Screen mirroring breaks netflix and hulu when active, even when used as an extended monitor and no video is being played on screen

MacWorld wrote about this years ago:

https://www.macworld.com/article/228703/oops-you-cant-play-most-protected-digital-video-on-an-external-mac-monitor.html

Apparently, Mac OS X didn't – and maybe still doesn't – provide a way for most applications to (force use of HDCP DRM / verify the use of HDCP DRM) with external displays. The applications then refuse to play commercial movie or TV content.

Hollywood's obsession with controlling the internal data paths in our computer and entertainment systems, just because we are paying good money to watch their product, is insane.

But then, the encryption scheme on commercial DVD-Video discs only affects customers. It posed absolutely no barriers to the ability of Chinese plants to run off thousands of working counterfeit DVDs at a time … maybe even on the very equipment that ran off authorized discs by day!

Trying to play "MY" DVD movie in "MY" Macbook Pro with "MY" external monitor. It plays 2 seconds before blocking the video with a gray screen while continuing to play the sound - w/ Mac DVD Player, VLC, Quicktime. 2 PROBLEMS:

[1]: Apple does the aforementioned under the incorrect legal assumption that usage of an external monitor violates MPAA / Hollywood's Intellectual Property under the DMCA.

[Edited by Moderator] 

It's not an Apple practice. It's Netflix and others who don't want to allow their media to be streamed if they can't verify their DRM on every connected screen.

You can watch Netflix and Hulu with VLC?

And thanks for the tip that Apple TV works with screen sharing. Now I have something to watch!