Blank white screen attempting to play itunes purchased content

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Blank white screen attempting to play itunes purchased content

Allright, so yesterday I bought an Apple TV and attempted to get it working. I had many issues syncing, and received a number of message regarding port 3689 not being open. However, after I reset the Apple TV and did a factory reset, I managed to get some movies on it. They are movies that I converted myself, and they play fine. Besides the problems syncing (which I'm assuming will resurface), I am having trouble with my TV shows that I've purchased from itunes. When I go to play them on the Apple TV, they look like they are going to play, but all that shows up is a blank white screen. I haven't purchased any movies from itunes, so I cannot say for sure that it is all purchased content, or just TV shows. Is this problem related to my syncing issues? Or perhaps HDCP? I was under the impression that if my TV wasn't HDCP compliant, I would receive an error message. Not to mention that the TV IS HDCP compliant in the first place. I have a Mac Pro and an AirPort Extreme. The Mac Pro is connected to the AirPort via Ethernet, and I am currently creating an n-only wireless network at 5ghz (though I've tried it with other settings... it had the same issues).

I've been googling all night to try to find a fix, and it's getting pretty frustrating, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Mac Pro (January 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Mar 21, 2008 6:38 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 21, 2008 7:00 AM in response to wkf

I have exactly the same problem. ***? None, NOT ONE, of the movies or TV shows or Music Videos I've purchased over the years on my Mac (including yesterday) will stream-play on a brand-new Apple TV, just a white screen with no sound and the playhead moving along happily, or a message that says the video is in an un-recognized format. All play fine on my Macs and iPhone. As an experiment, I re-purchased one of the TV shows directly through the Apple TV and it plays OK.

As I understand it, the white-screen is a typical symptom of Quicktime not having the correct codec for the video. How is it possible that Apple TV, which contains a Mac internally as far as I know, does not have the codecs that Apple is using to encode the videos it's selling to me on iTunes? They are even on the iPhone, for heavens-sake.

Please someone tell me I just need to flip a hidden checkbox somewhere. This essentially makes the thing useless - the main reason I got it was to be able to view all the content in my existing library.

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Answer 2

StoneDev

Level 1

4 points

Mar 21, 2008 9:59 AM in response to wkf

I'm having the same exact issue, as well as my iTunes purchased Audio won't play. It tells me that Apple TV cannot play song, but I am logged in to my Apple ID on Apple TV.

Dissapointing and frustrating.

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Answer 3

JimmyET

Level 1

0 points

Mar 21, 2008 10:10 AM in response to wkf

I am having exactly the same problem. Any purchased content from iTunes - music or tv shows will not play on my brand new apple TV. TV shows display a blank white screen, and music gives a 'Apple TV cannot play the current song' message. Really annoying. I have tried all the suggestions on the apple support page - resetting apple tv, recreating iTunes library and nothing works. Interestingly if I try and stream from iTunes to apple Tv (set the box in the bottom corner of itunes to apple tv) I can play purchased music.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Answer 4

JimmyET

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Mar 21, 2008 10:36 AM in response to JimmyET

OK - I have just got mine to work - went into appleTV and tried to purchase a tv show. Got a message that my billing info had changed - went to itunes and updated it - and purchased a tv show ok. Then tried protected music again and it was working. So it may be if your billing info has changed and you havent updated it then you cant play protected content that you have already purchased on Apple TV? That would be really poor if it was true!

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Answer 5

Mar 21, 2008 11:06 AM in response to JimmyET

I bought mine last night from the Apple store here in San Francisco. After setting it up I tried playing songs and videos that i've purchased from iTunes, but all I got was a message when trying to play songs. When I tried to play my videos all I kept getting was a white screen. I'm very dissapointed with the product, and it doesn't make sense since it all works properly on my video ipod, touch and Shuffle. I don't think is a billing issue being that it all works properly on my computer. I did some research and found out that a lot of people have been having the same issues since the software update was released.

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Answer 6

Mar 21, 2008 1:43 PM in response to wkf

Same problem here, and for some reason, as reported by somebody else, after buying one new video things seem to be OK.

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Answer 7

wkf Author

Level 1

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Mar 21, 2008 4:02 PM in response to wkf

Seems like downloading a TV show directly on the apple TV fixes the problem, at least for me. However, renting a movie didn't... has to be a download. Thanks for replies!

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Answer 8

Mar 21, 2008 4:39 PM in response to wkf

I have the sane white screen. I moved the Apple TV from the bedroom to the family room and changed from component to HDMI. Now I get the white screen when trying to play purchased videos. I wonder if it is related to copy protection on the HDMI? It played everything OK with component cables.

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Answer 9

Dapoki

Level 1

4 points

Mar 21, 2008 8:30 PM in response to wkf

Downloading a show directly to the Apple TV worked for me, too. However, downloading a show to iTunes on my computer did not fix the problem. There was no billing information for me to update.

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Answer 10

StoneDev

Level 1

4 points

Mar 21, 2008 8:30 PM in response to wkf

Happy Dance!! I purchased a TV Show and it solved everything. I like the product... now, but what a pain all around, with very little direction. Thank goodness for forums like this. What a nice way to outsource your support to you customers! If it helps anyone, this is what I went through to gt everything working across a wireless AirPort Extreme network (iMac source):

1. Followed instruction out of the box, connected to network fine, established connection to iTunes fine, set up sync fine
2. Couldn't play any purchased content on ATV (unauthorized), logged in about 5 times on ATV, which is a PITA, no luck
3. Unplugged ATV, plugged back in, login in was successful
4. White screen on video, couldn't play purchased music
5. Purchased TV episode, everything played fine

Between steps 4 & 5 I also unnecessarily did the following over the course of a day:
1. Reset ATV
2. Reset ATV to factory
3. Removed ATV from iTunes
4. Deauthorized/reauthorized Tunes
5. Changes every video setting thinking that it was my TV, as Apple would never release a buggy product in the market

Anyway, thanks for the hints, as now I'm liking this little piece of gear.

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Answer 11

Mar 21, 2008 8:46 PM in response to wkf

I had this same issue occur today. I did a factory restore, re-ran the update, re-paired to iTunes, and things are working fine now. I really like the Take 2 features, but I hope these little flaws don't continue to pop up.

http://www.mcmahonweb.com/?p=33

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Answer 12

Mar 21, 2008 9:06 PM in response to Shannon Mcmahon2

Three Macs connected to the network; same problem.

Except... all content on the first Mac I setup plays fine.

White screen when attempting to play content from two other Macs on the network.

Why?

Tried powering down the Apple TV; no joy.
Tried powering down and restarting the two Macs with content that won't play; no joy.
All updates downloaded and applied; no joy.

Help.

Somebody.

Please.

Private Idaho

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Answer 13

Mar 21, 2008 9:11 PM in response to Private Idaho

Did you try to do a restore of the apple TV?

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Answer 14

Mar 22, 2008 11:07 AM in response to wkf

I also had the White Screen of Death for iTunes-purchased content after I first bought my AppleTV.

I de-authorized the computer it was syncing with, then re-authorized, and it all started working.

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Answer 15

Mar 22, 2008 11:31 AM in response to Shannon Mcmahon2

I did a reset to the "*factory settings*" and then I re-downloaded all of the software updates for the Apple TV.

Now it's all working.

Private Idaho

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