selected movie won't play

Thanks to gmv9146 - worked for me!

Hey everyone,

I just discovered that iTunes 11.0.3 seems not to play HD movies if they are started from the Music view's playlists. When I selected HD movies in my "Recently Added" playlist of the "Music" view, I immediately got the dialog saying "The selected movie won't play on your display." The display, however, is the display of my 27'' iMac (Mid 2011).

It took me some time to find out that the problem seems to be the view and that the movies could be successfully started from the "Movies" view.

I'm writing this because I searched this forum to find an answer for my problem with iTunes not playing my HD movies, anymore.

Maybe this can be of any help for other users.

Tony MacG's solution (gfxCardStatus app) worked for me! Simple, free =)

Unfortunately, this did not work for me. I have a MacBook Air (mid 2012) with an i7 processor and 8 GB of RAM, so it has plenty of power and it is connected to a 23" Apple Cinema Display with 1900x1200 resolution so it is capable of playing HD movies, and it has in the past.

So I called AppleCare and here is what I was told: Some newer movies have a copy protection scheme that will not allow them to be played on older Apple displays. What a bummer. I tried playing an older movie I purchased from iTunes and is plays fine on the Apple display, but not the movie I just rented.

Apple should fix this. Why should they change the method of copy protection so that it will no longer work on their very expensive displays?

This is what DRM ("Digital Rights Management") is. Its not a problem with your display, its not that your machine isn't powerful enough. Its just DRM being DRM. In order to prevent people from pirating the movie, they (usually inadvertantly) prevent paying customers from viewing it or other wise make it a hassle for them. In this case, its likely either a bug in the DRM management, or you're device can't be properly authorized (e.g. not HDCP compatible) - which would help them be "sure you are not pirating it". This happened to me previously while trying to watch a show while downloading it. Oddly, after it finished downloading, I was able to watch it just fine on "said display."

DRM is a pain - that's why Steve Jobs was not in favor of it - it typically punishes legitmate customers rather than priates (who would just pirate the movie and not deal with all this crap in the first place).

Try a different display. Try waiting for the movie to finish downloading. Try using a different type of connection if possible (maybe you have an HDMI port available, etc).

Most importantly, be sure to complain about it. Its the only way this garbage will be fixed.

I get this same problem on a brand new MBA with fully updated software (Mavericks and iTunes). It will still play the movie but if I pause the movie and come back to it, I get this error message and have to get out of the movie and start it again. It's just annoying to get a repetitive error message.

Thanks to all who've posted on this. I've tried everything but the extension - I'll try to find it, but for the moment I sent a cross note to the to the apparent black hole that is Apple's "Help Feedback Form"

I just bought a new external monitor and I wanted to watch the movie I rented on iTunes. I keep getting that darn error message. I really resent the feeling that I'm being treated like a thief when I did everything on the up and up. Grr.

I have the same problem. I bought "This is the end" on itunes to watch on my macbook.

I also get the

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

error message.

THIS IS NOT OUR PROBLEM!!!!

we bought it, we legally own it and now we can´t watch it????

I have literally spent thousands on legal downloads of videos and music... respecting the copyright etc. but seriously. this is ******* me off to no extent. i payed for it i want to watch it. period. apple SOLVE THIS!!!!

we shouldn´t even be discussing hacks here.

cheers

an extremely ****** off itunes customer.

This whole HDCP issue is just utterly ridiculous. Itunes will not play any movie I have now period. I have tried it on my two monitors as well as my new samsung LED 3d tv and it still shows the same message....... " This movie can be played only on displays that support HDCP. Try moving Itunes to a different display. Make sure the entire window is on the supported display" blah blah blah. This is driving me nuts. Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this ASAP?? I have a few movies I just purchased and so far it looks like I just wasted my money on useless movies that refuse to play. Of course they will work just on my macbook pro, but the whole point is to watch a movie I purchased on a LARGER MONITOR! If anyone has any idea on how to remedy this please share because this is beyond frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel your pain Bankbeat. I have also been receiving the error message of movie-night doom: "The selected movie won't play on your Display, This movie can only be played on displays that support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)."

When I found this forum, and saw that other people had figured out how to deal with this problem, I felt a bit of relief. However, I don't know if it's because I'm using a projector (via the mini display port to HDMI), or what the deal is, but I wasn't as lucky as those folks.

I feel like I tried everything. I downloaded the GPU switching app (and changed to integrated), I tried opening iTunes in 32bit, and I tried changing the playback preferred video version to standard definition. I tried following Apple's advice (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3209), but there was no SD version I the movie I purchased available for to download in my purchased section. So unfortunately for myself, none of the solutions that worked for others worked for me. Bummer. I emailed support in hopes to atleast get a refund for the movie. Who knows what will happen. In the meantime, if someone else has a different solution other than what I found here so far, please let me (us) know!

Thanks!

Hey urbanrose,

I had problems with using a projector as well. The projector was connected via mini-displayport -> HDMI, too.

I was able to "solve" (rather: workaround) the problem by starting the movie on the internal display of my Macbook / iMac (Thunderbolt port) , pausing the movie, moving the iTunes window over to the projector's screen and then clicking "play" again.

However, that was on Mountain Lion, I believe. With Mavericks and iTunes 11 I didn't have that problem, so far.

Maybe this can give a hint.

I just lost an hour of my life to this problem as well. The film would not even play on my MacBook Air at all - just the sound, let alone the plasma attached by AirPlay. Apple Support was not helpful. They have such absurd suggestions as buying an Apple-brand HDMI cable as a solution. Another absurd suggestion was upgrading the firmware on my TV despite the fact that the problem is clearly specific to ITunes and Apple TV. In the end one of two things seemed to help. First, the entire movie has to download before playing. (So much for instant access.) Second, power off the TV and Apple TV, unplug the HDMI cable, and plug it back in again. I think the first was more important than the second but I did them together so I can't tell for sure.

The best solution I have found over all is to use Amazon. The resolution is not as good using AirPlay but at least the films play with more reliability than iTunes and they are cheaper.

This is absurd...I am using a new $6K Mac Pro, with two of the nicest monitors Apple has ever made (north of a $1000 each), the 30inch cinema displays, I can edit multiple streams of 4K in real time without rendering but now I can't watch things I have bought and downloaded from iTunes because I havent upgraded monitors? I don't even really like the new glossy monitors...they are way too reflective.

Are you serious. Apple....this is ridiculous. Fix this. Don't make your good paying customers stoop to getting pirating software to reencode and reimport their itunes libraries just so they can play it on their computers.

I have already paid to much to be dealing with stupidity like this...both for the computer and the content.

Fix it. Please.

I've had it with Apple. I've bought Macs for the past 12 years, after converting from PC, but I'm going back. Apple's attitude toward its loyal customers is unacceptable, and disappointing.

I have ALL Apple hardware and software, and yet I still cannot play digital media files I purchased on Apple's own iTunes website. This is ridiculous, as others have already pointed out.

These types of problems go back several years, and clearly there is no sense of urgency to fix the issue. Apple has grown in arrogance, and I'm sick of it. PC user experience has improved immensly, and the margin of excellence is no longer so great. Apple hardware and software is still, without a doubt, superior to those offered on PC platforms, but not enough to justify this type of nonsense.

I'll begrudgingly say that this issue is the last straw. I'm finished with Apple products.

I totally agree with Robert Haberzeth, we should not even worry to find a way to work around the problem, Apple must fix it period.

Apple products are great,

<Edited by Host>