Disable automatic opening of videos

Before HTML4, to load videos (such as youtube) required Flash Player.
Because I have a very slow internet connection, I often take my laptop
computer to a WIFI and use one of the Firefox addon extensions to
DOWNLOAD the videos. That way I can watch them at home, not in some
public place, (like the library), where I cant even listen to the sound
without earphones (I hate earphones).

When I used the older versions of Firefox (pre HTML4), I would use the
FLASH BLOCK extension. That way, I could open maybe 5 tabs with videos,
and click the download buttons, and they would download in the
background, WITHOUT THE VIDEOS LOADING.

Now, all the videos load. Not only is that slowing down my doenload
speed, but I'm forced to listen to the aufio from all 5 videos at the
same time (or mute the speakers).

Is there any way to STOP the videos from loading when I open a Youtube
page (or any other page with videos)?

With the old FLASH BLOCK, I could still play a video by simply clicking
on the empty box on the screen where the video would normally be. But if
I did not click on it, I'd just see that box, and all the text on the
page.

Now I have to cope with 2 or 5 or xxx number of videos all playing at
the same time in different tabs.

Sure, I could just download one at a time, but I have always tended to
download about 5 at the same time, and while those are downloading, I am
looking for others to download..... When those 5 are finished, I do
another 5.

I know someone is gonna ask, so I'm running Firefox 40something *(I am
not on that computer right now). I installed it about 4 months ago, and
I am already getting noticed to upgrade it, but I did not get a computer
to upgrade software every week. And FF seems to have gone crazy with
upgrade fever!

I wont jump off a cliff just because someone wants me to, nor will I
upgrade software just because someone wants me to.

On Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:53:14 -0600, wrote:

Is there any way to STOP the videos from loading when I open a Youtube
page (or any other page with videos)?

Mine never load. Hope you are using a script blocker like
NoScript, or movies won't be the only things you are downloading (and
opening).
[]'s

PS Use Youtube-dl to download your movies. It's command line, but you
can choose resolution, sound/video tracks only and it supports
hundreds of sites.

http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

Supported sites:

http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html

Disclaimer: Reading the docs is a must.

--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

On Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:53:14 -0600, wrote:
Before HTML4, to load videos (such as youtube) required Flash Player.
Because I have a very slow internet connection, I often take my laptop
computer to a WIFI and use one of the Firefox addon extensions to
DOWNLOAD the videos. That way I can watch them at home, not in some
public place, (like the library), where I cant even listen to the sound
without earphones (I hate earphones).

When I used the older versions of Firefox (pre HTML4), I would use the
FLASH BLOCK extension. That way, I could open maybe 5 tabs with videos,
and click the download buttons, and they would download in the
background, WITHOUT THE VIDEOS LOADING.

Now, all the videos load. Not only is that slowing down my doenload
speed, but I'm forced to listen to the aufio from all 5 videos at the
same time (or mute the speakers).

Is there any way to STOP the videos from loading when I open a Youtube
page (or any other page with videos)?

With the old FLASH BLOCK, I could still play a video by simply clicking
on the empty box on the screen where the video would normally be. But if
I did not click on it, I'd just see that box, and all the text on the
page.

Now I have to cope with 2 or 5 or xxx number of videos all playing at
the same time in different tabs.

Sure, I could just download one at a time, but I have always tended to
download about 5 at the same time, and while those are downloading, I am
looking for others to download..... When those 5 are finished, I do
another 5.

I know someone is gonna ask, so I'm running Firefox 40something *(I am
not on that computer right now). I installed it about 4 months ago, and
I am already getting noticed to upgrade it, but I did not get a computer
to upgrade software every week. And FF seems to have gone crazy with
upgrade fever!

I wont jump off a cliff just because someone wants me to, nor will I
upgrade software just because someone wants me to.

I'd suggest you use the "NoScript Security Suite" extension and configure it
to (1) block Flash; (2) block IFRAME; (3) enable the "apply the setting on
whitelisted sites too" setting.

