Amazon Prime video won't play in Firefox

[dnl]

I am having a DRM problem with 64-bit Firefox in 64-bit Linux Mint Cinnamon. Amazon Prime complains that Firefox is missing the Widevine addon but it is installed. I checked for Widevine updates -- there are no updates available. In Firefox preferences, DRM is enabled.

I tried playing Prime video using Firefox 65.0.1 in Linux Mint 18.3 and it failed as described. I applied all updates to Linux and tried again -- no joy.

I disabled DRM in Firefox, quit and restarted Firefox. The Widevine addon was deleted as expected. I re-enabled DRM playback and installed the Widevine addon. I tried again - nope.

I have my Linux system on a multi-boot machine with Windows 7. I tried Firefox 65.0.1 in Windows 7 SP1 and it worked.

I booted back into Linux and upgraded it to ver 19 and tried again. It fails in the same way.

I booted up a different machine running 64-bit Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon and 64-bit Firefox 65.0. It fails in the same way.

I have read postings from others who say they are running the same versions I have and it works fine for them. I have in effect tried three Linux systems and none of them work but it works ok in Windows.

Does anyone have any ideas what I can try or what I may be missing?

[dnl]

I have continued trying things in hopes of finding a solution.

I booted Linux Mint 18.3 live (USB), installed all current level 1 to 3 updates, and tried playing Amazon Prime video using Firefox. It failed to play but the error message was different. This time the error message included the following: "We're experiencing a problem playing this video. For assistance, please go to www.amazon.com/videohelp." I checked their web page. I found nothing that was helpful.

I installed the Google Chrome browser. It worked fine with no need to change any settings.

I would like to find a solution. I prefer Firefox and would like to avoid installing Chrome if possible. If it has to be Chrome ... sigh ... it's a better option for me than Windows.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Would any of you be willing to boot up Linux Mint live and try playing Amazon Prime video (or other protected content) with Firefox? I would appreciate knowing your results.

[dnl]

I tried another machine (an older system I had stashed in a corner) and booted Linux Mint 18. After applying all maintenance I tried playing Prime video with Firefox and got the same result.

Additional searches online did not find anything useful and no one on this forum has had anything helpful to say. I cannot comment on other versions but apparently Prime video cannot be played under Linux Mint 18, 18.3 or 19 with recent versions of Firefox (vers 65.0 and 65.0.1).

[Terryphi]

Amazon Prime video works perfectly for me in LM 19.1 and Firefox 66.0. It has also worked in previous versions of LM and Firefox. I think you need to carefully check your settings. In Preferences you need DRM enabled and in Addons>Plugins set Widevine to Always Active.

[dnl]

Amazon Prime video works perfectly for me in LM 19.1 and Firefox 66.0. It has also worked in previous versions of LM and Firefox. I think you need to carefully check your settings. In Preferences you need DRM enabled and in Addons>Plugins set Widevine to Always Active.

Thanks for the reply. The settings you mentioned have been checked and rechecked several times. I have searched for solutions and tried everything I can think of.

I am installing Mint 19.1 on another machine. I will try again with it.

[dnl]

I did an install of Mint 19.1, applied all maintenance, and launched Firefox (ver 66.0.2). I enabled the playing of DRM content and verified the Widevine plugin is installed and active. Now Firefox can play DRM-protected content. I do not know what is different to cause this but I'm happy about it.

To recap, I had tried playing DRM content with Firefox on two different machines with three different Mint installations on one machine (18.3, 19 and 18.3 live) and 18.1 on the other machine, all without success. Yes, I had checked the DRM option and verified Widevine was installed and active.

It works with Mint 19.1 and a later version of Firefox. I suspect the later versions are not the reason it works now but I have no other explanation.

[phd21]

Hi dnl,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Glad to read that you are able to watch your video streaming services through your Firefox browser. I always recommend installing more than one browser in case an update or something affects your main browser then you have another that you can use until an update fixes the issue(s) with your main browser. Also, because the Chrome browser will work for some websites when Firefox will not and visa-versa.

FYI: There is a really nice stand-alone application for Linux Mint 19.x users called "QtWebFlix" for Netflix, that I think also works with Amazon and some other services that you might consider trying.

qtwebflix: A qt webengine program for netflix
https://github.com/gort818/qtwebflix

Netflix and ... Linux Mint - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=288192&hilit=qtwebflix

Playing Netflix on Linux Mint - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=284885&hilit=netflix


Hope this helps ...

[dnl]

Hope this helps ...

A PhD at the age of 21? Or to be in 2021? No matter, congratulations!

Thanks for the tip and for your instructions elsewhere on how to set it up.