Hey there,
I’ve been using Firefox for ages now, and I was completely satisfied with it… until very recently, that is. For space-saving reasons, I started to convert my media library to H265, since all devices in my network support it now. Or so I thought. One very noticeable omission is my desktop PC with Firefox. Now, if I watch something from my local media server, the server has to waste resources to convert to H264, which is a noticeable performance hit to all other things running on the server. The GPU in my Desktop PC (or the CPU for that matter) could have displayed H265 without even changing clock speed from idle. So I tried to use the native Plex App for Windows for that, but that one does not support RTX Super Resolution which was really nice when watching old DVD stuff.
From what I can see, to get both, I need a Chromium browser. Since I would rather not have two browsers open all the time: Is there any browser based on the latest Chromium Builds that is not a massive insult to one’s privacy?
solution:
Firefo does support H265. It didn’t for a very long time so most posts online talk about how it has no support and that it ain’t planned. Yet, it has gotten support in the meantime.
change
media.wmf.hevc.enabled
To 1 in about:config, restart browser, done.
Thanks, mate
Firefox can display x265. Do you use the flatpak version? If so, create a bug report.
If not, search for enable x265 on firefox and install the codecs.
Whats the log in plex?
Holy… why the fuck would this be disabled? And why the fuck didn’t I find this information in the first place?!
To all wondering: change
media.wmf.hevc.enabledTo 1 in about:config, restart browser, done.
Thanks, mate
The reason is software patents and asinine licensing for HEVC. Thank the greedy fucks in suits for that.
So it can be implemented but not enabled? Weird shit, man
AFAIK, this is a Windows-specific option which requires the user to have purchased a license for the Windows HEVC decoder on the windows store.
Could be that Firefox downloads the codec after you enable that. At least, I’ve heard of it being implemented like that in other software…
Sounds like you had an XY problem
Well, I thought I had ruled out X as solution, so I didn’t ask about it in the first place <insert hide the pain Harold here>
That’s nice. Thanks for the link
Story of my life. Fortunately, now that I’m older, I often catch myself and provide the context. But not always.
also, that’s windows only
Supported for devices with hardware support (the range is the same as Edge) on Windows only. Enabled by default in Nightly and can be enabled via the media.wmf.hevc.enabled pref in about:config. 10-bit or higher colors are not supported.
royalties are really great, innit?
On fedora you have to install the codecs yourself 😅
Iirc, Opensuse solves the issue by installing firefox after the OS was installed.
Long term you are probably better off converting to AV1 and sticking with Firefox, but I understand that your desktop GPU might not currently support AV1?
My GPU does, but many other devices in my Network don’t, so that would only shift the problem.
What devices are those?
Washing machine, microwave, robot vacuum, fridge…
Lightbulb, power outlets
My hair dryer mostly :P
Have you considered converting to AV1 instead of H265?
I have a similar issue with my mac+chrome having to convert H265 -> H264 (even though it should be able to play it), but it has no trouble direct-playing AV1 for some reason.
My GPU does, but many other devices in my Network don’t, so that would only shift the problem.
The only Chromium I know which isn’t an insult to privacy is Vivaldi
How is the ad blocker? I use Brave at work for debugging frontend code, but I don’t really trust the org behind it. But I need something in the Chromium family to test our app, and the ad blocker is nice (main browser is Firefox).
If Vivaldi’s ad blocker is as good as Brave’s, I’ll switch. I’ll probably keep Chromium on my personal computers though (all Linux) because Vivaldi isn’t open source. I use it very rarely since Firefox meets my needs, so it’s less of an issue.
I use no other, the ad/trackerblocker in Vivaldi is full customizable, you can add the filterlists you want. In the adblock test I got between 90-100% (You must test the best filter combination, because too much can break some sites, adblocking is always a balance game). If you want more privacy, you can use the privacy extensions you want or use userscripts, which you can install directly as extension, if you don’t want to use Tamper-,Greasy- or Violentmonkey to do this. It’s a EU company (strict GDPR), no tracking, ads or third parties behind, own sync server e2ee.
Cool, I’m playing with it. One concern is that it’s closed source.
I’m not going to use it as a main browser most likely though, I’m happy with Firefox, but I need something for when websites refuse to work w/ it.
Besides, you can always just throw uBlock on it and be done with the adblock stuff
Its always good to have several browsers at hand. The perfect browser is the one which fits the needs of the user.
Eh, several seems like a bit much, but diversity in general is good. I use Firefox because it solves my needs, but I need a Chromium-based browser for random broken sites.
Instead of FF I¡ve also Mullvad, apart Otter and SSuite Netsurf. so I’ve 4 different engines at hand, if needed. Blink, Gecko, Qt5 and WebView.
If it is local network stuff you could see if you can allow it just network connection but no internet. I’m not sure how you could do that though.
What’s wrong with ungoogled-chromium?
No advanced tracking mitigation by default maybe?
OP wanted a Chromium browser that wasn’t a massive privacy invasion. With Google stuff removed, it’ll be good enough. Add uBO and ClearURLs.
Ungoogled Chromium doesn’t have extension store support by default
I’ve had the same issue. I just use AV1 now. AV1 video + Opus audio in WebM container. Seems like a good combination.
Handbrake supports it too.
I quite like the Falkon Browser by KDE. Definately need to use Greesemonkey scripts to replace some simple extensions tho.
