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

I have the solution to this problem. I had this very same problem and went 'round and 'round with Apple to no avail. Those guys didn’t have a clue what the problem was. Since I am in IT, and they couldn't give me an answer, I had to figure it out on my own, and when I did, I emailed Apple so that they could provide the solution to others with the same problem, which is clear they did not do.

I have a pc with an HD graphics card, an HD compatible TV and an HD compatible audio receiver for surround sound. They are all connected. All of these items are HDCP compatible, so purchasing HD movies is allowed on itunes and should work. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't which was critical to finding out the solution.

What I found on Apple's site, is an explanation of this, sort of. What is says is that it must be HDCP compatible CHAIN, which means all of your HD components must be connected to each other, AND TURNED ON in order to purchase and play HD movies. The trick is in the word "chain". If all your devices are connected, but one of them is turne off, apple can't verify the HDCP CHAIN is present, and won't allow you to purchase or play HD movies. A few times when I tried to purchase HD movies, my reciever was off, thereby breaking the HDCP chain, and apple would not allow the purchase.

So, when you go to buy an HD movie, make sure that all the HD devices connected to the device upon which you're ordering the movie are TURNED ON, even if you don't need them at the time you're placing the order. Ditto for playing HD movies.

It's too bad that Apple isn't smart enough to figure this stuff out, and even when a user provides them with the answer, they still don't provide that to the other users that are asking for help.

Good Luck, I hope this helps some of you.

Dam, that really *****. I've got to hang on the my 3 DVI enabled Macs. I use the external display port extensively and what is the use of those ports if you can't play your content on it. I yelled and yelled when my ATV didn't like playing HDCP content over my HDMI

I don't understand... I own the TV. I own the receiver. I own the Macbook. I rented the movie with my own credit card.

Why can't I play rented movies on my TV anymore? So long, iTunes?

ejmon86 wrote:

I don't understand...

I don't either.

Are you having a problem?

I have had this problem twice, with my 2012 Mac mini connected to a Sharp HD TV via HDMI.

The first time around an upgrade from Mountain Lion to Mavericks killed iTunes HD content from displaying on my TV screen. 40Rock's post solved my problem. I used the HDMI to thunderbolt adapter, and the itunes HD video display returned to normal again.

The second time this problem occurred, was when I accessed my mac mini from another mac on my wifi network using Back to my Mac screen sharing. After that itunes movies on my mac mini went grey again on my TV display. Following some troubleshooting, I finally disconnected my other networked mac from my mac mini, and also turned off screen sharing on the mac mini itself, to make sure my TV was the only display connecting to the mac mini. All is back to normal again and iTunes HD movies display fine.

Thinkmacs wrote:

...when I accessed my mac mini from another mac on my wifi network using Back to my Mac screen sharing. After that itunes movies on my mac mini went grey again on my TV display.

Thank you! I don'teven have a keyboard/mouse hooked up to the Mac Mini I use as a HTPC as I always use ScreenSharing to control it. Your post made me able to watch content I had paid for - thanks!

Just bought HOMELAND Series 3 on iTunes... I wasn't sure about downloading, but went for it anyway. Then when trying to watch it on Apple Tv I get this message pop up in iTunes:

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

Try moving the iTunes window to a different display. Make sure the entire window is on the supported display."

WHAT ON EARTH?! I've just PAID £25 to watch this.... and now I can't even view it (using Mirroring) on my Apple TV?! APPLE R U HAVING A LAUGH??!???! Gonna have to search online now to watch the program I've just paid for! What a joke.

I think to stop alienating customers Apple could do ONE SIMPLE THING:

WARN US, BEFORE WE PURCHASE MEDIA.
Warn us that we need SPECIFIC TYPES OF DISPLAYS AND CABLES to play it.

That would at least be somewhat fair.

ABSOLUTELY! Couldn't agree with you more. A warning is the least they could do. But what they should do is fix it.

Tracks used to be DRM protected. They sorted that out. Now it's time for Apple to sort this out too.

Just had this same experience. My 2010 Mac Pro with ATI Radeon 5870 GCU with Mavericks 10.9.2 connected to my 30" Apple Cinema Display could not play an HD Mad Men file from iTunes, but it could play an older Six Feet Under iTunes episode that wasn't HD. My Wacom Cintiq 24HD plays HD iTunes files from my Mac, so I took the 30" Cinema down, since I already do my work on the Cintiq and only wanted the Cinema as a good video monitor. It seems counter intuitive that an Apple-branded product, and a very expensive one at that, does not interact with another Apple product, while a non-apple product does. The Cinema display plays HD YouTube videos with no trouble.

I don't understand why so much time has passed since this issue was originally posted and it hasn't been fixed. It doesn't show any concern for customer satisfaction on Apple's part. When I wrote to iTunes customer service, I told them what hardware I was using, but they made no mention of their product incompatibility. After disconnecting the Cinema display the HD iTunes file plays properly. I tried connecting the Cinema via mini display port adapter and disconnecting the Cintiq, as well as turning mirroring on and off, changing resolution, etc., but nothing worked except disconnecting the 30" Cinema. The Cintiq plays via mini port or DVI.

Do you have screen sharing turned on? If yes try to un-check that.

I just had this same issue. I travel a lot and noticed a while back that sometimes I could watch them and sometimes I couldn't. I use a MacBook Pro with an HDMI cable to the tv. I usually mirror the displays but something told me to tell the video settings to extend the monitor instead. And what do you know? I can watch all my HD content!! Hope that helps someone!

-Lou

Hi Everyone,

This is a pretty easy fix. Don't buy anymore movies or TV shows on iTunes. Go to Amazon Instant Video - it's easy, works great, has a way bigger catalog and it is usually cheaper.

C

Once again DRM steps in to not stop pirating but to confuse and frustate the consumer. I love my imac and it's a wonderful edition to my system... but I wish Inception would play on my very expensive HD projector. Thanks. A. Lot.

Same problem here.

Wanted to watch a rented movie stored on an iPad on the beamer.

How disappointing!!

Michael