For a few months now, I can no longer see the h264 video stream of my camera in Firefox or any other browser.
The sound is still coming through, but no video stream.
In the camera app, I can still see the video stream and sound like before, but no longer in a browser.
In Firefox docs, I see that Firefox does not contain a codec for h264, it relies on the OS to decode these video streams.
When I look at the TCP throughput with wireshark, I see an average of about 3.5 Mbit/s from the camera to my laptop.
Any ideas on howto see my camera video stream again in a browser
Some system info might be useful for troubleshooting. Please provide the output of:
inxi -zv8
Are you sure about that? According to Firefox’s about:support page, my AMD integrated-GPU provides hardware decoding of H264:
Codec Name
Software Decoding
Hardware Decoding
H264
Supported
Supported
VP9
Supported
Supported
VP8
Supported
Unsupported
AV1
Supported
Unsupported
HEVC
Supported
Supported
AAC
Supported
Unsupported
MP3
Supported
Unsupported
Opus
Supported
Unsupported
Vorbis
Supported
Unsupported
FLAC
Supported
Unsupported
Wave
Supported
Unsupported
Maybe check your Firefox settings (about:preferences) to see if hardware acceleration is enabled. If the “Performance” section of the Settings page does not have the “Use recommended performance settings” box ticked:
then it may mean that you have hardware acceleration disabled. Tick the box, restart Firefox, and see if that fixes the issue.
However, as the issue occurs in several browsers, my guess is that the problem is related to something else. The solution could be as simple as replacing the manjaro-pulse meta-package with manjaro-pipewire, which seems to have fixed playback issues in several topics over recent months. That is why the inxi -zv8 output is essential for troubleshooting.
Thanks for your reply.
Performance is checked in Firefox.
I found this in Audio and video files in Firefox | Firefox Help
Firefox uses the OpenH264 plugin to support WebRTC-based video calls, and the browser automatically installs it for this purpose. However, for general video playback (such as streaming videos on websites), Firefox does not use the OpenH264 plugin. Instead, it relies on the operating system's native H.264 codec support. The reasons have to do with technical and licensing aspects, since the OpenH264 plugin is developed by Cisco.
And here is the output of inxi -zv8
System:
Kernel: 6.15.3-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.1.1
clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.15-x86_64
root=UUID=cbb8c3d6-d757-4b4c-8f29-2d07bca65251 rw quiet splash
resume=UUID=b48fc794-91bd-42c9-ad6c-e6326a26f114 udev.log_priority=3
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.5 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.15.0
wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire A517-52 v: V1.33
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: TGL model: Jasmine_TL v: V1.33 serial: <superuser required>
part-nu: 0000000000000000 uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.33
date: 02/24/2023
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 41.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 41.0/53.0 Wh (77.4%)
volts: 17.1 min: 15.4 model: PANASONIC AP19B5L type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
status: full cycles: 170
Memory:
System RAM: total: 24 GiB available: 23.25 GiB used: 16.82 GiB (72.3%)
Message: For most reliable report, use superuser + dmidecode.
Array-1: capacity: 64 GiB slots: 2 modules: 2 EC: None
max-module-size: 32 GiB note: est.
