Each page refresh or navigation to new page on AliExpress.com results in an annoying prompt to install widevine. Blocking the installation does not prevent the dialog box from popping up repeatedly.
Steps to Reproduce (add as many as necessary): 1. 2. 3.
Visit AliExpress and begin to navigate any product page.
Wait for page to fully load.
Enjoy the prompt. I don’t know what happens if you allow the installation, but blocking it does nothing to prevent future popups.
Actual Result (gifs and screenshots are welcome!):
Expected result:
After responding to prompt in the negative, the dialog box disappears until the page is refreshed or another page is loaded (on AliExpress). It would be great for the prompt to remember the user’s selection, and honor that for the given website.
Reproduces how often:
Every page reload or navigating to another page . Page must fully load before prompt appears
Operating System and Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu):
Version 0.65.112 Chromium: 75.0.3770.38 (Official Build) beta (64-bit), Windows 7 Ultimate.
Additional Information:
I was unable to find any tips on how to explicitly disable the prompt (globally or per site).
That said, I can’t seem to produce the issue on my end using macOS Mojave or Windows 10 systems – I assume that you’ve never elected to install Widevinecdm then, is that correct?
I can’t say with 100% certainty that I haven’t previously installed it. But knowing how paranoid I am about accepting prompts to install things I don’t need - especially if they’re optional - I’d bet my next paycheck that it is NOT installed.
@erkme73,
Note that WV is required to access/use several popular sites such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, Spotify and more. More information on Widevine here:
You can test by visiting one of the above mentioned sites and seeing if you’re also prompted to install it there as well.
That might explain why I don’t have/use it. I use none of those service (thanks to Plex). Even so, I wonder what it is that AliExpress uses on their product pages that would trigger the WV DRM requirement. Given that the pages seem to load fully and are missing no functionality when blocking WV installation, I don’t particularly feel compelled to install it just to avoid the prompts.
FWIW, I just went to Netflix and tried clicking on one of their episode trailers and was greeted with the prompt. So I guess that confirms I simply don’t have the WV software installed.
Truth be told, given that the AE page is the first and only time I see it, I’d still prefer to disable the prompting (and deal with any potential crippled page functionality) than be compelled to install it just to avoid the nag prompt.
@erkme73,
I honestly have no idea why it’s appearing on aliexpress.com – to my knowledge WV isn’t required to shop? The fact that it’s only appearing like this on aliexpress and otherwise is hidden unless actually required (as you saw when visiting to Netflix) means this is likely a passing bug that already has a fix. I’ll reach out to the team and see if anyone knows more.
As stated initially, we are working on surfacing this option so WV can be enabled/disabled under the users control.
If you’d like to help test, you can download our Release or Developer builds (this will not delete/overwrite/replace any currently installed Brave Beta data) and see if these behave the same.
Sure thing. I just installed the dev version and visited AE. Once I get to any product page the popup shows up. Interestingly, they have a ‘coupon’ that appears to be unique, that overlays the page - which I have to clear before the WV prompt appears. Of course, that may be because I don’t have any cookies/user data on the new install. But perhaps they’re using DRM to control coupon integrity?
In any case, I would wholeheartedly support the ability to control the WV prompting/use on a user level (like scripting or popups). And I’d love to help with the efforts. Unfortunately, short of trying things for people and reporting back, I am more useful as an obstacle than a contributing member of the community
@erkme73,
Update: I take back what I mentioned earlier – looks like I can reproduce this. Went ahead and did another fresh install on my Win10 and Linux machine without having previously installed Widevine and I now see the prompt to install Widevine appear once I land on a product page.
Electing to Block WV is ineffective as the prompt will re-appear after the page is refreshed or after navigating to a new item on the site.
I’m going to dig around Github to see if there’s anything filed for this already but I don’t think that there is. In which case I’ll go ahead and open an issue so devs can take a look at it. Appreciate your help and patience.
Also,
That’s simply not true! Contributing isn’t limited to submitting code/pull requests to our browser – reporting bugs/issues accurately and bugging team members (like myself) to get them fixed is equally as valuable. So thank you for your support and assistance – welcome to the team!
Well shucks… Thanks for making the process so easy. With most programs/apps, it always seems bug reports and feature requests seem to go into the ether - this was a nice surprise. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve become apathetic and just assume someone else will make the noise for the rest of us. Glad I piped up this time
@erkme73.
Actually going to have to backpedal on that one. It looks like the site does in fact want you to install/enable WidevineCDM. I’m not entirely sure why (no documentation/mention of it on their site, tsk tsk!) but this does seem to be the intended behavior:
Well, that’s a bummer. Maybe we can change it into a feature request, then? I suppose most people have the WV DRM component installed/enabled, and like you, they’ll never see the nag. And I can respect that website devs want to use it to protect their content. However, for users like me, that don’t want or need the WV component installed, it seems a bit excessive to pop up the Brave warning/nag with every refresh.
I have no problem with AE’s yellow banner letting me know that some page functionality will be missing or limited due to the missing WV component. I think that’s fair. But if 20% of the screen is obliterated due to a nagging browser-supplied pop-up, just seconds after I explicitly pressed the “Block” button, I think that’s a bit over the top.
The block button, at a minimum ought to be respected for that site/session at least. Else, it’s like the “close door” button on an elevator - it looks pretty and is push-able, but it does absolutely nothing.
You can test by visiting one of the above mentioned sites and seeing if you’re also prompted to install it there as well.
