Apple TV is not authorized message

Wish I knew Citybreaker. I thought I was getting somewhere there when I had a 'this will play in 2hrs 20mins' message when selecting the film I had rented. However, true to form after about 10mins the usual not authorized message came up!

And you are right Apple tv counts no more to authorized devices than does your ipod or iphone as far as i'm aware. If I am wrong please tell me how I go about authorizing my Apple TV2?

Thanks

James

got the exact same problem - need help.

has anyone got a sign from apple ?!

thnx
ricky

ps: i tried all the above mentioned too. unpair home account. unplug etc. etc.

I also had this issue with my very first rental. So, I tried everything that I could think of, and finally solved it by doing the most simple thing I could think of..

I plugged it into my wall outlet, not my power strip.

BAM. Movie played no issues. Hope this works for some of you!

I have just successfully watched my rental after 24hrs of trying! Not sure what has changed but it now appears to be working. I hope someone is able to provide an explanation for those who still have this issue and in case this happens again.

Good luck.

did not change anything and its working now !

I am also reporting same strange return to normality as others!
I got fed up and moved on to using Utube and internet radio then turned my computer off and back to the Tv for one last try and bingo. It authorised and played.
I put it down to the computer being turned off and perhaps Atv not liking to share router perhaps, also because rental via Atv direct maybe it would help to turn off Homesharing for same reason.
Maybe like a lot of hardware it just needs persistence but not terribly efficient for new kit.
Has Apple been listening in and done something on their servers??
Thanks at least for the support and commiseration everyone.

Good news for me!

Everything now working on my side.

I haven't made any operation and my rental begin mysteriously to work last night without the authorization error message.

Probably a problem on the server side..

As Bon Jovi said : Keep the faith!

I am having the same issue. After spending half the night on-line with Apple support, they acknowledge that this is a bug but don't currently have a solution. I thought that because I was in Canada that it had something to do with IP addresses, but not the case as I see you're from Seattle.

I am going to call support agin to see if there is a resolution but let me know if you should get this resolved.

I also had the same problem where I got the message that I was not authorized to view a rented movie. Everything else worked fine (preview, access to iTunes, Netflix, ...).

In my situation I had a HDMI cable to by Denon amplifier and from there to the TV with the Denon acting as a HDMI switch. I got to thinking that what the error message was trying to tell me was not that it couldn't get authorization from the Web but the AppleTV couldn't get copy protection permission from the TV (HDCP). When I connected the TV directly up to the AppleTV it worked.

If this is in fact what is happening it would be helpful if the error message said something about HDMI and HDCP instead of saying "not authorized".

I have an Apple TV Version1, with a 160 GB hard drive, for about 22 months into which I have downloaded and paid for 72 movies at a cost of $A315.

I have had this message: ' Apple TV is not authorised to play this content. ' This is now the third time it has occurred in the last 6 to 12 months. It appears to occur after Apple upgrade iTunes with a new version. Why it is happening I don't have a clue but it is very frustrating all the same. Last time it happened I was prepared to give the game away and not download anymore movies but our local TV programmes are so woeful most of the time, hence the need to at least choose your movies.

I am currently trying to solve the problem by transferring the movies back to the computer to see if they play on my iMac and if so transfer them back to AppleTV. This solved the problem last time. I have rebooted my Apple TV device several times, but to no avail and de-authorised once and authorised once, still to no avail,as the message still appears.

Apple should address this problem because it is a management/payment issue which I believe it to be.
If it isn't, then they should fix the bug by doing an Apple TV software upgrade, otherwise they can kiss Apple TV goodbye. As home entertainment seems to be the next big promotion this year 2011 they will be behind the eight ball. I would like someone at Apple to reply to this post rather than beet around the bush.

just another 'me also' message.

I'm affected by an Apple TV1 (40GB HDD) which has usually worked ok, today I d/loaded a rental movie on my iMac then transferred to ATV1 via iTunes. very frustrating to be told "Apple TV is not authorized to play this". Whilst trying to do everything, I tested the network speed using the ATV1 menu and it loaded a test file then when it got to the stage of 'uploading the result', I was informed that "AppleTV cannot connect to Apple", so maybe the servers are down or not reachable. using iTunes 10.1.2(17)

As a follow-up to my earlier post. I cannot get my Apple TV1 device to run the two remaining movies I have in my iTunes Library because the message 'Apple TV is not authorised to play this content', is blocking authorisation even though I can run them on my iMac.
I have tried everything I can think of to clear this illegal message from Apple TV. I have once de-authorised and re-authorised my computer, rebooted Apple TV twice, transferred movies from iTunes Library to Apple TV and back twice, and still cannot run these movies on Apple TV. I have checked the software Firewall to ensure that iTunes10.1.2 is included in the check list to 'Allow incoming connections'. I have Snow Leopard Mac OSX 10.6.6 and all software is up to date.
Last time I was able to overcome this non-authorisation problem this way, but not now. Even deleting the movies from iTunes Library and downloading them again, doesn't help.
The iTunes Store Support Team don't even know how to correct this system bug. I now cannot even view Trailers, Flicker or YouTube on my Apple TV device which I could do in the past. The message in these cases is 'No available content, try again.' I have entered usernames and passwords for each of these internet content but to no avail.
Can anybody out there, including experienced Apple personnel offer, any viable suggestions because I am about to give up Apple TV and go make to renting DVD's from the local video/DVD shop.

At last I have had someone from Apple Support in Australia who have helped me solve the problem of non-authorisation of Apple TV.
For those of you that still cannot get passed the message: 'Apple TV is not authorised to pay this content' as I have had, the problem is that if you reboot your Apple TV by disconnection the power lead to the Apple TV device, you have to sign on again.
This is how it is done- re-enter your Apple ID and Password under Settings >General, then click 'Done', and finally go to Settings> Network and under location, click on the words 'Sign On' .This changes to the words to ' Sign Out' but you wireless network name appears and all the data will be listed there in.
This was the last step which I failed to do for Apple TV to be authorised to play this content.
Simple, but logical and necessary.
Finally, check back under iTunes top menu, under 'Store' and click on 'Authorise this computer', entry your Apple ID and password, then check on 'My Account' to see if that is so, and all should be working as it did before you had the problem.
Go to Apple Support on this website for help if you cannot fix it- http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html
Good luck and enjoy your movie downloads.