This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Why Did a Quicktime Video For VLC Download Instead of Play?

  • 1 jibu
  • 1 ana tatizo hili
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

From Firefox, after attempting to stream a Quicktime Video without QuickTime media player installed on my PC, I was offered the option to watch the video with VLC open source Media Player, which I do have installed on my PC.

I selected that, but the video didn't stream. It started downloading, without further warning.

Why would that happen in Firefox?

From Firefox, after attempting to stream a Quicktime Video without QuickTime media player installed on my PC, I was offered the option to watch the video with VLC open source Media Player, which I do have installed on my PC. I selected that, but the video didn't stream. It started downloading, without further warning. Why would that happen in Firefox?

All Replies (1)

more options

Files opened in an external application are never streamed and are downloaded to the temp folder before they are passed to the player.
That only works if the stream is placed in a media file that has the link(s) to the stream. Then that file can be passed to the external player.
Only media files that play embedded in a browser tab can be streamed.