iTunes movie purchases will not play on external display - HDCP auth error

Nothing really worked for me... And yes, it is REALLY FRUSTRATING.

All I wanted was to watch a movie I bought LEGALLY in HD on my HD projector, instead of a small MacBook pro screen. And I couldn't.

This is the stupidest thing entertainment industry can do right now - is to alienate people who want to purchase their products legally and push them into illegal downloads, just so the content can be viewed in home theater systems. So ugly.

Apple seems to be getting rotten.

I bought my kids the new IPAD with all the connectors, pretty hefty investment. I gave them their Itunes account so they can buy their own stuff including movies. Last night they hooked their Ipad to the tv via the HDMI cable to watch the movie bought via ITUNES and this BS of a message pops upon the screen not allowing them to see the movie.

Steve Jobs must be flipping in his grave knowing how fools are ruining Apple, maps that don't work, inability to have apple customers merge their apple account, lack of innovation and now this!

No wonder Apple stock is stumbling!

Steve Jobs wanted the customer to have a seamless gadget, it seems that Apple is moving to be like Microsoft!

It just "doesn't work"

Never thought I would have to say this about the products which are dear to me.

When I wanted to see a film I bought on iTunes, I got the same pop-up. For me this is like the Microsoft pop-up: "No keyboard attached, press any key". Why would I not be able to watch a film I bought on a device that works fine for all the other content I have? Thechnical problem? NO. Could it be that Apple is affraid I would show it to more people than ''the family'? I wanted to see it with my kids! So NO. (And even if I would want to show it to my whole neighborhood, what gives a company the right to prevent me from committing a crime?)

There can only be other reasons why Apple prevents me from watching a film via my Beamer. Whatever they are, these reasons are not Apple-like.

Could you please act the way you tell people you do, and make products and offer software and services that just work? If not, you may win some battles, but you will lose the war! This is the most important thing that differs you from all the others. What would be the main argument for convincing people to buy a Mac, if it stops doing that?

Cupertino: thinking different again ... and turn off those photocopiers!

CarlPas,

I'm not sure about the iPad, but I had this issue on my Mac. I could not even view my own DVD through a projector.

Solution: Use VLC.app and everything "just works". It's a free app I believe, or else dirt cheap.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

On the iPad I see VLC Streamer Free and three other VLC products that might help. I don't use my iPad for purchased movies much.

I've used VLC for things that are difficult, but alas - the video portion of the latest HD film I bought on iTunes - simply refused to show up in VLC. I think they might have finally gotten to VLC as well... Unless I am missing something... I will try upgrading VLC and trying again... But I have a grave feeling about this.

I did have an older version of VLC. Installing the newest update to try again. Don't have a way to connect to an external monitor (which would be the real test, wouldn't it?). But if it at least plays - it might be some indication of progress. I'll let you know in a bit.

NOPE.

Still doesn't work. No video track. It sees a timeline but refuses to show any video.
I can click "fulll screen", it stays selected as clicked, but I see nothing but my desktop and Vimeo controls.

ALAS

Ugh. Sorry...that was my only thought.

What OS version are you on?

And what iTunes version do you have?

Guys I had the same problem as all of you. I posted multiple times here.

Episodes I had bought in HD like Lost and movies like the lord of the rings never worked. I had lost hope.

The one day I got an update from this thread and it said the solution was to have:

-the latest version of mountain lion

-the latest verison of itunes 11

I couldn't believe it would be that simple, so obviously I wasn't going to purchase HD content to test this out, I just re-downloaded one of my previous purchases that didn't work and played it back. Magically it worked!

So please try this method!

Good luck

I have 10.8.2 Mountain Lion

I now have the latest iTunes as well 10.0.1

When I was trying this, I think I had 10.0.0

I'll try again in my current state when I get a chance to connect to an external display. But I am kind of dubious for one reason or another.
But - I will definitely try, and let you guys know how this behaves.

I think updating all your software, as suggted above, works. However, I just want to say that although this is very annoying and Apple should not have allowed this to happen, I think there is a very good reason why every HD purchase comes with an SD version as well--so that if you hook up a display that doesn't work with the HD version, you always have the SD version that WILL play. So everyone who is complaining that they can't watch their content at all is wrong, you can watch everything you just have to be willing to watch the SD version instead. I agree...that isn't ideal, especially if you have a large screen, but at least that is a decent solution in my opinion, or until you upgrade to the latest version of iTunes and Mountain Lion.

@Fan4bronco - the only reason I bought an HD version however was to watch it on my HD projector, not on my small computer screen.

It makes no sense at all that HD content would be assumed to look best on your small computer screen?

I had the same problem. Thought I woluld do the right thing instead of going to BitTorrent. Lesson learned.

Where is the SD version? If it's the 720 version, that doesn't work either.