Mr. Mellow

Q: HDCP Content System Requirements?

Little did I know, this is apparently a typical story. I bought my first TV episode from iTunes to play on my 11" MacBook Air, connected to my 20" Cinema Display, and received this message when I attempted to play the video:

 

The selected movie won't play on your display.

This movie can be played only on displays that support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).

 

I looked into it:

 

 

7. What is HDCP?

HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a form of digital copy protection that requires compatibility between a source—such as your computer and video adapter if present—and a receiver, such as a high-definition television. If any of these devices or cabling do not support HDCP, your content may not play, may present a warning message, or may play back at a lower resolution than expected. An example of content that supports HDCP is an HD movie on the iTunes Store. Note: For information about whether your cabling, receiver, or television supports HDCP, refer to the manufacturer of the device.

 

 

8. Does the Apple Mini DisplayPort adapter support HDCP?

Apple Mini DisplayPort adapters that offer digital connections—such as the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter and the Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter—support HDCP content. Apple Mini DisplayPort adapters that offer analog connections—such as the Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter—do not support HDCP content.

 

  • Ok, that's not the problem; I have an Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter, it supports HDCP content, and such adapters are for connecting monitors, not TVs.
  • Two versions of the movie were downloaded, an .m4v and an (HD).m4v. Neither plays in iTunes (same message).
  • I opened both with QuickTime. The non-HD movie played on my 20" but the HD did not.
  • That doesn't sound like content protection to me, at least for the non-HD movie.
  • Nothing during my purchase indicated system requirements for playing HDCP vids (if there is somewhere in the bowels of the iTunes store, it is not apparent, nor did I dig for it; I just bought a TV show);

 

My issues / questions:

 

  • Only after digging on the forums did I find out that my Cinema Display would not play HDCP vids.
  • There is nothing at all in the above Apple support article to indicate that HDCP vids cannot be played on a 20" Cinema Display. In fact, by any reasonable interpretation, Question No. 8 would indicate that all is hunky dory with HDCP and you're good to go. Question No. 7 is ambiguous, but only in retrospect (after perusing the forum).
  • Is a non-HD .m4v an HDCP vid?
  • Why does QuickTime play the non-HD movie, but iTunes doesn't?
  • Where in the iTunes store (pre-purchase) are there system requirements for playing HDCP videos?
  • This irritates the living kwap out of me – I bought a new Mac so I could play HD videos. Yes, I now know that this has been an issue on-and-off on the forum since 2004, but until an hour ago it news to me. What this means to me is that Apple has had since 2004 to figure out either how to allow their monitors to play HDCP content, or has had since the iTunes Store offered video content to clearly inform potential purchasers that if they don't have an HDCP-compatible device (and how to tell), the video won't play. Oh, and the above support article was last modified on March 15, 2011 (yes, I sent feedback to Apple).

 

If you're inclined to offer an answer to the 3 questions above, I'd be grateful. Don't worry about responding to my venting, that's just frustration.

Posted on Jun 12, 2011 12:55 AM

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Q: HDCP Content System Requirements?

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  • by donfromsandy,

    donfromsandy donfromsandy Jan 12, 2012 9:40 AM in response to Asatoran
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2012 9:40 AM in response to Asatoran

    Asatoran:  Your suggestions got me to thinking that something might be making my stand-alone iMac think it has a non-compliant display attached, so I ejected my flash drive and iPhone cable, then restarted the computer.  I no longer get the message that the selected (HD) movie won't play on my display.  Problem solved.  Thank-you.

  • by PrinceofWolves,

    PrinceofWolves PrinceofWolves Apr 11, 2012 9:20 PM in response to Mr. Mellow
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 11, 2012 9:20 PM in response to Mr. Mellow

    I too was having this issue. I even went out and bought an HDMI cable for it and it still didnt work. However, I have found that computers are acually very stupid sometimes and need to be reminded as to how things work and as such i found a way of getting the computer to recongnize that this is b@*#@*(@ and it corrected itself. Maby it will work for you guys.

     

    Go to system preferences>Displays while you have both screens active. From there There should be two different control windows, one on the mac book and one on the seconday screen. On the secondary screen panel go to options and there should be a check mark next to over scan.... At this point uncheck it and the screen should re-ajust and then click it again so that the screen goes back to normal.

