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How can I use one Add-on prior to another for specific MIME-types?

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I'm using Shockwave Flash plugin to watch some videos on YouTube, StreamCloud, etc. It also handles .mkv and .mp4 files/streams. After installing VLC Web plugin to handle MIME-types like mp3/4, mkv additionally and prior to the Flash plugin, Firefox keeps using Flash to handle those types insted. I cannot find options to set the desired priorities. Only disabling the Flash plugin solves my problem, but also keeps me from watching Flash contents, which Is not acceptable.

Did I miss something or is this Firefox's fault?

I'm using Shockwave Flash plugin to watch some videos on YouTube, StreamCloud, etc. It also handles .mkv and .mp4 files/streams. After installing VLC Web plugin to handle MIME-types like mp3/4, mkv additionally and prior to the Flash plugin, Firefox keeps using Flash to handle those types insted. I cannot find options to set the desired priorities. Only disabling the Flash plugin solves my problem, but also keeps me from watching Flash contents, which Is not acceptable. Did I miss something or is this Firefox's fault?

All Replies (9)

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If you type or paste about:plugins in the address bar and press Enter, you can see which plugins are associated which various content types.

I do not know how to prioritize one over the other for the same content type if the plugin settings (plugins often have an interface outside of Firefox to adjust their settings) do not allow that.

As for MP4, I don't think Flash normally would be selected. I suspect the website is specifying a Flash media player and streaming the MP4 through that. If you want to hide the Flash plugin from a particular website, you can use the Permissions tab of the Page Info dialog.

Click the padlock or globe icon in the address bar, then More Information, then Permissions. The top section of the Permissions panel should be "Activate Plugins". Here you can select Block for Flash for the current site. After reloading the page, does the media play using a different plugin?

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No, when I block Flash I see "Activate Adobe Flash" again as I have set all plugins to "Ask to Activate" instead of falling back to VLC. Very Annoying.

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Are there particular sites where Flash wants to play MP4s? A volunteer could take a look at the coding and see whether there is an obvious workaround.

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Note that on Linux Firefox is able to use the HTML5 media player to play MP3 and MP4 files.
This is controlled by the media.gstreamer.enabled pref on the about:config page.

VLC can be quite intrusive and takes over a lot of file types by default, so you may want to check its settings.

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You can check any clip on StreamCloud which is a .mp4/.mkv for example. StreamCloud offers an option to switch between Flash and HTML5 as player, but this doesn't work for some reason and StreamCloud keeps using Flash/VLC instead of HTML5.

I know, I'm already using HTML5 whereever it's possible. This option is set to true.

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The two I found in Google offered me fast and slow download options: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Astreamcloud.org+%28mp4+OR+mkv%29

I don't see an in-page player. Are you playing them in a tab?

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Sorry, I'm talking about streamcloud.eu.

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I get a 404 for http://streamcloud.eu/

A specific link would be helpful.

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Entering that URL in my mobile phone ends up in a 404, however on my desktop everything's fine. This is a valid link.