Help!: Can't play embedded videos on IE 10 Metro on Surface RT

[kristalsoldier]

Hi...

I just noticed that I cannot play any embedded videos on IE Metro on the Surface RT. The same is also true for IE in desktop mode. This only happens for videos that embedded in pages - like, for example, on some of the pages here. I'll post some links at the end.

How can I fix this? Indeed, is it fixable? I should also mention that if I go to Youtube, videos play just fine - on both versions of IE 10.

All of this refers to the Surface RT. Interestingly, this does not happen on the IE10 Metro version on my desktop machine running Win 8 Pro.

Advise please. Thanks in advance.

Links of pages with videos that don't work on the Surface RT:

See the first post by Mitchvelli: http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/windows-8-forum/4995-new-video-windows-8-1-features.html
See the original page (at Verge): Windows 8.1 makes video debut ahead of June 26th preview release | The Verge
See this page on WinBeta: Watch this! Microsoft demos Windows 8.1 during Computex 2013 in Taipei (video) | WinBeta

 

[jnjroach]

Do you have a Flash Update sitting in optional updates? Other than that you can remove the IE feature and re-add it...

 

[kristalsoldier]

Do you have a Flash Update sitting in optional updates? Other than that you can remove the IE feature and re-add it...

Thanks. No, I don't have any pending Flash updates. Also, I am not sure what you mean by "remove the IE feature and re-add it...". Could you please explain this a bit?

 

[kristalsoldier]

OK. I got it to work. But I am not sure this is the right thing to do...so, please tell me if I am going off-course here:

I went to the desktop version of IE on the RT. Went to the Gear icon (top extreme right)>open Safety>Tracking Protection.

There I have the following lists: Abine, EasyList, Fanboy, Stop Google Tracking (this is something by MS as the address says IE test drive etc.), Your personalized list. From this, I disabled the "Stop Google Tracking".

This fixed the issue in both version of IE - desktop and Metro (err...sorry, Modern UI).

Thanks.

EDIT: I checked on my desktop (Win 8 Pro) and in the desktop mode of IE, "Stop Google Tracking" was disabled, which explains why I could see embedded videos on my desktop machine, but not on the RT. Ahh...this is much better!!!!!!!

 

[jnjroach]

Makes you wonder what Google is tracking.....glad you fixed the issue. My while the nuclear would have worked as it would reset IE. To do it, go to features from the Programs Control Panel and uncheck IE and reboot and then go back in and recheck it.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Makes you wonder what Google is tracking.....glad you fixed the issue. My while the nuclear would have worked as it would reset IE. To do it, go to features from the Programs Control Panel and uncheck IE and reboot and then go back in and recheck it.

Thanks. I wonder too!

 

[pallentx]

Woah, so you have pages that wont play content unless you allow Google's tracking service to run? That's nuts.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Woah, so you have pages that wont play content unless you allow Google's tracking service to run? That's nuts.

That's correct. Can you advise me on any alternate options that I may have? Thanks.

 

[pallentx]

Unfortunately, no. It sounds like the page, or the player object on the page, is designed to require that. I don't know any way around that. Its not a problem with the Surface or IE10 other than the fact that they give you the option to disable Google's tracking (which is a good thing IMO).

 

[kristalsoldier]

Unfortunately, no. It sounds like the page, or the player object on the page, is designed to require that. I don't know any way around that. Its not a problem with the Surface or IE10 other than the fact that they give you the option to disable Google's tracking (which is a good thing IMO).

That's true, but then again, once you disable Google Tracking, you lose the ability to play embedded videos! Very odd, but there it is!

 

[pallentx]

Are these imbedded Youtube videos? Do you have an example page that behaves like this? It makes sense that the Youtube player object might do this, since Youtube is a Google service.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

Wow finally fixed this annoying problem!

For me it seemed to start when I upgraded from IE10 to IE11 soon after doing the Windows 8.1 upgrade.

Videos on YouTube worked but videos embedded from sites like YouTube into other pages would NOT work!

For some test sites, Don't Get Scroogled! - Scroogled worked fine. Those videos are hosted from Don't Get Scroogled! - Scroogled where as if I went to Scroogled! Blog | Scroogled! Blog the videos were EMBEDDED from YouTube and were missing on the page.

The same thing happened on any website that had embedded videos such as news sites or websites like the blaze.Com who embed videos into their news articles.
I turned off the block tracking and now they work. Weird. But thankful.