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HDCP Error on Samsung TV

I called Samsung and they said all of their televisions are HDCP compliant. I have them my model number and everything.


They said the error is from one of the input devices. Is this an Apple TV issue, or could it be one of my cables?

Apple TV, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 3, 2014 10:21 AM

Reply
13 replies

Jan 10, 2017 4:22 AM in response to DoganLink

Hi. My problem is a bit different.

Mine is a Samsung Smart TV from 2014. No way it cannot work with Apple TV 4th generation!.

Basically if I try to see a movie from the App Netflix it works perfect. If I mirror my MacBook Pro it works too. The problem comes up when I try to play in the TV a movie I rented in iTunes. I mean, all what I did so far was to try and plan the trailer of the films in iTunes and the screen becomes grey and I get the error message.

Oct 13, 2017 8:35 PM in response to PBrennan81

I was also experiencing this problem with a Samsung TV ( Model LN40A530P1FXZA ). I did a little bit of troubleshooting and research, the HDMI port 2 on this model TV is a native DVI / HDMI allowing you to use a direct DVI -> HDMI cable without any type of adapter according to the owners manual. While the manual doesn’t direct say that port 2 on the TV doesn’t support HDCP, with a simple swap of my Apple TV HDMI cable from port 2 to port 3 (side facing HDMI port) on the Samsung TV, HDCP content was working just fine from the Apple TV.


I suspect that it is a matter of poor documentation on Samsung’s part not expressing in the owners manual that only ports 1 & 3 support HDCP. The only other thing that the manual really indicates is that a device / cable supporting an HDMI version below 1.3 could cause similar problems. The fact that I’ve had no issues using HDMI port 3 on the display though makes me think that this was not a cable compatibility problem.

Oct 14, 2017 7:30 PM in response to Art Davis

After more problems and troubleshooting today the problem indeed ended up being the HDMI cable. I started having issues on all of the HDMI inputs of my TV so I swapped out the HDMI cable and my Apple TV works on any HDMI port including port two the HDMI/DVI (port 2)which I originally suspected as not supporting HDCP. It must have been complete luck that I was able to get the bad HDMI cable to work yesterday as I changed nothing and couldn’t get it to work this morning until I swapped for the good cable.


To everyone else out there good luck! And the HDMI cable can definitely cause issues so make sure you’re buying decent ones like he Amazon Basics that are rated for the newest HDMI standards vs. the $1.99 generics out on Amazon.

Jan 4, 2014 9:38 AM in response to PBrennan81

I have 5 plus year old Samsung HD TV. I was getting HDCP error message with HDMI cable from Apple TV (ATV) to TV HDMI 2. I turned off and turned on TV and ATV and still got the HDCP error message.


I then turned off ATV and TV and switched cables and connected the ATV HDMI cable to HDMI 1 and it worked not sure if it was the cable or connecting to HDMI 1.

Dec 10, 2015 8:46 AM in response to hitheremartin

I have probably a 2010 Samsung, fairly high end TV. It has had this problem off and on with with Apple TV for many years. With the current software release of my Apple TV (it was the 2nd one that came out), it's a hard down. I get this HDCP error on everything I play on an apple TV now, Apple movies I paid for (it even lets you rent them, then won't play them), Netflix, solid HDCP error. I was building a large movie library (> $500) of my favorite movies on Apple and now I can't play them on my television. I am a software person and I have to say that some low level engineer at Apple made a huge mistake here. My Roku doesn't have this problem and it shows Movies, Netflix, and Amazon. My DVD players don't have this problem and they show Netflix and Amazon content. Apple made some choice here about HDCP compliance that no one else made and it's a huge problem for people that own Samsung televisions. In fact I would say that I've never seen this error on any device except an Apple TV, not once.

Nov 26, 2016 2:35 AM in response to PBrennan81

Just in case a Samsung TV user trying to get an Apple TV 4 to work (eg with netflix) comes by here, this helped me:

Be careful since this might void your TV's warranty eg. if you manipulate other settings.


1) Put TV in standby and connect the Apple TV

2) To open the Service Menu enter this sequence while TV is off: Info - Menu - Mute - Power

3) Now only use up or down! to navigate to "Advanced" but dont press anything

4) Put in: 0 0 0 0 on the numbers

5) Now only use up or down to navigate to "ADJUST" - hit enter

6) Now only use up or down! to navigate to "HDCP Download" - hit enter

7) Use left/right to put it to "On"

8 ) Now to leave the menu power the tv off (standby) and power back on

HDCP Error on Samsung TV

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