The HDCP Display Nightmare

[aCondor]

Let me tell you a little about myself. Like many of you, I am a long-time Apple customer. I've just recently delved into the Mac world and three weeks ago purchased a brand-new 13" 2011 MBP i5. Everything has been going quite swell.

Until 15 seconds ago. Well, more like 150 seconds ago. I downloaded an HD TV show from iTunes. It's called "The Killing;" the Season 1 episodes one and two are available for free, and I recommend you try it. "The Killing" is a great show.

I watched the first episode on my iPod on Metro. When I came home, I pulled out my new Macbook Pro and started watching the second episode. Wow, this show is good. I'm halfway into the episode and th- wait... what? It stopped playing. There's an error message on my screen. It reads:


"The selected movie won't play on your display.
This movie can be played only on displays that support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)."


"What a bummer!," I proclaimed loudly to an empty room. And right when the plot was really starting to twist, too.

Has this happened to anyone else? Do Apple's Macbook Pros - even the 2011 models - really not support HDCP? Do I really have to resort to watching TV shows, downloaded legitimately through iTunes, in Standard Definition, a crime I wouldn't even wish upon my worst Facebook "friend?"

I'm trying to find some humor in this situation, but in all honesty, it is atrocious! Here's some info from Apple's support website:

"In order to purchase, rent, and view HD content from the iTunes Store on your computer, you need to have the latest version of iTunes installed, you can download the latest version here. In addition, you will need to have components that support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) installed on your computer.

Mac System Requirements for HD content:

Mac OS X v10.5 or later
iTunes 10 or later
2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor
At least 1 GB of RAM
A display that supports HDCP with a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher."
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3209

Thinking about buying a new HD movie or TV show? If you want to watch it, think again. You’ll need to open up that wallet of yours for a brand new HDCP-compliant monitor. Notice the word compliant. That is very important. There are some products that just claim to be HDCP “compatible”, but they will NOT work for viewing high definition movies. (Information courtesy of HD Fury Article).

Why aren't Apple's 2011 Macbook PRO monitors HDCP compliant? How can they sell and distribute protected HD content via the iTunes Store, when the latest and greatest monitors are unable to view it?


Here's what I'm dealing with. Notice that I was able to view roughly half of the episode in HD until I was presented with this error:
(Please note that on my desktop the grey and white squares are replaced with the HD image of the TV show)

 

[Nermal]

(Edit: This was proven false).


Ahh, DRM doing what it does best. I'm going to guess that your system switched between the Intel and AMD video chips partway through playback as that's the only reason I can come up with that would cause it to stop in the middle like that. Do you have anything connected to the Thunderbolt port?

Personally I've taken to removing the DRM just to avoid this sort of nonsense.

 

[AppleScruff1]

If he has a new 13" it only has Intel integrated graphics, no AMD.

 

[aCondor]

That's correct - I have the 13" base model with Intel HD 3000 graphics. It is more than capable of watching HD videos and has done a stunning job churning out YouTube 1080P and other video formats with no problems.

I appreciate your quick replies. I restarted iTunes and fired up the TV show. I can start where I left off, in HD, with no apparent problems. I can only hope that it is was a glitch, or perhaps the HDCP only kicks in after roughly 18 minutes (though this seems like a far-fetched conclusion).

This is the first I time I am experiencing HDCP and will be doing further research on it. I am curious as to whether Apple's displays explicitly comply with the format.

Regardless, it is an error that should not be appearing. I will be updating this thread again if I have further problems.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Hopefully you won't have anymore problems. Keep us posted on how it works.

 

[Aldaris]

Interesting

I've been hooking up my 2008 uni to my old 20" ACD display (old school G4 style). And have been getting it when I watch 'Archer' but not south park or family guy... I'll try restarting iTunes and see if that has any help, and report back.

*Using miniDisplayPort and mdp to dvi/adc adapter... so it could just be the mass of adapters going down the pipe.

 

[aCondor]

Personally I've taken to removing the DRM just to avoid this sort of nonsense.

How would one go about doing this? I would think it's difficult, no?

 

[Aldaris]

For what it's worth, there is a workaround to play SD instead of HD, although not completely wonderful it works...

I found a few DRM removing programs but most were PC based and none made me think about buying them... Good luck on your search.

 

[Nermal]

Yeah, I use Requiem but it's a pain and depends on specific iTunes and QuickTime versions. I have the required versions installed in VMware but most of the time I just buy the stuff on disk because it's so much easier to use than the Apple formats.

 

[arogge]

I just tried to watch a purchased copy of a Lights Out episode on my external display through iTunes, and my computer crashed. "The selected movie won't play on one of your connected displays. This movie can be played only on displays that support HDCP..." Oh, shut up! High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection? Really? Where is this content protection when my photography is being ripped off? Now I feel like getting an HDCP-stripped copy of the video on the grey market for free, so that I can watch it on my chosen display without unwelcome interference from the nanny state. I wonder if that's what this new anti-consumer feature was intended to do.

 

[nashville18]

Gentlemen, there is an answer

Hey people,

I just recently rented 80 waves and ran into this problem. "The selected movie won't play on one of your connected displays."

The simple solution is to disconnect the display cable, start playing the movie in full screen mode and then plug in the display cable again! Voila...movie plays with no error messages!

THought you would like to know!

 

[arogge]

This HDCP thing is driving me crazy. I have a better fix now. I'll just stop buying the HD content if I can't play it without cracking the HDCP. The idiot that came up with this roadblock obviously wanted to reduce sales of videos, while stolen content will continue to propagate on the illegal markets.

 

[scotthao]

Any fixes?

I'm having the same issue. I just downloaded a whole season of HD shows on iTunes watched the first two episodes right after. Saw an update needed for my macbook pro that I bought two months ago. Updated my mac and now I get the hdcp error. Any progress on this?