Is There a Way to Have Firefox Prevent Audio/Video Clips

[BobH]

I do a lot of web browsing. Lately I've noticed that more and more sites that include audio and video in their pages have the a/v running when the page is opened by Firefox. Most of the time, I do not watch the video or listen to audio because I prefer to read the material. I find the automatic running of the a/v on loading the page irritating and, often, offensive because of the really bad speaking voices often used.

Does anyone know of an option or add-on for Fx that will allow me to tell the browser to shut off any active video or audio when loading a page? Yes, I can almost always find a way to stop it; but I'd prefer to access it when I want to, not just because I loaded a web page.

TIA

[HansV]

In my experience, such videos are mostly advertisements. AdBlock Plus should stop those.

Alternatively, you could install the NoScript add-on and set it to disable scripting by default. This will prevent clips being played. You can enable a site temporarily to play the clip if you so wish.

[BobH]

Thank you, Hans!

I've installed NoScript but it seems to be pretty high maintenance because pages that have the active a/v links also tend to have other things that NoScript warns against. This stops the a/v but it also blocks a lot of other features on some of the web pages.

Another suggestion made by a poster on the Mozillazine forum was to set Shockwave Flash to Ask to Activate. I'm still experimenting.

UPDATE:
Apparently Fx changed with Rel 24. Before the user had to click to play but the default was changed to play all without and option to change it. There is a add-on that can be found by searching Tools > Add-ons and searching for Click to Play.

I've disabled NoScript and added the CLick to Play Add-on.

Still experimenting.

[StuartR]

You could try using Chrome. I have to click on any Flash content to get it to play.

[BobH]

The Click-to-Play add-on seems to have done the trick.

I have a philosophical difference with the business premise underlying all things google and avoid their offerings to the extent that I am able. I like the Mozilla premise and I like Firefox. It was the change made with regard to the status of flash links with Rel 24 that caused my problem. I failed to discover the change in the release notes and was slow to complain about the behavior change. I think the add-on has solved my problem.

[Claude]

I'm using the Flashblock add-on:


Flashblock currently blocks the following content types:
* Macromedia Flash
* Macromedia Shockwave
* Macromedia Authorware

and you have to click the play button for any video or audio to start playing. It also stops the annoying flash ads. I'm also using AdBlock Plus, the two work well together, anything that gets through still I block via the hosts file, or, if I want it blocked on every device, I block the domain name in my wifi router block list.