Any blocked Flash object or an IFRAME object, NoScript will change it to a
yellow rectangle. To load it, you'll need to click the rectangle.

Note that the extension is a script blocker, so you'll need to enable the
scripts (or the whole site) before YouTube (or any other site) can work.

JJ on 2017/02/07 wrote:

wrote:

Now, all the [non-Flash] videos load. Not only is that slowing down
my doenload speed, but I'm forced to listen to the aufio from all 5
videos at the same time (or mute the speakers).

Firefox has a speaker icon on each tab that is playing audio. Click on
the icon to mute the audio from only that tab. Don't remember at what
version of Firefox that the audio control was added.

Is there any way to STOP the [HTML5] videos from loading when I open
a Youtube page (or any other page with videos)?

With the old FLASH BLOCK, I could still play a video by simply clicking
on the empty box on the screen where the video would normally be. But if
I did not click on it, I'd just see that box, and all the text on the
page.

I know someone is gonna ask, so I'm running Firefox 40something *(I am
not on that computer right now). I installed it about 4 months ago, and
I am already getting noticed to upgrade it, but I did not get a computer
to upgrade software every week. And FF seems to have gone crazy with
upgrade fever!

New versions not only fix bugs but also add functionality. It's your
choice to stick with an old version and remain with that old
functionality set.

I wont jump off a cliff just because someone wants me to, nor will I
upgrade software just because someone wants me to.

Your choice to stick with eating stale and moldy bread.

I'd suggest you use the "NoScript Security Suite" extension and configure it
to (1) block Flash; (2) block IFRAME; (3) enable the "apply the setting on
whitelisted sites too" setting.

Any blocked Flash object or an IFRAME object, NoScript will change it to a
yellow rectangle. To load it, you'll need to click the rectangle.

Note that the extension is a script blocker, so you'll need to enable the
scripts (or the whole site) before YouTube (or any other site) can work.

I use uMatrix as a substitute for NoScript. The problem with NoScript
is when you decide to grant permanent permissions for a 3rd party
(off-domain) resource. NoScript then grants permissions for that
resource at ALL sites unless you drill into NoScript to write your own
filter (after learning their syntax rules). When I am granting
permanent permission for an off-domain resource, I rarely want to grant
global permission, just permission at the site that I visited. By
default, uMatrix will whitelist the allowed resource at only the site
where it is discovered, not everywhere. If you want, you can also
whitelist it global like how NoScript does by default.

Note that unlike the OP that has bandwidth issues, I do not block 1st
party scripts. If I visit the site then I let that site run their own
scripts; however, oft times they load scripts from elsewhere, like a CDN
(content delivery network) provider that is off-domain but they have an
account there. They script may come from their own domain but it is a
different one than visited. In those cases, I have to grant permanent
permission for them to run their scripts from their other domain but
that grant is only for the visited domain, not everywhere. Too many
sites become dysfunctional if you don't allow their own scripts hence
why uMatrix and NoScript both allow temporary grant of permission for
scripting.

In the OP's case, use uMatrix in its default config which would block
scripts at the 1st party domain, by default, just like NoScript. That
means the user having to allow temporary permissions a lot because sites
very often require their scripts to provide their content. Either their
page has dynamic content (scripted) or it is interactive (requires
scripting to interface with the user) beyond the old simple A tag for
a hyperlink. In the default config of uMatrix or when using NoScript,
the user is going to spend a lot of time tailoring the add-on's config
so favorite (revisited) sites work well. With uMatrix, that tailoring
will be by site as they would expect. With NoScript, and unless you
edit your own filters, allowing a resource at one visited site so it
works ends up allowing that resource everywhere else.

The problem with both add-ons is all the work to decide on where to
allow scripting (and the scope of that permission). It's like using an
application firewall where you don't use a pre-defined whitelist but use
paranoid mode where you have to grant every program its requested
network access or not. It takes time to program the learning and reduce
the volume of prompts. It takes a lot of time along with a lot of
nuisance for the user to figure out just what to allow at a site.
Neither uMatrix or NoScript let you decide just what elements within a
script to allow. It's whether scripting in total is allowed or not.