     

    At this point reload the HD movie/TV show and it should work. Or at least it has for me everytime. Good luck and enjoy your HD Screens!

  • by Niamb,

    Niamb Niamb Apr 14, 2012 9:41 AM in response to Mr. Mellow
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 9:41 AM in response to Mr. Mellow

    An interesting thread.  I have a 13" Macbook Air.  I download movies to view on long flights as USAirways and Southwest (the major carriers out of Philly) do not show movies.  From what I googles, it appeared the Mac Air is HD so I downloaded an HD rental from iTunes.  There was no warning that this movie was incompatible with my laptop.  However, I got the incompatible message when I went to view it on a flight to Florida this past December.  Now I'm afraid to download the HD movies I would prefer.

     

    Is my problem that my Mac Air won't show HD movies or is it this other issue?  I was able to rent an HD movie for my husband to watch on his iPad2.  Are iPad2s HD and not Mac Air or is it this other issue?  It seems to me iTunes should warn customers if certain movies won't play on Apple products.  I suppose I could have gotten a refund but now that is months in the past.

     

    So how can I tell what movies sold on iTunes will display on my Mac Air?  I keep my OS up-to-date.

  • by PrinceofWolves,Helpful

    PrinceofWolves PrinceofWolves Apr 14, 2012 12:44 PM in response to Niamb
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 12:44 PM in response to Niamb

    Niamb,

     

    Your issue is slightly different than this general thread. The majority of the complaints on this thread relate to connecting macs to 3rd party or apple HD tvs or other HD screen systems.

     

    However, to answer you question, the macbook air and ipad2 dont support full 1080p resolutions. You macbook air supports 1440 by 900 (native), 1280 by 800, 1152 by 720, and 1024 by 640 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768 and 800 by 600 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio. and the Ipad2 supports up to 720p (same as your macbook)

     

    In other words your computer is just below the requirements to show 1080p. However, you can watch 720p (which is still considered HD) movies. You can change the download options for downloading 720 instead of 1080p movies. go to itunes then in the top left hand corner of the screen go to itunes>preferences>store and going down to the scroll down box where it says 1080p and selecting 720p instead.

     

    This way in the future you can watch movies from itunes in your computers optimal resolution.

     

    Enjoy.

  • by United787Stephen,

    United787Stephen United787Stephen Apr 14, 2012 8:05 PM in response to PrinceofWolves
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 8:05 PM in response to PrinceofWolves

    On the secondary screen control panel, there is no "options"...

  • by PrinceofWolves,

    PrinceofWolves PrinceofWolves Apr 14, 2012 9:29 PM in response to United787Stephen
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 9:29 PM in response to United787Stephen

    United787Stephen,

     

    What version are you currently running? You can find this by going to the apple icon in the top left hand part of your screen and selecting About this Mac.

     

    I took a screen shot of it on my second screen. See below: You can click on it to enlarge.

     

    Picture 4(2).jpg

  • by wfbarksdale,

    wfbarksdale wfbarksdale Apr 26, 2012 2:23 PM in response to Mr. Mellow
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 26, 2012 2:23 PM in response to Mr. Mellow

    If I can't buy it on iTunes and watch it on my TV I will just pirate it, thanks movie studios.

  • by jjurado,

    jjurado jjurado Apr 30, 2012 1:37 PM in response to Mr. Mellow
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 30, 2012 1:37 PM in response to Mr. Mellow

    I had the same problem and I was really mad about it, but it is a downloading problem. During downloading the movie there was an error with the information. I wrote apple and they could solve the problem. They were able to fix it and I am watching the movie without problem. I hope this info is useful,

  • by bablemem,

    bablemem bablemem May 5, 2012 12:18 AM in response to Mr. Mellow
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 5, 2012 12:18 AM in response to Mr. Mellow

    I just left feedback for Apple regarding this issue. I have a 2011 27" iMac that iTunes says is not HD compatible...until I unplug my 2nd monitor. Turns out that having a non-HDCP device present shatters the dream of simple, relaxing movie watching. If Apple is going to continue to support the sad, imbecilic scheme of using a monitor as a content dongle then they should be able to code the verification properly. How does a non-compliant, auxillary device trump the primary HDCP compliant computer/video card/monitor?