Device-1: Controller0-ChannelA-DIMM0 type: DDR4 detail: synchronous
size: 16 GiB speed: spec: 3200 MT/s actual: 2133 MT/s volts: curr: 1
width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: Micron Technology
part-no: 8ATF2G64HZ-3G2E1 serial: <filter>
Device-2: Controller1-ChannelA type: DDR4 detail: synchronous size: 8 GiB
speed: spec: 3200 MT/s actual: 2133 MT/s volts: curr: 1 width (bits):
data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M471A1G44BB0-CWE
serial: N/A
PCI Slots:
Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
Info: model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Tiger Lake gen: core 11 level: v4 note: check built: 2020
process: Intel 10nm family: 6 model-id: 0x8C (140) stepping: 1
microcode: 0xBC
Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 4 cores: 4 threads: 8 tpc: 2
smt: enabled cache: L1: 320 KiB desc: d-4x48 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 5 MiB
desc: 4x1.2 MiB L3: 12 MiB desc: 1x12 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3112 min/max: 400/4700 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
governor: powersave cores: 1: 3112 2: 3112 3: 3112 4: 3112 5: 3112 6: 3112
7: 3112 8: 3112 bogomips: 44851
Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
arch_capabilities arch_perfmon art avx avx2 avx512_bitalg avx512_vbmi2
avx512_vnni avx512_vp2intersect avx512_vpopcntdq avx512bw avx512cd
avx512dq avx512f avx512ifma avx512vbmi avx512vl bmi1 bmi2 bts cat_l2
cdp_l2 clflush clflushopt clwb cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16
cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority
flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr gfni ht hwp hwp_act_window hwp_epp
hwp_notify hwp_pkg_req ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ibt ida intel_pt invpcid
lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe movdir64b movdiri msr mtrr
nonstop_tsc nopl nx ospke pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs
pge pku pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdpid rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp
rep_good sdbg sep sha_ni smap smep split_lock_detect ss ssbd sse sse2
sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust
tsc_deadline_timer tsc_known_freq umip user_shstk vaes vme vmx vnmi
vpclmulqdq vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves xtopology
xtpr
Vulnerabilities:
Type: gather_data_sampling mitigation: Microcode
Type: ghostwrite status: Not affected
Type: indirect_target_selection mitigation: Aligned branch/return thunks
Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
Type: l1tf status: Not affected
Type: mds status: Not affected
Type: meltdown status: Not affected
Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: retbleed status: Not affected
Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB:
conditional; PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence; BHI: SW loop, KVM: SW loop
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics]
vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915 v: kernel alternate: xe arch: Xe
process: Intel 10nm built: 2020-21 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1
bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a49 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Quanta HD User Facing driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-8:2 chip-ID: 0408:a061
class-ID: 0e02
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa
dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
s-diag: 582mm (22.93") monitors: <missing: xrandr>
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x084e built: 2018 res: 1920x1080
dpi: 128 gamma: 1.2 chroma: red: x: 0.580 y: 0.361 green: x: 0.349 y: 0.584
blue: x: 0.169 y: 0.137 white: x: 0.314 y: 0.329
size: 382x215mm (15.04x8.46") diag: 438mm (17.3") ratio: 16:9
modes: 1920x1080
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris x11: drv: iris
inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.1.4-arch1.1
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Xe Graphics (TGL
GT2) device-ID: 8086:9a49 memory: 22.7 GiB unified: yes
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.313 layers: N/A device: 0 type: integrated-gpu
name: Intel Iris Xe Graphics (TGL GT2) driver: mesa intel v: 25.1.4-arch1.1
device-ID: 8086:9a49 surfaces: N/A
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo,xprop
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio
vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
alternate: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_avs, snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a0c8 class-ID: 0401
API: ALSA v: k6.15.3-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.5 status: off with: pipewire-media-session
status: active tools: pw-cli
Server-3: PulseAudio v: 17.0-43-g3e2bb status: active
with: pulseaudio-alsa type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000
bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Lite-On driver: mt7921e v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:02:00.0
chip-ID: 14c3:7961 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
broadcast: <filter>
IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Lite-On Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.1
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-10:3 chip-ID: 04ca:3802
class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: see --recommends
Logical:
Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
v: 0.6 port: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a0b rev: class-ID: 0104
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 386.43 GiB (40.5%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Micron model: 2210 MTFDHBA1T0QFD
size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: P6MA000 temp: 55.9 C
scheme: GPT
Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 175.78 GiB size: 171.96 GiB (97.83%)
used: 65.95 GiB (38.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
label: N/A uuid: cbb8c3d6-d757-4b4c-8f29-2d07bca65251
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: N/A
uuid: 9D2A-9D19
ID-3: /data raw-size: 752.2 GiB size: 739.33 GiB (98.29%)
used: 319.05 GiB (43.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4
label: N/A uuid: 0acd14a9-2dcb-4abf-a841-469d239de5de
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: yes