Per the OP's actual request, he already has a Flash blocker (although
Firefox already has its "Ask to activate" feature for all plug-ins) but
wants to extend likewise functionality to HTML5 video and canvas
elements within scripts. He does not ask to block or allow scripting in
its entirety. He wants to only block or allow specific elements within
Javascript. There are some add-ons for Firefox that target the specific
HTML5 elements, like:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-autoplay/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/toggle-html5-video

Those only mention controlling HTML5 video. Don't know if they also
control HTML5 canvas (scripted graphics). I did not bother to
investigate what these add-ons require as a minimal version of Firefox
(so the functions are available for the add-ons are usable). Those
add-ons were found by searching addons.mozilla.org on "html5 video". If
they don't include controlling HTML5 canvas then there are other
add-on to control that content. Just search on "html5 canvas" at the
addons site. However, the canvas script has already been delivered with
the web page (if the user grants scripting via uMatrix or NoScript) so
there would be no additional bandwidth to display the animated graphics.

On Tue, 7 Feb 2017 13:47:55 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

New versions not only fix bugs but also add functionality. It's your
choice to stick with an old version and remain with that old
functionality set.

I wont jump off a cliff just because someone wants me to, nor will I
upgrade software just because someone wants me to.

Your choice to stick with eating stale and moldy bread.

I'm not trying to be an ass about this, but I still have FF 3.x on my
Windows 98 computer (can not use anyting newer). I also have a Windows
2000 computer, that has FF 12.x installed. BOTH of those older versions
had far more features than the recent versions. It seems like each new
version lacks more buttons on the top toolbars. Things like "Reload" are
gone, the HOME button used to be easily seen, not it tucked away in the
very far upper right corner. I used to be able to click on TOOLS, then
"CLEAR RECENT HISTORY" to clear my cache cookies and so on. These new
versions dont have that. Now, I have to go into the configuration
settings, stand on my head, spin 10 times and after 8 or 10 steps I
finally get to remove my cache. I have not seen any improvement in the
functions of FF since the version numbers were a single digit. It's
gotten worse, not better. And FF still can not put the newest tab to the
right of the others. It still has its annoying method of cramming thm
betwen other tabs, and that has always been a real pet peeve. And why
cant FF always show my homepage on EVERY Tab. Nope, I have to click on
the home button. I use K-Meleon 1.5.4 for years. It works and is very
similar, but all those annoyances I just mentioned, fif not happen in
K-Meleon. Unfortinately it will not load any new websites...


I'd suggest you use the "NoScript Security Suite" extension and configure it
to (1) block Flash; (2) block IFRAME; (3) enable the "apply the setting on
whitelisted sites too" setting.

Any blocked Flash object or an IFRAME object, NoScript will change it to a
yellow rectangle. To load it, you'll need to click the rectangle.

Note that the extension is a script blocker, so you'll need to enable the
scripts (or the whole site) before YouTube (or any other site) can work.

I use uMatrix as a substitute for NoScript. The problem with NoScript
is when you decide to grant permanent permissions for a 3rd party
(off-domain) resource. NoScript then grants permissions for that
resource at ALL sites unless you drill into NoScript to write your own
filter (after learning their syntax rules). When I am granting
permanent permission for an off-domain resource, I rarely want to grant
global permission, just permission at the site that I visited. By
default, uMatrix will whitelist the allowed resource at only the site
where it is discovered, not everywhere. If you want, you can also
whitelist it global like how NoScript does by default.

Note that unlike the OP that has bandwidth issues, I do not block 1st
party scripts. If I visit the site then I let that site run their own
scripts; however, oft times they load scripts from elsewhere, like a CDN
(content delivery network) provider that is off-domain but they have an
account there. They script may come from their own domain but it is a
different one than visited. In those cases, I have to grant permanent
permission for them to run their scripts from their other domain but
that grant is only for the visited domain, not everywhere. Too many
sites become dysfunctional if you don't allow their own scripts hence
why uMatrix and NoScript both allow temporary grant of permission for
scripting.

