www.ardmediathek.de - requires Flash to play a video?

[GIGANTOR]

URL: http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/Reportage-Dokumentation/Dokumentarfilm-im-Ersten-Der-Banker-M/Das-Erste/Video?documentId=22663206&bcastId=799280
Browser / Version: Iceweasel 24.6.0
Operating System: Linux
Problem type: Looks like the website has a bug.
Site owner: No

Steps to Reproduce

1. Navigate to: http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/Reportage-Dokumentation/Dokumentarfilm-im-Ersten-Der-Banker-M/Das-Erste/Video?documentId=22663206&bcastId=799280
2. …

Expected Behavior:
Actual Behavior:

[hansschmucker]

I'm not currently using Firefox or Iceweasel under Linux, but since Firefox doesn't (yet) include a h264 video decoder on platforms that don't have one pre-installed (XP and some Linux distributions), this seems like the most likely cause of the issue (ARD doesn't seem to provide Theora or WebM streams for some their videos). Disabling the Windows h264 decoder brings up "Bei der Wiedergabe ist ein Fehler aufgetreten. Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal." (An error has occurred during playback. Please try again at a later time). Changing the useragent to Iceweasel on the other hand doesn't seem to cause any issues.

Of course, it could simply be an incompatibility with your relatively old version of Iceweasel. But I think an issue with GStreamer (which is as far as I remember responsible for h.264 playback under Linux) is more likely.

[hallvors]

Can be contacted as part of a general "try to gently push the web away from Flash for video" campaign - I would recommend not saying "WTF" though ;).
Perhaps try these contact points?
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116361171816526513314?rel=author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ardde
Contactlink: http://www.daserste.de/service/kontakt-und-service/service-uebersicht/zuschauerredaktion/index.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARD

[karlcow]

to note that they have the possibility to display HTML5 video.

m = /i(Pad|Phone|Pod)/.test(navigator.userAgent) && 7 <= parseInt(navigator.userAgent.replace(/^.*OS (\d+)_(\d+).*$/, '$1.$2'), 10),
l = function () {
var a = f.createElement('video'),

The issue is that instead of testing for the canPlayType they do useragent sniffing only for iOS devices.

@hansschmucker did you try to contact them?

[karlcow]

This is working.