Peterborough Linux User Group (Canada) Forum

Linux & Android => Linux Applications & Android apps => Topic started by: ssfc72 on October 22, 2021, 08:33:51 AM

Title: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: ssfc72 on October 22, 2021, 08:33:51 AM
Well it ha been about 2 months, now, that the Opera browser, in Linux, has stopped being able to play any video clips, that are on websites.
Videos play fine using the Brave or Firefox browsers.

This is an ongoing issue with the Opera browser. Usually they fix the problem after a few weeks, but not this time.  I have submitted a bug report, as usual to Opera, about the issue. There have been a number of Opera updates since this issue first appeared but none of the updates have fixed the problem, so far.

So, sadly, I am now going to have to make the Brave browser, as my main browser to use.
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: Jason on October 24, 2021, 09:15:53 PM
Ouch. That certainly doesn't ode well for Opera. On the plus side of you trying out Brave, Opera was proprietary, the code was closed. With Brave, Firefox, or Chomium (not Chrome), you're using pure Open Source code.

Brave has a few extra features that might be similar to Opera. You can also get paid for using Brave if you're okay with a small ad in the corner. You can adjust the frequency or turn it off completely. It's not a lot but over 3 days, I've earned enough BAT (Brave Attention Tokens) to break a buck! :) Btw, unlike web ads, no personal information ever leaves your browser. Ad personalization occurs at the local level. If you prefer supporting the content creators because most of their ads are blocked, you can elect to auto-contribute that money to them instead.

Btw, if you're looking for something that is more Opera-like, there's Vivaldi (https://vivaldi.com/). It was actually created by some of the guys behind Opera. You can find out about the features here (https://vivaldi.com/features/). It has speed-dial which I recall was one of the things you liked about Opera? It's come quite a way.

I think Brave is great, mainly for its ad-blocking but Vivaldi might be less of a change for you. It's not Open Source (https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/privacy/is-vivaldi-open-source/) though, at least not entirely. Some components of it are. But you've been using Opera for all these years so I'm guessing that's not a deal-breaker for you. :) We all have to use proprietary technology sometimes despite the admonishment of RMS. So I think you should check out the feature list there before going to Brave.

See, guys? I'm not a browser bigot! :) Actually, I've been using Firefox for the past few weeks because of an issue I had with one extension and Brave. But I'm back on Brave now. Who knows? Maybe in 6 months, I'll be on something else. I'm like a kid in a candy store.
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: ssfc72 on October 25, 2021, 02:55:23 AM
I just discovered that with the Android Opera browser on my cellphone, the steaming of videos on websites works just fine.
So it looks like Opera is just not being kept functional on their Linux version.
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: Jason on October 25, 2021, 05:40:51 AM
Quote from: ssfc72 on October 25, 2021, 02:55:23 AM
I just discovered that with the Android Opera browser on my cellphone, the steaming of videos on websites works just fine.
So it looks like Opera is just not being kept functional on their Linux version.

That's too bad. I guess you can keep using Opera on your phone. Do you use it much on your phone? Btw, there's a Brave browser app, too. No idea about Vivaldi. Brave uses less energy and data, as well, because of its superior ad-blocking.

I think the reason it works on Android is probably because with Android, you can just use their API for video streaming. So Opera doesn't have to actually do anything but make a call to the API which does the rest of the work. In other words, video playing on Opera for Android should work just as well as Chrome on Android, because they both use the same block of code to do it. Google maintains that code for them.
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: ssfc72 on October 26, 2021, 07:50:01 AM
I use the Opera browser occasionally on my cellphone, when I need to look up something.  I only have 100 Megs of Data per month so I usually only browse the internet with my phone when I am on a free wifi hotspot.
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: ssfc72 on January 23, 2022, 08:35:40 AM
A few weeks ago, on the rare occasion when I was running Microsoft Windows (possibly version 10) , I found that the Opera browser no longer was able to stream video from a website page, as well.
I have since removed the Opera browser, from all my notebook computers that dual boot the Windows OS and will just be using Firefox.
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: Jason on January 24, 2022, 02:59:44 AM
Ah, you gave up on Brave? I'm not going to try to bring you back; I'm just curious. How come you went back to Firefox?
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: ssfc72 on January 24, 2022, 10:13:42 AM
No, I am still using Brave on all my Linux computers.
It is only Windows OS that I use Firefox.  I hardly ever boot up the Windows OS and I already had Firefox on it, so it is not worth my time/effort to install the Brave browser, in Windows.
Title: Re: Opera browser no longer able to play videos on websites - again!
Post by: Jason on January 25, 2022, 08:45:33 PM
Ah, I getcha. I install it wherever I use a web browser but according to the security websites, Firefox is a lot safer than Chrome or Edge.