Your Apple TV is not authorized to play this content

MCOJFKflyguy -- I also would like to think that there's some benevolent watcher who is already working hard to fix this, but this experience is so unlike any of the many other Apple products I've used that I'm not sure I want to go past my 14 day 'get out of jail free' pass.

What's amazing to me is that what we seem to be experiencing is so fundamental to the concept of the ATV that if everyone were having these problems (& other threads on this forum don't show it), it would be all over the various Apple-related sites (Macworld, Appleinsider, etc.). And, the fact that Apple makes it almost impossible to get tech support, doesn't contribute to confidence.

I'm thinking this is all related to encryption on the wireless network. To sum up the issues I'm having (which I initially thought were unrelated, because I started several threads on this forum): Cannot play any content purchased from the Apple Store on the ATV, though it plays fine on my computer; cannot log into Apple Store via ATV; cannot play OR log into YouTube on the ATV.

I may try to go into Seattle next week to the 'Genius Bar' & see if they can get it working, though they will be on a different network than I have here. If it won't work, I'll return it. I don't really have time to do this, but I don't want to be stuck with a $300+ coffee mug warmer.

Actually, all it would take at this point would be an acknowledgement on the ATV Support page that there are known issues that are being worked on. But Apple's record on transparent communications isn't real good.

Randy,

If misery loves company then I'm a happy guy! I've been working on this problem for 2 weeks and I seem to be in the same exact position as you.

Can see all of the purchased content.
Can't play it.
Can't view Youtube content at all.

Losing my patience. I'm guessing it has to be a network setting somewhere because the You tube message comes back so fast, it can't possibly be connecting to the server.

OK, I just came back from the MacRumors forum & there was a similar thread there. I cobbled together some suggestions from there that were similar to what we've been discussing here, but with a couple of twists. IT'S NOW WORKING 100%!

I can play songs & movies purchsed from the Apple Store, I can log into the Apple Store from the ATV & I can play YouTube videos just fine!

Here's what I did, in the precise order:

1. Reset my Airport Extreme network to 'no security' (no password)

2. Logged into the Apple Store in iTunes on my Macbook pro (the main streaming machine for the ATV)

3. Pressed & held Menu & '-' on the ATV remote for 5 secs to reboot & enter diagnostic mode.

4. Ran the diagnostics to make sure all was OK with the unit. it was.

5. Rebooted.

6. Everything worked fine. All issues including playing purchased TV shows & songs, logging into the Apple Store from ATV, playing Youtube, all worked.

7. Reset my network password (WPA2, by the way). Retyped into ATV. All still works.

I had done several of these things, many times before, but not in this order.

Hope this helps someone else!

I ran a diagnostic but it didn't fix the problem.

However, I don't have any problems with YouTube content.

One thing I did notice is that the tracks I cannot play are protected AAC files whereas the ones that do play are simply purchased AAC files. Wonder if that's the issue here.

Message was edited by: Julian Roche1

One common thing I'm seeing in this & other threads is that once you're able to login to the iTunes Store, even if you've plugged the ATV in or taken it to another network (like the Apple Store [physical one], all the problems disappear. Why this is so, I don't know but points to a quirk in the Apple authentication process.

Another thing to check is your DHCP server's assigning of IP addresses. At one point I got a message on my desktop unit (I use my MacBook Pro to stream/sync content to the ATV) from my wired router that a particular IP address was taken. I didn't see this until later, so I don't know if it was from when I rebooted the ATV or my laptop. It's just a suggestion of an area to explore.

It shouldn't be this hard. I'm noticing most people, like myself, have Apple wireless networks, so one should expect Apple equipment to play nicely with each other.

Things are still working fine now -- we even watch an HD movie last night w/no hitches. But I'm still holding my breath -- I sure don't want to have to go through this again if there's a software update, power outage, etc.

FYI, I did notice that someone else had success when they exchanged their ATV at the store for a new one. The new one logged on the first time.

Good luck!

Message was edited by: Randy Green

Something in 2.01 must have broken the authentication process, because I have not had any issues like this.

Anyway, followed most of steps here, including compete reloads of the software with no progress. What finally worked for me was to buy iTMS content via the ATV, which seemed to force some sort of authorization.
- On one ATV, I repeatedly kept trying to rent/authorize the same movie (admittedly out of frustration), the authorization failed a couple of times, then went through, after which all the content from my iMac sync-ed without complaints
- On the second ATV, I got a bit smarter: I purchased a song via ATV, then I went to my iMac and, in iTunes, sync-ed the content from the ATV to back to iTunes. At that point, content from my iMac started to sync with ATV without complaint

Hope this helps,

Omar

Just an update -- I'm still (so far) able to log into the Apple Store as well as play purchased albums/movies etc. I don't know if something will break this later on.

A common thread here seems to be that once you can log onto the Apple Store via ATV, everything begins to work. But why it's so difficult for people to do this login is beyond me. As I mentioned in my post, above, when I followed those precise step, I was able to finally log in. Why it's not working for others is a mystery.

If I were still having these problems, I think I would take the unit back to Apple and demand a replacement. I've seen in a couple of other threads here & elsewhere that that worked -- a different unit didn't have the same issues.

I noticed at one point that although I had the ATV checked to sync everything automatically, it didn't either. So I went & checked it to sync manually & then checked everything I wanted it to. It seems to have synced everything now.

I just purchased Apple TV and I must say that I do not have any problems playing authorized content. I have noticed that most of you having issues have wireless networks. I run ATV via a wired network, have any of you attempted to setup ATV via wired network?
If you can set it up via wired network succesfully and get it working properly, switch to wireless after that. It almost seems the issue lies with the wireless encryption or wireless HW within ATV. I chose not to use wireless in my setup due to the number of laptops in our household constantly bogging down the signal.
Good luck..

Might be a good idea, but in my case, my cable internet comes into my office, about 50 feet from the house. I rely on wireless to get it over to the house where my TV is, so it wasn't practical for me.

Still, even if that works, it's still a major bug in the ATV concept. It shouldn't be this difficult!

The geek in me really would like to see this solved, even though I'm no longer having the issue!