NZ Herald - Disable autoplay on videos

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openmedia

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#153724 6-Oct-2014 13:59

So the herald is starting to embed a lot of videos into their news pages. Any ideas on a good way to force them to not autostat?

This was particularly annoying last week as we were away in Taupo and having to tether via a mobile phone, and the videos chewed up a chunk of data before we could stop them playing.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

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#1148230 6-Oct-2014 14:37

Chrome offers a click to run plugins option which can be restricted to badly behaved sites. Firefox may do also but it's been a while.

gzt

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#1148233 6-Oct-2014 14:39

Got an example page?

xpd

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#1148239 6-Oct-2014 14:52

Try this one

XPD / Gavin

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gzt

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#1148266 6-Oct-2014 15:32

Chrome > Settings > Advanced > Content > Plugins > 'Click to play' fixes that.

Correction: It's a whitelist.

JimmyH

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#1148728 6-Oct-2014 22:31

It's pretty obnoxious behaviour. Happened to me once or twice when I opened a couple of tabs I was interested in, and all of a sudden audio started blasting from the speakers. I swore, then had to flick through all the tabs to find out which one was doing it. Yet another reason I seldom visit that site. If it's still bothering you then you could always email them and ask if there was a setting etc that blocked it?

Talkiet

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#1148734 6-Oct-2014 23:06

Stuff have been doing something similar for years which resulted in my blocking flash on their site... They had an autoplay on hover - so if you accidentally moved the mouse across a video it would start playing.

Clearly they value ad impressions from the ads that precede their videos of the latest cosmetic surgery trends more than they value any relevance as a news site.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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gchiu

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#1148763 6-Oct-2014 23:46

On Chrome you get a speaker icon appear in the tab that is playing the audio. Makes it easier to find which tab someone is pinging you, or is playing AV.

kendo

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#1149047 7-Oct-2014 12:08

noscript addon

jpoc

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#1153243 14-Oct-2014 06:59

kendo: noscript addon

For firefox users this certainly does the trick.

ckc

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#1153367 14-Oct-2014 09:57

There's an option on the video itself, before it starts playing, to disable autoplay.

ilovemusic

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#1153398 14-Oct-2014 10:22

yep, depending on your connection speed you have to be fast to hit stop.

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#1588699 9-Jul-2016 11:18

NZHerald and Stuff videos are becoming more intrusive, especially annoying at work, but wasting bandwidth as well. I've installed Flash Control and stopped plugins running automatically, but still they run. On the herald they actually start the countdown, I hit no, and only then do the blockers work.

Has anyone found a good way to block these annoying videos?

JimmyH

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#1588758 9-Jul-2016 12:46

I rarely go to either Stuff or NZ Herald these days - they are too light on content, and too high on clickbait and fluff.

But, in answer to your question, when I go there I find that I can make them play nice with a combination of Ghostery, Flashblock, NoScript and Adblock Plus.

Between them, these seem to deal with the worst of the obnoxious behavior of both of these sites.

Edit: typing

timmmay

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#1588779 9-Jul-2016 12:52

Adblock removes stuff, occasionally I do want to play them. Shame there's no one extension that prevents videos playing.

Hiamie

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#1588780 9-Jul-2016 12:54

I use an adblocker (yes - 'Geekzone' is whitelisted so Geekzone ads do show!) called Adblock Pro on Firefox.

The Herald videos don't play, as they seem to often need to play an ad first - which is blocked!

Works a treat, and no ads displayed is a bonus. If you want the video to play just click the Ad Blocker icon in the tool bar and "disable blocking everywhere" then refresh the Herald page.

Works for me :)

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