In the OP's case, use uMatrix in its default config which would block
scripts at the 1st party domain, by default, just like NoScript. That
means the user having to allow temporary permissions a lot because sites
very often require their scripts to provide their content. Either their
page has dynamic content (scripted) or it is interactive (requires
scripting to interface with the user) beyond the old simple A tag for
a hyperlink. In the default config of uMatrix or when using NoScript,
the user is going to spend a lot of time tailoring the add-on's config
so favorite (revisited) sites work well. With uMatrix, that tailoring
will be by site as they would expect. With NoScript, and unless you
edit your own filters, allowing a resource at one visited site so it
works ends up allowing that resource everywhere else.

The problem with both add-ons is all the work to decide on where to
allow scripting (and the scope of that permission). It's like using an
application firewall where you don't use a pre-defined whitelist but use
paranoid mode where you have to grant every program its requested
network access or not. It takes time to program the learning and reduce
the volume of prompts. It takes a lot of time along with a lot of
nuisance for the user to figure out just what to allow at a site.
Neither uMatrix or NoScript let you decide just what elements within a
script to allow. It's whether scripting in total is allowed or not.

Per the OP's actual request, he already has a Flash blocker (although
Firefox already has its "Ask to activate" feature for all plug-ins) but
wants to extend likewise functionality to HTML5 video and canvas
elements within scripts. He does not ask to block or allow scripting in
its entirety. He wants to only block or allow specific elements within
Javascript. There are some add-ons for Firefox that target the specific
HTML5 elements, like:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...able-autoplay/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...le-html5-video

Those only mention controlling HTML5 video. Don't know if they also
control HTML5 canvas (scripted graphics). I did not bother to
investigate what these add-ons require as a minimal version of Firefox
(so the functions are available for the add-ons are usable). Those
add-ons were found by searching addons.mozilla.org on "html5 video". If
they don't include controlling HTML5 canvas then there are other
add-on to control that content. Just search on "html5 canvas" at the
addons site. However, the canvas script has already been delivered with
the web page (if the user grants scripting via uMatrix or NoScript) so
there would be no additional bandwidth to display the animated graphics.

Wow, these programs "uMatrix and NoScript" sound way too complicated to
me. And I imagine that like most FF addons, they would need to be
reinstalled every time FF needs an upgrade (in other words weekly).

But those two addons you linked above sound like what I need. ALL I want
to do is stop those videos fron autoplaying. I dont care if I'm looking
for videos on you tube, or on a news media site, or some website loads
and plays one of their goddamn video ads. I NEVER want ANY videos to
autoplay. If I want to watch a video, I WILL CLICK ON IT....

I have no idea what "Canvas" is..... Is it just a .JPG image, or what? I
normally have images enabled, so I dont see why some images called
"Canvas" would matter...

On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 04:29:17 -0600, wrote:

Wow, these programs "uMatrix and NoScript" sound way too complicated to
me. And I imagine that like most FF addons, they would need to be
reinstalled every time FF needs an upgrade (in other words weekly).

I use Firefox 17 ESR, yes, I know, it has a NSA backdoor, but
more modern versions probably do too.
NoScript does not need "updating", but the last version that
works on decent versions of Firefox was 2.9.0.14. After that it sort
of lost it's way, I'm afraid the developer might have sold out to
Google and/Mozilla, it allows scripting from both by default now, and
it also phones home too frequently.
I avoid recent extensions, most are crowdfunded by government
agencies. uMatrix is probably in that category. There is some pretty
heavy criticism of the developers if you look for it.

Nothing wrong with using old browsers, except the annoying

"This site does not support your browser. You cannot view text
or images here unless you allow us to datamine you"

Just do a CTRL-U and look at the text in the source, and the
links to the images. It will usually be there. If it's not, it was
probably not worth looking at in the first place.
But you DO need a script blocker with an old browser. Or
globally disable scripting.
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012