compressor: zstd max-pool: 20%
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 25.58 GiB used: 1.43 GiB (5.6%)
priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 label: swap
uuid: b48fc794-91bd-42c9-ad6c-e6326a26f114
Unmounted:
Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-8:2 info: Quanta HD User Facing type: video driver: uvcvideo
interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0
power: 500mA chip-ID: 0408:a061 class-ID: 0e02
Device-2: 1-10:3 info: Lite-On Wireless_Device type: bluetooth
driver: btusb interfaces: 3 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1
mode: 2.0 power: 100mA chip-ID: 04ca:3802 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1873 libs: 434 tools: pamac pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
1: https://coresite.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
2: https://mirror.easyname.at/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
3: https://mirror.koddos.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
4: https://opencolo.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
5: https://mirror.alpix.eu/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
6: https://ziply.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
7: https://repo.ialab.dsu.edu/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
8: https://irltoolkit.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
9: https://ask4.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
10: http://mirror.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
11: https://mirror.ufam.edu.br/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
12: https://volico.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
13: https://gsl-syd.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
14: https://nnenix.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
15: https://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
16: https://mirror.hostiko.network/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
17: https://mnvoip.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
18: https://nocix.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
19: https://southfront.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
20: https://mirrors.manjaro.org/repo/stable/$repo/$arch
21: https://mirrors2.manjaro.org/stable/$repo/$arch
22: https://ipng.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
23: https://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
24: https://ohioix.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
25: https://forksystems.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
26: https://codingflyboy.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
27: https://edgeuno-bog2.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
28: https://cofractal-ewr.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
Processes:
CPU top: 5 of 329
1: cpu: 69.0% command: baloo_file_extractor pid: 123014
mem: 509.9 MiB (2.1%)
2: cpu: 16.5% command: chromium pid: 1954 mem: 888.2 MiB (3.7%)
3: cpu: 7.0% command: firefox pid: 101450 mem: 964.9 MiB (4.0%)
4: cpu: 3.9% command: chromium pid: 43336 mem: 144.7 MiB (0.6%)
5: cpu: 3.8% command: firefox pid: 1154 mem: 862.2 MiB (3.6%)
Memory top: 5 of 329
1: mem: 5074.8 MiB (21.3%) command: chromium pid: 41157 cpu: 2.0%
2: mem: 964.9 MiB (4.0%) command: firefox pid: 101450 cpu: 7.0%
3: mem: 888.2 MiB (3.7%) command: chromium pid: 1954 cpu: 16.5%
4: mem: 862.2 MiB (3.6%) command: firefox pid: 1154 cpu: 3.8%
5: mem: 802.5 MiB (3.3%) command: zen-bin pid: 79146 cpu: 1.0%
Info:
Processes: 329 Power: uptime: 1d 14h 37m states: freeze,mem,disk
suspend: s2idle avail: deep wakeups: 4 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown,
reboot, suspend, test_resume image: 9.28 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical
tool: systemctl
Compilers: clang: 20.1.6 gcc: 15.1.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 default: Bash
v: 5.2.37 running-in: yakuake inxi: 3.3.38
Lolix
10 July 2025 11:32
4
Firefox download Openh264 precompiled by Cisco on its own, you can see that in about:addons
1 Like
I looked in about:addons, there is nothing there for h264 or Cisco.
When I search for h264 in the addon store, I get 21 results, mostly addons to convert youtube VP8/9 to h264, which one should I use to be able to play h264 streams from my camera ?
Did you check the Plugins section of your about:addons page? This is what my Firefox displays:
If OpenH264 is showing in your Plugins, click the 3 dots ... on the right & make sure “Always Activate” is selected.
1 Like
Thanks, I only looked at addons.
In the plugins, always activate was selected.
It is strange, because a few months ago it was working perfectly and it has done so for years, and there has not been an update in the camera firmware, and I can still hear the sound of the camera microphone in my browser (also tried several other browsers with the same result), but no video feed, but in the camera app, everything works normal.
Okay - let’s try a couple of things.
First, switch to a Wayland session. It is where all of Plasma’s development is being focused on nowadays, and your inxi output shows no reason why you shouldn’t be using what is now Plasma’s default session type.
You can change your Plasma session from X11 to Wayland by selecting the session type at the login screen (Wayland is the default for Plasma).
If you have set up autologin to skip the password screen, you can change to a Wayland session by opening System Settings → Colors & Themes → Login Screen (SDDM) → Behavior.
Secondly, remove manjaro-pulse and install manjaro-pipewire. That seems to have fixed playback issues in several forum threads this year. You may also need to remove the pulseaudio-bluetooth dependency, which is not required for manjaro-pipewire:
sudo pacman -Rns manjaro-pulse pulseaudio-bluetooth
then
sudo pacman -Syu manjaro-pipewire
Reboot and see if that fixes the issue.
1 Like
I made the changes you suggested, but still no video stream from the camera in the browser, I tried Firefox, Chromium and Zen browsers
BG405
13 July 2025 03:25
10
Just for consideration:
Would this by any chance coincide with a recent kernel change? I see you have 6.15; may be worth trying an LTS one e.g. linux612.
No luck, I also tried kernel 6.6, but no luck there either.
