Bug 510315 - Volume for video playback in Firefox (YouTube) keeps dropping
Summary: Volume for video playback in Firefox (YouTube) keeps dropping
Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Audio in general (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.4.5
Platform: openSUSE Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-10-06 19:03 UTC by felixxx
Modified: 2025-10-09 15:44 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
screencast showing the behavior (902.07 KB, video/webm)
2025-10-06 19:03 UTC, felixxx
Details

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Description felixxx 2025-10-06 19:03:07 UTC
Created attachment 185561 [details]
screencast showing the behavior

SUMMARY
When i play a YouTube video in Mozilla Firefox and pause, the application audio volume for Firefox drops to 61% (and sometimes even lower). When i increase the volume in Plasma Audio Application back to 100% and pause the video or skip the application audio returns to the lower volume.
When I move the slider for YouTubes internal audio control to 0% and back to 100% the Plasma Application shows a scaled down volume and again maxes out at 61% when the YouTube volume is 100%.

This does not happen in Chromium.
I observed this behavior with and without the Plasma Firefox integration add-on.

I think this happens only with videos that have the option "stable volume" but this still occurs with that option turned off.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20251005
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.18.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.17.0-2-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Comment 1 TraceyC 2025-10-06 20:52:41 UTC
In the video, Firefox is open with a song playing from the Spotify channel
On the right, the volume widget is open, showing the Applications tab. The volume slider is 100%.
The cursor is used to start playback at a different point in the video with its timer slider. When unpaused, the volume slider in the widget drops to 79%, but the volume slider in the browser tab shows 100%
Dragging the volume slider in the browser down and back to 100% changes the slider in the sound widget to 79%

I can reproduce this in git-master. For me, the volume in the Audio Volume widget tops out at 94%, but otherwise the behavior is the same
Generally, it seems there's different math happening between the sliders
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2025-10-07 19:18:11 UTC
This is almost certainly likely the browser or PipeWire doing it, not Plasma.
Comment 3 TraceyC 2025-10-08 16:49:37 UTC
On my system I have

pipewire, version: 1.4.2

felixxx, what version of pipewire do you have?
Comment 4 felixxx 2025-10-09 09:47:39 UTC
(In reply to TraceyC from comment #3)
> On my system I have
> 
> pipewire, version: 1.4.2
> 
> felixxx, what version of pipewire do you have?

pipewire
Compiled with libpipewire 1.4.8
Linked with libpipewire 1.4.8
Comment 5 felixxx 2025-10-09 10:06:27 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #2)
> This is almost certainly likely the browser or PipeWire doing it, not Plasma.
Sorry, you are correct. This also happens with Gnome on Wayland.
Comment 6 Nate Graham 2025-10-09 15:44:30 UTC
I had a feeling. Probably best to report this at https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/issues/, then!