Can't watch movies on tv anymore with new Apple TV app

[P4Patrick]

So for years I used iTunes as my primary way to watch movies. I would connect my Macbook Pro to my tv and rent or buy any movie I wanted to watch. I have hundreds of movies in my library that I paid for.
Now I updated my my macbook to the new Catalina OS and with it come the brand new music, tv and podcast apps. Now suddenly when I connect my laptop to my tv and try to watch one of the movies i bought on itunes I get an error message that reads: "this movie can not be played because it is on a display that is not authorised to play protected movies"
I can play the movie if I delete the downloaded copy first, but then it switches to extremely low resolution quality.
Does anyone else have this issue? I have hundreds of dollars worth of content in my movie library, I can't imagine apple would make it impossible me for me to watch this.

 

[HDFan]

Now I updated my my macbook to the new Catalina OS

Which Macbook? How are you connecting to the TV? What kind of TV is it? What TV port are you using?

 

[P4Patrick]

Which Macbook? How are you connecting to the TV? What kind of TV is it? What TV port are you using?

it's a 2017 macbook pro with 2 thunderbolt ports. I'm connecting to the tv with an hdmi cable. The tv is a 2014 samsung tv. I've used this same set up for years, before with an older laptop, and i've never had any issues.

 

[FarmerBob]

Many people are finding that Apple axed many of the things that made us love Apple OS's and made Apple . . . Apple. Catalina, as per Apple, is a new era in computing. The number one comment being made in forums where people are asking if they should move is "Do "Deep Dive Research" before you do". Many things have changed and not for the better, but cuz Apple says so . . .

I had a huge music collection long before iTunes ever come on the scene and the earlier versions were incredible and caused me to increase it monumentally. As time has gone on iTunes has gotten worse and worse and eventually totally trashed my collection to a point where I stopped using iTunes a long time ago. And the versions that I caused the most damage, for those that will say, "Why'd you update?", updated themselves after I read posts of people screaming bloody murder and I told them not to update, deleted the update in the App Store, when you could, and locked the databases from Apple. Regressing to previous better options is not in Apples Plan, thus the "locked" updated database. Although the previous one may still be there, it does not contain any cahnges or additiona you may have made since it changed. So . . .

It cost me a chunk of money to hire a kid that knows iTunes and the damage it could do to put my collection back together. But now the big "A" seems to think you don't need it anymore. This move is also to lock your libraries into the Applescape. I do have an AppleTV 4K, but it only has access to my MA (MoviesAnywhere) account and nothing else. Not even a single one of the many computers that it can see . . .

Good Luck and Be Aware!!

 

[HDFan]

I'm connecting to the tv with an hdmi cable.

If you have thunderbolt ports on your MacBook how are you connecting the HDMI cable from the TV to the MacBook?

 

[P4Patrick]

If you have thunderbolt ports on your MacBook how are you connecting the HDMI cable from the TV to the MacBook?

I have a thunderbolt to hdmi converter

 

[HDFan]

"this movie can not be played because it is on a display that is not authorised to play protected movies"

implies that it is an issue with HDCP protection. Without a model number can't really tell but you might have HDCP 1.4. The current version is 2.3, but most products ship with earlier versions. Check your version here:

HDCP Products | Digital CP

www.digital-cp.com

Do you have access to a current model TV? See if it works there.

 

[dvoros]

We have Apple TV and the Apple TV+ trial. When trying to watch tv shows last night using our paid CBS access, every time we reached one of our fav shows, the Apple TV would throw us out back to the main menu of the App. What gives?

 

[niteflyr]

OP posted on the Apple TV forum. Assuming you have an Apple TV, why would you want to connect your laptop? You can stream anything in your iTunes library on the ATV itself.

 

[HDFan]

When trying to watch tv shows last night using our paid CBS access, every time we reached one of our fav shows, the Apple TV would throw us out back to the main menu of the App. What gives?

Were you in the Apple TV app or the CBS access app? In many cases the Apple TV app just brings up the specific channel app, which might be a bug if it crashes. Does the CBS access app work?