Opera browser no longer plays Flash video on bbc.com website

[ssfc72]

This is pretty much a common occurrence  with the Linux Opera browser.  It has been quite a while, though, since it happened last.  I sent in a bug report to Opera and they usually get it fixed within a few days.

I did see an article just the other day, on the internet, about the Flash Video program is now obsolete and people will now start to notice that it will no longer work, when they visit a web site.  I think the web site's that have broken Flash video need to update their website with the current updated software to show video, on their websites.

https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/10/21124247/flash-support-history-of-web-1-0-flashpoint-bluemaxima

[Jason]

It might be a common occurrence with other browsers now, too. I don't think Flash is any longer available in any of the browsers. It's been replaced by HTML5 and most sites have already moved to it. I think Adobe charged too much in licensing fees (for developers) and the free HTML5 came along and nobody needed them anymore. You must be looking at some old pages on the BBC site or are you saying most video on the website isn't working? I hope they will be updated to use the new standards which really aren't that all new. But I guess the BBC probably has other priorities.

Btw, cool article. I used to be a guy that played casual games on websites that were full of Flash games. It's good to see someone that is trying to keep those games alive by converting them to HTML5 and WebGL.

[ssfc72]

All video clips on bbc.com use Flash player and none, no longer work with the Opera browser.   The bbc needs to stop using the Flash player for their video feed and start using the HTML 5 video service.

When I use Firefox to browse the bbc.com website, the video feed works, no problem.

Just discovered that if I click on the padlock icon (page information) in the Opera browser, in the address bar, that a menu of option comes up and one option is to allow Flash to be used.  Once I enable this setting, the (insecure)Flash video will play.
I didn't have to do this with the Opera browser on the bbc.com, just a few days ago.

[Jason]

The Opera forums have a recent topic about this issue with some things to try. It might be an issue with widevine (copy protected video plug-in) or that some codecs are missing. There are some suggestions of things to try here but I suggest starting with the two at the bottom since they look easiest.

The codecs are for Chromium which Opera is based on. The other point is that you could be using the snap version of Opera and not know it which means it's self-contained and it could be missing some things. If you recently upgrade your distro and haven't used the BBC site since then, the codecs might have disappeared or it it was with a recent upgrade of Opera.

So it might not be flash that is the issue here. Might be worth trying out some of these things.