help would be appreciated.

[DoctorG]

@HuoKnight Can you tell which videos do not play for you at https://demo.castlabs.com/

FIx-it could be:

• update libffmpeg:
  sudo /opt/vivaldi/update-ffmpeg
• for widevine codec:
  https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/media/widevinecdm-eme-drm-netflix-amazon-spotify/
  perhaps: https://gist.github.com/ruario/995728dd8123540d331052e0ce648439#update-widevine

[mib2berlin]

@HuoKnight
Hi, some user report this on different distributions.
Sometimes the ffmpeg library is not updated, or the distribution break the MESA system.
Try to run:
sudo /opt/vivaldi/update-ffmpeg

Firefox and Chrome use it´s own video codecs, the play all you can throw at them.

Cheers, mib

[HuoKnight]

@DoctorG Running the command you mentioned returns:

Proprietary media codecs (111306) was already present

Also, none of the video demos run, returning:

FATAL Clpp-Error [Category 3 - Code 3016]: DECODER_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED: audio decoder initialization failed

[DoctorG]

@HuoKnight Tell us:

• Vivaldi version
• Linux and Desktop Environment version
• URL of video which fails

[HuoKnight]

@DoctorG

Vivaldi:	6.1.3035.84 (Stable channel) stable (64-bit) 
Revision:	7c36767a3c3113596404ebc711017cc85c93a48e
OS:	Linux
JavaScript:	V8 11.4.183.23
User Agent:	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/114.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Command Line:	/usr/bin/vivaldi-stable --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end --desktop-startup-id=lizard-gizzard;1686851194;103072;2016_TIME91827 --save-page-as-mhtml
Executable Path:	/opt/vivaldi/vivaldi
Profile Path:	/home/huoknight/.config/vivaldi/Default

OS: Kubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64
DE: Plasma 5.24.7                        

Example failing URLS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk (Livestream)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkgL0tWsSbY (Unlisted Video)

[HuoKnight]

@HuoKnight
Just checked, and twitch streams also will not play

Twitch Error:

This video is either unavailable or not supported in this browser. (Error #4000)

[npro]

@HuoKnight Did you restart the browser as instructed by that pop-up info box?

[HuoKnight]

@npro The pop up was the type that goes away when you click anywhere, so the only reason I had a vague idea of what it said was because I glanced at it as I saw it disappear. After restarting my computer it works, but I would have had no way of knowing otherwise, this kind of information should really be put in the actual update notes or somewhere less temporary.

[npro]

@HuoKnight said in Cannot play videos after most recent update:

the pop up was the type that goes away when you click anywhere

Not anywhere, it goes away only if you click one of the two buttons.

[Mydayyy]

I'm in the same boat, updated to 6.1 today and widevine content is not able to play since.

Vivaldi	6.1.3035.84 (Stable channel) stable (64-bit) 
Revision	7c36767a3c3113596404ebc711017cc85c93a48e
OS	Linux
JavaScript	V8 11.4.183.23
User Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/114.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Command Line	/usr/bin/vivaldi-stable --force-dark-mode --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end --desktop-startup-id=archmachine;1686959063;678249;2474_TIME42658 --save-page-as-mhtml
Executable Path	/opt/vivaldi/vivaldi
Profile Path	/home/mydayyy/.config/vivaldi/Default

OS: Arch Linux x86_64 
Kernel: 6.3.8-arch1-1 
Shell: zsh 5.9 
DE: Plasma 5.27.5 
WM: KWin 
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (32) @ 5.759GHz 
GPU: AMD ATI Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590 
GPU: AMD ATI Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT / 6900 XT 

Example URL: https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/media/html5-proprietary-media-on-linux/

According to the vivaldi://components page, widevine is up to date. Also I tested it in firefox and chrome where it still works

[DoctorG]

@Mydayyy said in Cannot play videos after most recent update:

Also I tested it in firefox and chrome where it still works

Firefox brings its own codecs to play videos. Not comparable.

[DoctorG]

@Mydayyy You tried:
sudo /opt/vivaldi/update-ffmpeg

And some users report that a restart of Linux helped them to solve it.

What happens if you start Vivaldi in shell? Which error messages?

[Mydayyy]

@DoctorG said in Cannot play videos after most recent update:

What happens if you start Vivaldi in shell? Which error messages?

Well, that lead me to the right track. So while I have restarted vivaldi multiple times, opening it in a shell always lead to "Opening in existing browser session" although I had all windows closed.

So a quick check:

 ps -e | grep -i vivaldi
   4325 ?        00:03:10 vivaldi-bin
   4356 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4357 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4359 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4378 ?        00:02:05 vivaldi-bin
   4382 ?        00:00:31 vivaldi-bin
   4391 ?        00:00:02 vivaldi-bin
   4414 ?        00:03:41 vivaldi-bin
   4484 ?        00:00:09 vivaldi-bin
   4494 ?        00:00:05 vivaldi-bin
   4502 ?        00:00:08 vivaldi-bin
   4510 ?        00:00:01 vivaldi-bin
   4525 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4540 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4548 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4554 ?        00:00:01 vivaldi-bin
   4565 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4829 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
   4918 ?        00:00:01 vivaldi-bin
  53293 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
  54161 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
  54216 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
  54248 ?        00:00:03 vivaldi-bin
  54707 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin
  54736 ?        00:00:01 vivaldi-bin
  54982 ?        00:00:00 vivaldi-bin

And there were quite a few very old instances running. Killing them all

❯ killall vivaldi-bin

Allowed a clean restart and the widevine is back to working

And some users report that a restart of Linux helped them to solve it.

I assume that could also be why this helped some users - it killed the lingering (zombie?) processes

[stevengore]

This post is deleted!