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Ask HN: Stopping Autoplay Videos in Web Browsers

13 points by Crontab ↗ HN
I used to be able to avoid video by just not installing Flash, but thanks to widespread HTML5 video support, I can't seem to escape autoplay video.

I have tried Chrome, Firefox, and Safari and there really doesn't seem to be a way to stop them. I was wondering if anyone here has a full-proof suggestion on preventing autoplay video.

5 comments

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steanne
firefox has media.autoplay.enabled and media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground flags in about:config
Crontab
I will give this a try. Thank you.
greenyoda
There's a Chrome extension called "Disable HTML5 Autoplay": https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-html5-auto...
microwavecamera
That's what I've been using but doesn't work 100% of the time. Not that it's the extensions fault, it does help. cnn.com has been the worst offender for me, I ended up just disabling javascript on their site just to stop the damn autoplay videos. The other trick I've been using is uBlock Origin (or your fav ad blocker) to block the video player completely.
freestockoption
FireFox on Android lets you disable autoplay on videos. This is why I switched from Chrome on mobile. Videos always seem to want to autoplay when I'm in a public place. Plus FireFox mobile has extensions so I can run adblock.

I still use Chrome everywhere else, though.