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

SECOND MONITOR HDCP FAILURE & SOLUTIONS

After recently installing a 2nd monitor to serve a music workstation (Kawai SP7 stage piano/midi keyboard, M-Track Quad USB audio and MIDI Interface, and Event 20/20 speakers, plus associated mics etc.) that needed to be physically separate from my iMac, I experienced an HDCP error telling me that the recently installed monitor was incompatible, and suggesting I make sure the iTunes window was entirely within the compatible monitor. It was. In fact the second monitor (which is HDCP compatible) was turned off.

That turned out to be the issue. Apparently the HDCP circuitry/software can tell that there is a DisplayPort cable attached to the Thunderbolt port, but not that the monitor on the other end is turned off. Instead HDCP reads a non-active monitor as non-compatible. My choice is to keep the monitor on, even though its not being used, disconnect the cable, or to completely power down (unplug) the second monitor. Fortunately, the second monitor is on a separate surge protector, so it's simple but kludgey to use it to turn the monitor off (and it saves a small amount of power as well).

Error Specifications:

Date: 24 March 2017.

OS: Sierra 10.12.3 (16D32).

Hardware iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014),
4 GHz Intel Core i7,

32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory,
1 TB SSD, 12 TB additional disks connected via Thunderbolt,
AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB,

2nd Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad for music workstation.

2nd Monitor ViewSonic VX2778-SMHD 27" IPS WQHD 1440p,
DisplayPort Cable to iMac Thunderbolt port.

Solutions:

• Leave 2nd monitor running, or
• Disconnect DisplayPort cable from iMac, or
• Turn off the 2nd monitor at power supply.

I have two objections to this situation:

1. I am getting old enough that I have trouble seeing most text on my laptop display, so I view all content on my HDTV. When I try to play an HDCP-protected movie, iTunes kills use of my external display entirely, which means that I must restart my system to use my HDTV again. If Apple wants to prevent me from seeing my movies on a decent-sized display, apparently they have that right, but what gives them the right to disable use of my HDTV for all applications, or to force me to restart to do so? To me, Apple has just made my iTunes for Windows unusable for movies.
2. Due to the loss of this use, I don't want to waste my money on any more HDCP-protected movies, but there is no warning of this in the iTunes Store, so does this mean that I have no choice other than to quit buying movies from the iTunes Store? If other on-line movie sellers also use this technology, I guess I have to revert to buying Blu-Ray disks to see my movies on my HDTV, is that about right?

Just had this pop-up trying to view an extra on Trolls. Most recent Mac Mini connected to a new 50" Panasonic Viera. In my case I've seen problems with the 10.1X macOS and awaking from sleep. Sometimes the colours are jacked, sometimes iTunes fails to stream HD film menus or extras. Restart sorts it, but I've not been impressed with macOS post-Lion in how it deals with sleep awakening. Time doesn't seem to matter; just now was only 10min.

SOLVED:

I have had the same issue.

MacBook Air running MacOS Sierra v10.12.3, would not play iTunes HD TV series download on the computer display (no external display involved).

When searching for DisplayLink as had been advised by many in this thread, I was unable to find the app.

I downloaded and installed DisplayLink – no change (still getting the error message).

I then uninstalled DisplayLink and restarted the computer – the TV series is now playing.

I don't understand why or how this worked, but it did.

Hello,

How do you manually update the driver? I have the same problem. Long ago I purchased the movie "frozen" for my kids. They have watched it a thousand times from either my laptop only or my laptop plugged to an HD TV (let me specify this is not an apple TV nor any kind of fancy TV. This is just a standard TV screen that allows selecting an HDMI auxiliary source) via an HDMI cable. Both setups have worked perfectly fine so far. But for the last 2 days, I cannot read the movie on my laptop when it is not connected to the TV. When I launch the movie in itunes, I see the main menu showing "film", "languages", "extras" etc... I can also hear the music of the main menu. But when I click on "film", the screen remains black, the timeline doesn't move and there is no sound. After a while, the message saying "This movie can be played only on displays that support HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)" appears on my screen.

This worked for me using an upgraded Mac Pro 2009 and a cinema display 30.

I deleted this file

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUpstreamUserClient.kext

And then did a reboot.

My HD movies play no problem in iTunes now.

Hope this helps.

I downloaded the DisplayLink software and it did not resolve the issue

Then i removed the DisplayLink software completely off my mac, moved it to trash, emptied the trash

I then restarted my mac, and I am no longer getting that error message!

Howdy DW00,

It sounds like you are getting an error about HDCP when you are trying to play back a video from iTunes to an external display of some sort, or from an Apple TV. If you are using Windows and getting the error, use the following article:

iTunes for Windows: Unable to view or play HD video content that requires HDCP

If you are using an Apple TV, use this one instead:

Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation): About Apple TV and HDCP

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

All the best,

Sterling

I just updated to version 12 of iTunes and version 10.10 Yosemite. I am now receiving the error "This movie can be played only on displays that support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)." I am playing it on my Macbook Air no external display connected. Help please.

I have exactly the same problem -- MacBook Pro, updated to Yosemite, updated iTunes, can't watch any videos bought from iTunes and get the same HDCP error. (And how on earth is this a "security feature"?)

Me too. Same issue, all the latest update software and OS on a macbook air. Just downloaded the a movie in HD for my upcoming flight in few hours and can't watch it! frustrating.

The issue is from Safari defaulting to HTML5 vs using Silverlight like it did in Mavericks.

So the options are, if you want to use Safari goto your Netflix account, playback preferences and turn off HTML5. This will revert to Silverlight and will AirPlay fine*in Safari.

If you want to use HTML5, just leave the setting for HTML5 on in Netflix and use Chrome, Firefox, etc.

You can't currently have both Safari and HTML5 Netflix when using AirPlay. You'd think Safari would be a little bit more powerful with Apples stances on browser extensions.

I too have the same problem, but I am running a Macbook Air. Prior to 12.0 iTunes and 10.10 I was able to watch my apple purchases on my computer. The same movies on the same computer which rendered perfect before, now are producing the error. This means the several hundred movies purchased through apple store are broken for computer viewing. As I travel -- this is totally unacceptable. From my perspective either refund me for all the movies or fix the issue.

Same problem here. I just upgraded from an old Mac Mini 1,1 with Leopard to the latest Mac Mini running Yosemite and I can no longer watch any of the HD movies that were migrated to the new machine. The old Mac Mini did not have HDMI out and my plasma display does not HDMI in so I can't just do what the dialog says.

Hello Sterling.

Although you tried, I don't believe you answered the question.

I too am getting the same issue.

After the Update to iTunes 12.0 and Yosemite, I am not able to watch any previously purchased tv shows on

my MACBOOK.

No external monitor, no Apple TV.

This is Apple's product and Apple's program.

HELP US!

I get this message:

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