New M5 Macbook Pro can't play hulu.com

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Level 1

18 points

New M5 Macbook Pro can't play hulu.com

I have Hulu Plus Live TV, and have been using my ancient 2015 Macbook Pro as a client for a year, with both Firefox and Chrome (I have never used Safari). It's older than dirt, but it has always Just Worked.

I *just* migrated overnight to a shiny new M5 Macbook Pro, which looks to have updated both Firefox and Chrome. I tried to spin up hulu.com on various browsers, and all looks normal until I try to watch a recording. Firefox shows me an image that refreshes every minute or two, and I hear normal sound. Chrome, Safari and the "Friendly Streaming Browser" (I saw someone suggest it somewhere) show me a black screen with normal sound. Live TV is about the same - Firefox shows me new images every so often, while other browsers show a blank inset or screen.

A reddit user asked about screen recording. DisplayLink Manager is enabled for Screen & System Audio Recording. If I disable it, I lose my external monitors connected to my Wavlink dock. But it does get video back to normal.

MacBook Pro (M5, 2025)

Posted on Dec 24, 2025 11:18 AM

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Answer 1

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rthurlow Author

Level 1

18 points

Dec 25, 2025 6:20 AM in response to Tesserax

So a Redditor suggested I try disabling hardware acceleration in my browser, per a DisplayLink note:

https://support.displaylink.com/knowledgebase/articles/830301-content-protected-video-does-not-play-on-mac-while

Doing this in Chrome does fix the issue for me on my current setup.

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,670 points

Dec 24, 2025 11:35 AM in response to rthurlow

What I believe you’re running into is a DRM (content protection) issue related to DisplayLink. Hulu (especially Live TV and recordings) uses strict DRM, and when macOS reports that screen or system audio recording is enabled, the video stream is intentionally blocked. That’s why you get audio but either a black screen or frozen images. Your older 2015 Mac likely didn’t enforce this as strictly, but newer Apple Silicon Macs do.

DisplayLink Manager requires Screen & System Audio Recording permissions to drive external monitors, which unfortunately trips Hulu’s DRM. When you disable DisplayLink, Hulu works again — confirming this is the root cause. At the moment, Hulu does not provide an exception or workaround for DisplayLink-based docks.

With that said, your basic options are:

Use the built-in MacBook display (or a non-DisplayLink dock) when watching Hulu.
Connect external monitors via native Thunderbolt/HDMI instead of DisplayLink.
Keep DisplayLink enabled for work, and temporarily disable it only when watching Hulu.

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Answer 3

rthurlow Author

Level 1

18 points

Dec 24, 2025 7:03 PM in response to Tesserax

That sounds plausible. A disappointment is that I have the same problems on the built-in Macbook display when Screen & System Audio Recording is granted.

I use DisplayPort to connect the external monitors, so I guess a USB-to-DisplayPort adapter and chaining them could work, and it's slightly possible I could use a dock USB port for that. But I expect I just need to find a better dock.

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Answer 4

Dec 24, 2025 10:36 PM in response to rthurlow

rthurlow wrote:

DisplayLink Manager is enabled for Screen & System Audio Recording. If I disable it, I lose my external monitors connected to my Wavlink dock. But it does get video back to normal.

One of the disadvantages of the DisplayLink workaround is that when some DRM-infested streaming services see that you are using it, they deliberately black out video.

Your M5 MacBook Pro can drive up to two external displays, at the same time as the built-in display, without use of DisplayLink or other such workarounds.

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Answer 5

Dec 24, 2025 10:39 PM in response to rthurlow

rthurlow wrote:

I use DisplayPort to connect the external monitors, so I guess a USB-to-DisplayPort adapter and chaining them could work, and it's slightly possible I could use a dock USB port for that. But I expect I just need to find a better dock.

Macs do not support DisplayPort MST daisy-chaining or the equivalent. If you want to connect two displays via a single dock, hub, or dual-display adapter, it will need to be a Thunderbolt one. Not a dime-a-dozen USB-C one.

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Answer 6

rthurlow Author

Level 1

18 points

Dec 25, 2025 6:21 AM in response to Servant of Cats

Understood about proper Thunderbolt. If I can find a dock with the right connections, I will upgrade.

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Answer 7

Dec 25, 2025 6:32 AM in response to rthurlow

You could take a look at the offerings from

All three are long-time suppliers of Thunderbolt equipment for Macs.

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