Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc.

  • 3 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by Demi

more options

What is this and more importantly what does it even do? I seen it while my FF was updating and wondered what it was about.

What is this and more importantly what does it even do? I seen it while my FF was updating and wondered what it was about.

All Replies (3)

more options

In order to compress and decompress video streams, browsers need to handle various codecs. For patent reasons, Firefox couldn't encode/decode H.264 without external (separate) help, and this was a problem because H.264, used in MP4 video, is very popular. Cisco released an open source (patent-free) decoder that is now distributed with Firefox.

By itself, the Cisco plugin doesn't do anything, but it can be used for browser-to-browser communications (WebRTC), and in the future perhaps for website videos.

If you prefer that the plugin be disabled until its usefulness is clearer, you can set it to "Never Activate" on the Add-ons page.

more options
more options

Thank you both! I wasn't sure what all it did.