HDCP error suddenly on any display

Question

HDCP error suddenly on any display

Hello community,

totday I tried to watch a HD TV-episode bought from the iTunes Store on my Thunderbolt 24" LED Cinema Display, but all I got was an HDCP error. Also on the built-in screen of my MacBook Pro (2011) - same error! This is so most frustrating! Tried restarting, SMC reset, NVRAM reset, deauthorize, authorize - no effect at all, same HDCP error. Clueless now...

I can't understand this, I never had any problem with HD-rentals or purchases at all. This worked so many times before, the last time was around June '14. What did change in the meantime? What am I missing? Is there a solution?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Werner

MBP (early 2011), 24" LED Cinema Display, OS X 10.9.4, iTunes 11.3.1

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Aug 11, 2014 3:53 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

joe_73

Level 3

705 points

Aug 13, 2014 7:43 AM in response to Werner Goldbach

Hi Werner Goldbach,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

This issues sounds very frustrating. Is the issue isolated to this one HD episode or do your other HD movies and TV shows have the same issue? If the TV episode was purchased, I would suggest deleting it and downloading it fresh and test. If the issue continues it may be necessary to report a problem with it to iTunes support.

How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBooks Store purchase

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1933

Download past purchases

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519

Have a great day,

Joe

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Answer 2

Aug 14, 2014 9:40 AM in response to joe_73

Hello Joe,

thanks for your answer. The error occures with all HD-episodes of this series. Havn't had the chance to try with other content. But I tried re-downloading it, however got the same results. Will report this now and see what happens.

Regards,

Werner

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Answer 3

Aug 14, 2014 10:26 AM in response to joe_73

Ok,

I downloaded other previously purchased HD-content and it shows the same HDCP-error, regardless if I try on the internal display of the MBP or on the Cinema Display. However I'm sure, that I never experienced such behaviour with purchased or rent HD-content. If it was only with the external display, I'd say that it is some strange hardware issue with the Mini Display Connector or something else. But like this - error on internal display also - it looks more like software related to me.

Let's see what the iTunes-support says...

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Answer 4

Aug 19, 2014 3:43 PM in response to Werner Goldbach

Ok,

here's an update, in case anyone has the same problem and may find this useful. What I've tried so far:

- redownloaded iTunes content. Result: still the same HDCP error.

- I "report[ed] a problem" to the iTunes-Support. Got an email from a support guy, very friendly and detailed but with no solution. In the end he apologized for not being able to help me.

- reverted iTunes back to 11.2.1 on my system. Result: HDCP error.

- tried booting from an external volume with in total 6 different combinations of OSX and iTunes, from 10.8.5 + 11.1.4 up to 10.10 beta + 12.0 beta. Result: it always WORKED, no HDCP error! So I guess, the problem is software based and lies not within my monitor connector or the GPU. And the issue probably occures only with updating the system and iTunes over time, as it didn't occur with clean installs of the same configuration.

- erase PRAM, reset SMC, repair perms, cleared boot caches and basically almost every cache on my machine, rebuilt various databases. Result: none, still get the error.

- a friend of mine now has the exact same error, so I'm not the only one.

I think this came with the latest iTunes update (11.3.1), but I don't have actual proof.

A solution could be to clean install everything but at the moment I don't have the time for that. My workaround is, to boot from an external volume, login wiht my Apple-ID and watch the movie.

Let's hope for other users to chime in.

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Answer 5

mike433l

Level 1

0 points

Dec 19, 2014 2:33 PM in response to Werner Goldbach

Same thing happening here! 2013 iMac , Everything up to date. Get the same error message with both HD and SD movies bought in iTunes .

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Answer 6

stan1702

Level 1

0 points

Dec 19, 2014 7:45 PM in response to mike433l

I have the same issue on my MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) with iTunes 12.0.1.26

Tried everything, but it is not possible to watch any video on my MacBook

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Answer 7

Jan 2, 2015 1:01 PM in response to stan1702

I don't play my iTunes movies very often on my Mac so I don't know how long the problem may have been in existence. However, my (our) issue is now occurring and I am receiving the error message,

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

I have tried every solution that I am able to on my Mac, unsuccessfully. Before I contact support I thought I would make a post to see if anyone has a newer or more novel solution I can try.

OS X Yosemite

Version 10.10.1

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012)

3.1 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512 MB

Regardez,

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Answer 8

manoskap

Level 1

19 points

Jan 3, 2015 11:45 PM in response to Werner Goldbach

I had exactly the same issue. I just uninstalled divx and the problem is gone! Try it and tell us!

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Answer 9

Jan 4, 2015 4:42 AM in response to manoskap

Thanks.

However, I had never installed Divx so didn't need to uninstall. For grins and giggles I did install it after receiving your post. No joy. I then uninstalled it. No joy.

I appreciate your effort on my behalf.

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Answer 10

manoskap

Level 1

19 points

Jan 4, 2015 5:02 AM in response to jimmy boyfromchesapeake

You are right. It worked for a reset and now still the same. Why it worked for some time? I will reset and write again my experience. But now again I get the same fault.

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Answer 11

mike433l

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2015 3:46 AM in response to stan1702

I finally gave up and called Apple support and let them look at my system remotely they suggested that a third party screen sharing app that wasn't properly uninstalled was the problem.

I decided to wipe my Mac and do a clean install.

Everything working as it should now.

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Answer 12

Jan 6, 2015 4:58 AM in response to mike433l

???

...and the screen sharing app was...??

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Answer 13

Jan 6, 2015 5:37 AM in response to mike433l

With my tech rep's direction I recorded a recreation of the error message which merely constituted a click on an iTunes downloaded movie file to start. This was sent to the engineers to examine. I was told they would get back to me. I'll give it a week or so to see if I get a response.

There has been no recent installs of software except for updates so will assume that one of these recent updates is in conflict with software that it was not in conflict with when the movies played without error.

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Answer 14

Jan 13, 2015 6:29 AM in response to jimmy boyfromchesapeake

After several sessions with Apple Support we isolated the problem. I use the Microsoft Remote Desktop to communicate with a Windows run laptop in my home office from my Macs. The program is not downloaded from Apple apps (The only one for Mac to Win comms *****.) but from Microsoft's Support site. The fapp could have become corrupted but, more likely, had been superseded by an update but I do not believe I would have received a notice from Microsoft.

In either case, I deleted the app and two helper files in the Library and the movies finally were playable without an error on the Mac. Please note that we had previously trashed the app with no joy and succeeded only after we trashed it again but with the two files in the Library. I downloaded the app from Microsoft, performed a clean install and everything is working perfectly.

My suggestion is that if you have any app that shares another screen or monitor somewhere then you may wish to uninstall it and reinstall a clean copy.

This is, obviously, only a limited solution for this error.

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Answer 15

Jan 16, 2015 8:26 PM in response to jimmy boyfromchesapeake

HI all

After checking the hardware side of the issue, I finally found out that the anything that allows you to capture audio or video from your screen, like SnapzPro, WireTap or Audio Hijack generates the HDCP error.

Once I removed the above (trashed and restarted), I was able to play the content again.

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