     

    That Apple continues to support this anti-Apple complexity leaves a distinctive Microsoft taste in my mouth over this issue. If I want something that "just doesn't work" I will turn on my PC. I know that the copyright insanity is not Apple's fault. But forcing users to jump through hoops to fool iTunes is.

     

    I have read many related threads and found that people find it easier to download pirated movies than to rent/purchase simply because the Rube Goldberg copyright schemes are more and more complex and therefore more and more flawed.

     

    I don't begrudge people making money off of their intellectual property. But reasearch has shown time and again that if they reduced the price of products to what the market sees as fair, which I think they are close, and remove the barbed wire access to the content then piracy would drop. They would also save millions each year in these easily defeated anti-piracy schemes that are only effective against the people that wouldn't steal anything to begin with. 

     

    You expect to have issues with complex software like ERP packages. And you expect even simple applications like any of the MS Office products to have a vast array of issues when used beyond the novice level. You don't expect such frustrating complexity to just rent a freaking movie and watch it on one of the most advanced computers on the market today. 

  • by RShuck,

    RShuck RShuck May 5, 2012 10:52 PM in response to donfromsandy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 5, 2012 10:52 PM in response to donfromsandy

    You need to reset your SMC (System Management Controller). There are directions on how to do that on Apple Support.

     

    Fixed the same issue - I have a 15" Thunderbolt Macbook Pro and I couldn't play HD content from iTunes directly - it told me to use Quicktime. I used Quicktime successfully for a few days, and all of the sudden that failed as well. Resetting the SMC fixed the issue, and I can now watch HD content in iTunes or Quicktime.

  • by neainc1,

    neainc1 neainc1 Jun 18, 2012 2:25 PM in response to bablemem
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 18, 2012 2:25 PM in response to bablemem

    How bout this!!! I have a Mac Pro (2008-year 8 core hooked to a 23 inch Apple display with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB) at home that plays HD movies PERFECT!!  I HAVE a Mac Pro (2008-year 4 core hooked to a

    23 inch Apple display with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB) at work that will not play the very same HD movies at all!?!?

     

              I really do not understand it because the two computers are exactly the same, same graphics card same monitor and both computers were bought at the same time!! The only difference is that one is 8 core and one is 4 core! I have tried everything on this and other threads and nothing works! There is no other cable hooked to my 4 core mac at work, but there is everything hooked up to the one at home! I have iphone cables Hard drive cables and etc all hooked in to the one at home and it still plays HD (HDCP) like perfect!  Any Ideas?

     

        SWLE!

  • by aleycat,

    aleycat aleycat Aug 18, 2012 11:49 PM in response to Asatoran
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 18, 2012 11:49 PM in response to Asatoran

    I had this same issue and came here to solve it.  I was just trying to watch something on my computer screen.  software was up to date so I tried restarting my machine and it worked, show started right up.  No idea how or why but I guess its worth a try!

  • by CB00GIE,

    CB00GIE CB00GIE Sep 14, 2012 4:46 PM in response to PrinceofWolves
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 14, 2012 4:46 PM in response to PrinceofWolves

    Thanks PrinceofWolves, you just helped me out with the same issue. (rental playback on macbook air) Short explanation, clear solution. AWESOME! Cheers!

  • by matthewkrieger,

    matthewkrieger matthewkrieger Dec 12, 2012 1:25 PM in response to Asatoran
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 12, 2012 1:25 PM in response to Asatoran

    Asatoran - What if you have a late-model AppleTV and download the same movie, and the AppleTV is connected to an HDTV which doesn't support HDCP?  Won't play?

  • by moodray,

    moodray moodray Mar 28, 2013 12:01 AM in response to bablemem
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 28, 2013 12:01 AM in response to bablemem

    I ran into this problem previously and did some research into how best to deal with Mac's tendency to HDCP-encrypt the signal even when showing a PPT or surfing the Net, just because the Mac was connected to an HDCP-compliant display.

     

    Because I have a matrix switcher which my Mac plugs into, and then on the output side there are BOTH HDCP and non-HDCP displays, I couldn't even view my Word documents on the non-HDCP displays because the Mac was encrypting the signal... 

     

    The answer is to get an EDID Manager V4 from Lightware, which has an HDCP Enable/ Disable feature.  It just tells the Mac that it is not HDCP compliant, and the Mac will not encrypt the signal... Simple!  Of course, if I play a Bluray, or Movies from iTunes, they won't play, but I knew that from the beginning.

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