How can I disable HTML5 content in popular browsers like Firefox and Chrome?

Question

The bad thing about Flash video was that it required a third-party plugin to play the content. The good thing was I could select which content to play; using the click-to-play feature in Firefox and Chrome.

But now that HTML5 video is getting popular, I see a lot of ads popping into view again. They are not only a distraction, they hog resources on my computer and make the fans spin full speed.

Is there a way to disable HTML5 audio/video content by default, and enable it only selectively?

Solution 1

In Firefox you can set media.autoplay.enabled to false in about:config though as of now this may not be sufficient for every case. An extension like NoScript (default settings) could be used to complement the missing functionality or even otherwise used by itself without the about:config setting. In NoScript it's also possible to extend the functionality to whitelisted sites (NoScript Options > Whitelist) via NoScript Options > Embeddings: Apply these restrictions ...

about:config Entries

Solution 2

For Chrome/Chromium, there is HTTP Switchboard (available in Chrome store or github). There is a column in the matrix which can be selectively be turned on or off, which turn on/off HTML5 video/audio/SVG/fonts -- for whatever hostnames you wish.

Solution 3

In Firefox 36.0.4 open about:config and search for media.webm.enabled set this to false and the html5 videos will not play anymore. ;)

Solution 4

For Chrome, I am satisfied with Stop HTML5 Video Autoplay. Does not prevent loading but good enough to prevent media from auto playing.

Solution 5

https://superuser.com/a/406044/105108
This post helped me to disable ogv video. Setting media.ogg.enabled to false in about:config worked for me.

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Comments

[Slipp D. Thompson]

@kinokijuf HTML5 is not just a buzzword— it's a collection of technologies that adhere to formal specs put out by the W3C, found here: w3.org/TR/html5 . Likewise, “HTML5 audio/video” are specific standards for encoding audio & video and presenting them in web browsers (using HTML5's <audio> and <video> tags). More information on HTML5 audio & video on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_Audio / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video

[Synetech]

“HTML5” is a buzzword. Please specify what you want to disable. It’s pretty clear (if you actually bothered to read the question, especially the second and last lines) what he wanted/wants to disable: HTML5 video and audio elements.

[HRJ]

This works, thanks! I luckily use NoScript already. Still looking for a setting in Chrome.

[vWil]

No problem :) Regarding Chrome, this thread (though not related to Chrome settings) could be helpful.

[joeytwiddle]

Link to Chrome Webstore: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/http-switchboard/…

[David Tonhofer]

Firefox 34.0 sure autoplays HTML5 video as if Minitrue itself had ordered it to in Jan 2015 (case of: no Flash installed, NoScript installed with "Forbid Other Plugins" set to 'true' and with Firefox "about:config - media.autoplay.enabled" = false) and there is as yet no way to disable that. Oh well. Bug 659285 mentioned in the response above seems to indicate the FF developers are in some kind of quandary about how to control invocations of play(). I hope this gets solved.

[WernerCD]

It's now uMatrix on GitHub and Chrome Store (Along with uBlock Origin) - and from toying with it, it seems the "Other" column controls video/audio content. Never have auto-video, but this story would play and I just found the column. Other options haven't seemed to work for me.

[WernerCD]

Well, it's now called "Stop Youtube HTML5 Autoplay" and it doesn't stop this page (Not youtube) from playing on my computer as far as I can tell.

[HRJ]

Update: The latest version of uMatrix reports HTML5 audio/video content in the media column.