Bug 33741 – Fullscreen video stays visible after switching to another window

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: FIXED
• Component: Media

[Adam Roben (:aroben)]

To reproduce:

1. Go to a page with <video controls>
2. Click the fullscreen button in the video's controls
3. Switch to another window via Alt-Tab (e.g., the Safari window that contained
the <video>)

The fullscreen video is still visible in the background. On Mac, switching to another window in the same application is disallowed, but switching to another application causes the fullscreen video to go away. (Somewhat oddly, it comes back when you switch back to Safari!)

[Adam Roben (:aroben)]

It's possible we'll want to make the fullscreen video go away whenever you switch to another window. One reason for this is that you can currently switch back to the window that contained the webpage with the <video> element while the fullscreen video is still playing in the background, which is just weird!

[Adam Roben (:aroben)]

<rdar://problem/7547579>

[Beth Dakin]

Created attachment 50750 [details]
Patch

This patch makes the fullscreen video totally go away in Windows when you switch to another window. If you want to see the video fullscreen again, you have to click the fullscreen button again. I think this behavior makes the most sense, but I suppose this could be a matter of debate.

[Chris Marrin]

I looked at this a while back and on Mac, you go back to full screen when you go back to the Safari Window. I don't think it's that big of a deal personally, but I can imagine HI having issues with it.

[Adam Roben (:aroben)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I looked at this a while back and on Mac, you go back to full screen when you
> go back to the Safari Window. I don't think it's that big of a deal personally

I agree it's not that big of a deal. Maybe we should investigate how other software behaves on Windows in this regard.

It looks like when you switch away from a full-screen (Flash) YouTube video, the video exits full-screen mode (on both platforms).

When you switch away from a full-screen instance of Windows Media Player, the video exits full-screen mode.

When you switch away from a full-screen instance of QuickTime Player (on Windows), the video remains in full-screen mode.

The Flash YouTube example seems the most applicable, since it's the only other case that has a "source" window that the video originated from (and is still present in in non-full-screen mode). But that doesn't mean we necessarily want to copy Flash's behavior.

[Beth Dakin]

Comment on attachment 50750 [details]
Patch

We talked this out over email, and we decided to keep the current behavior for the time being.