chat.openai.com - New read-out loud functionality fails to work (paid feature)

[FlyingFathead]

URL: https://chat.openai.com

Browser / Version: Firefox 123.0 Operating System: Windows 10 Tested Another Browser: Yes Other

Problem type: Video or audio doesn't play Description: There is no audio Steps to Reproduce: New read-out loud functionality on ChatGPT's website throws in the error: "Cannot play media. No decoders for requested formats: audio/aac". This happens on both Win11 and Linux [Ubuntu 22.04 LTS] Firefox v123 as well as v123.0.1

Browser Configuration

• None

From webcompat.com with ❤️

[softvision-raul-bucata]

We appreciate your report. Unfortunately having insufficient details about the issue you submitted, we cannot help you with it. Please leave a comment with more details the steps to reproduce it, or file a new report with specific details and we will gladly investigate this further:

[qa_10/2024]

[FlyingFathead]

Full error message:

Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: MediaSource.addSourceBuffer: Type not supported in MediaSource
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_app-235e7d420c483f21.js:50
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Cannot play media. No decoders for requested formats: audio/aac

[softvision-raul-bucata]

Without the steps to reproduce to trigger the feature, we can not proceed with the investigations. Please provide the steps or a screen rec on how to trigger the feature.

[inv_10/2024]

[FlyingFathead]

Sorry, I forgot to add that it's a ChatGPT Plus only feature, so the "read aloud" feature has been rolled out for GPT-4 only. Here's a screenshot of the button and when it's pressed (and attempting to read out loud):

View the screenshot

View the screenshot

View the screenshot

I noticed there are multiple people on the OpenAI Discord reporting this same issue. One person stated they tried refreshing their Firefox and clearing out the user profile, to no avail.

[FlyingFathead]

Here's a screenshot from the Inspector (again, this is GPT-4, so a ChatGPT Plus plan is needed for this feature):

View the screenshot

[softvision-raul-bucata]

This is just to make sure that nothing is interfering with the browser. If after this suggestion the issue reproduces, please let me know.

What I would do usually to test this kind of issue, is:

1. Type about:profiles in the url bar.
2. Choose Create a new profile.
3. Call it deleteme or anything you please.
4. Then start it. (this way you will be sure that nothing is interfering, no ghost caching etc.)- make sure account sync is not performed, as the extensions will be imported in the new profile.
5. Test.

Note: You can return to your old profile at any given time by accessing "about:profiles" in the address bar

[inv_10/2024]

[FlyingFathead]

@softvision-raul-bucata I tried replicating the problem in a new profile:

Alas, the error still remains. If there's any further info you need, let me know. Thanks for looking into it, I really appreciate it.

[FlyingFathead]

If it's of any additional help, today's error message when attempting the playback was:

Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: MediaSource.addSourceBuffer: Type not supported in MediaSource
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_app-1b4c2c07f5a6c4ed.js:1
    NextJS 2
    InterpretGeneratorResume self-hosted:1465
    AsyncFunctionNext self-hosted:852
    NextJS 14
Source map error: Error: request failed with status 404
Resource URL: https://cdn.oaistatic.com/_next/static/chunks/framework-d69d7cd8328ac368.js
Source Map URL: framework-d69d7cd8328ac368.js.map
Cannot play media. No decoders for requested formats: audio/aac

[softvision-raul-bucata]

Thanks for that. Moving the issue for further investigations

[inv_10/2024]

[WinkelCode]

Hey everyone, I am able to shed some more light on the issue and link some resources:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1b7e4ku/read_aloud_doesnt_work_on_firefox_due_to_no/
• https://community.openai.com/t/read-aloud-feature-not-working-on-chatgpt-via-firefox/664947

The issue appears to be specifically that Firefox's addSourceBuffer() can't handle the audio/aac MIME type. It is possible to capture and play back the complete AAC data, and there are userscripts that use this technique (intercepting the API response) to accomplish this.

[softvision-raul-bucata]

@WinkelCode Thanks for the update. Our team will look into it

[inv_11/2024]

[ksy36]

This is probably related to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1698881

[FlyingFathead]

Either OpenAI fixed it or it was fixed with the latest Firefox update, it works now on Firefox 124.0 and 124.1, 64-bit. Thanks!

[WinkelCode]

Either OpenAI fixed it or it was fixed with the latest Firefox update, it works now on Firefox 124.0 and 124.1, 64-bit. Thanks!

I suspect it was OpenAI, since it doesn't appear to be streaming the audio, now just waiting for the complete data instead of failing.

[softvision-raul-bucata]

Glad to hear that the issue has been solved .Please feel free to submit other encountered issues, as your input is highly appreciated.

[inv_13/2024]