directvnow.com - Unable to stream using Firefox browser

[globau]

URL: https://directvnow.com/accounts/create-account
Browser / Version: Firefox 52.0
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.12
Problem type: Something else - I'll add details below

Steps to Reproduce

1. use firefox
2. navigate to https://directvnow.com/accounts/create-account

expected:

a functional site

actual:

It looks like you’re not using the right browser. Don’t sweat it, you can stream on Google Chrome 50+, Safari 8+ or Internet Explorer 11+ (on Windows 8 and up).

From webcompat.com with ❤️

[wisniewskit]

Bizarre. I tried in Windows, Linux and OSX, and only my custom build worked (or changing the user-agent string). Together with their message, it seems like they're making a conscious choice to lock out Firefox users.

[alex-mayorga]

Yup! They do redirect even Nightly to https://directvnow.com/accounts/BrowserNotSupported.html

I wonder what they need to stream.

[wisniewskit]

If anyone has an account so they can test the site in Firefox (while spoofing the user-agent string to a Chrome one), then it would help out. They ask for credit card info up-front just to get a simple preview of their service, and I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to do that for a site that seems unwilling to have my business in the first place (plus I'm not a USA resident, and their site seems made only for USA residents).

[adamopenweb]

Some related links:

https://forums.att.com/t5/Connect-a-New-Device/Directv-Now-on-windows-10-using-Edge-Or-only-on-Explorer/m-p/4987583

DIRECTVNOW works best on Google Chrome (50+), but it works on the following browsers:

    Internet Explorer (IE 11+ for Windows 8 or higher)
    Safari (8+)

https://forums.att.com/t5/Connect-a-New-Device/DIRECTV-NOW-on-PC/m-p/4982207

[karlcow]

The support browser page https://support.directv.com/streaming-dtv/3426
Firefox latest on Windows is working but no on MacOS.
I suspect they tap directly into Windows DRM libraries.

on MacOS usually it is FairPlay and Windows it is… PlayReady

but I'm not a video specialist so maybe someone like @cpeterso will know better or knows someone who know better.

[wisniewskit]

I'm also not sure, but based on my understanding I don't think Chrome utilizes PlayReady, just Google's Widevine, which Firefox now also supports (unless I'm mistaken). So if they're just relying on the EME support and CDMs in the supported browsers, then that makes their case seem incredibly flimsy, unless there are bugs preventing them from working properly.

[cpeterso]

As @wisniewskit pointed out, Chrome does not use Microsoft's PlayReady DRM. Chrome and Firefox both only support Google's Widevine DRM (on Windows, Mac and Linux), so any service that uses HTML5 video on Chrome should work on Firefox with no or minimal changes.

[karlcow]

@cpeterso Do you know which kind of "minimal changes" and what could we suggest?

[karlcow]

Also I would not have my hopes too high.
They are probably fully aware about the issue.
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=directv%20firefox&src=typd

[cpeterso]

@karlcow, if DirecTV is using Widevine DRM in Chrome, then the only code change they should need to support Firefox is removing Firefox from their blocklist. :) I don't have a DirecTV account with which to test.

[adamopenweb]

Trying to reach out via LinkedIn.

[karlcow]

I would not sweat it anymore.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/7/15758274/directv-now-google-chrome-exclusive-safari-internet-explorer-browser-support

[cpeterso]

Does DirecTV work in Firefox if you spoof Chrome's UA? DirecTV's "Chrome-only" support might just mean that they will require Widevine DRM, which Firefox supports.

[karlcow]

@cpeterso but if we need to do UA override. We will need to open an issue on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Web%20Compatibility

There's nothing we can do in terms of outreach anymore. Business decision on their side.

[miketaylr]

There's nothing we can do in terms of outreach anymore. Business decision on their side.

Shouldn't we make that call after we've had discussions with them @karlcow?

(And yes, we need to test if spoofing will work... as a possible workaround since discussions might take forever).

[softvision-raul-bucata]

I was not able to reproduce the issue. The page does not return any error messages.

Tested with:

Browser / Version:Firefox Nightly 90.0a1 (2021-05-11) (64-bit)/
Operating System: Mac OSX 10.15.6

[softvision-oana-arbuzov]

The issue still occurs on https://www.attwatchtv.com/ if I try to sign in.

Tested with:
Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 90.0a1 (2021-05-10)
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

Reopening and moving back to Sitewait.

[softvision-oana-arbuzov]

@ksy36 could you check the UA Override on https://www.attwatchtv.com/ if I try to sign in., it seems that the "Browser Unsupported" message is shown even if the override is enabled.

Tested with:
Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 90.0a1 (2021-05-12)
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

[ksy36]

The override is no longer seems to work as all domains (except https://www.attwatchtv.com/) are redirecting to directv.com in one way or another. We should replace our current override with https://*.directv.com/ (see #85225). Filed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1728450.

https://www.attwatchtv.com/ doesn't point to directv, but has identical interface, so we can also add the same override to this domain

[softvision-oana-arbuzov]

UA Override is still required.
URL: https://stream.directv.com/

Tested with:
Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 99.0a1 (2022-02-16)
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

[inv_07/2022]