The New iTunes HDCP Content
I ran into an issue with iTunes and purchased content a few months back. I had bought the Knight Rider season pass from the iTunes store. When ever I tried to play an episode I would be presented with a video window that was all gray and a nice little alert box telling me that my displays are not HDCP authorized. I got on the phone with Apple support and iTunes support and could not come to a conclusion as to why this was happening. I have a 24″ Apple Display that is about 2 years old and a 30″ Apple Display that is about a year old so everything should be golden. They are both HD displays so that is not an issue. Where the issue comes from is when Apple decided to make all of their iTMS content require HDCP displays. I guess this is some new standard although I am not quite sure why because I have never had a problem playing any of my content in HD format at all. After making an appointment at the Genius Bar and them telling me that there should not be a problem since my display is only a year old and suggesting that I contact Apple and get in touch with the Customer Care department I came home and did just that.
I have been dealing with a guy named Chad Jones on this case. He said that he did the research on the account and I had accidentally purchased the standard definition version of the season pass and that is why I was getting these errors. This might be the case but if it is then why is my iTunes downloading both the SD and HD versions of these shows? Chad suggested that I buy the HD version of the show so rather than me buying the entire season to test this out I tried to buy one episode in HD. The purchase went through however I cannot watch it in HD. This is starting to really get irritating and the worst part is I have left Chad about 3 voice mails since providing my case number, contact number and letting him know that I attempted to try an HD version and it did not work. I think Apple is just pushing this off to the side thinking that there is no point in helping me. I just fell through the cracks when THEY decided that they were going to support a new standard. Screw me for spending about $2800 on their displays and any iTunes content that I might have purchased. The most irritating part is the fact that it has been about 9 days since I last left a message for Chad so I think today I will probably call back in and try to deal with someone else. Apple needs to fix this. There is no reason I should not be able to play HD content on these displays or at-least the 30″ display!
Now in my case it is not “that” big of a deal, I will just stop buying the iTunes content and find my shows elsewhere. I had only bought Knight Rider as a test to see how the experience was and up to this point it was good. However not being able to watch my purchased content does get really irritating. I have an HD display but cannot watch the iTunes HD content. Below is an image of the alert dialog that I get when I attempt to watch a video. Now through research I have found that there are adapters that you can buy to make your display become HDCP compliant but I am not so sure that will work because the error says the display is not HDCP authorized. Since when does anything or anyone have to authorize your display for use?
11 Comments
Joseph Crawford
- 03/06/09
- 08:31 AM
John,
That is really pointless then. If they disable playing on certain players and I owned one I would throw a fit with the attorney general because that is bad practices.
I was just a bit disappointed in Apple converting all the iTunes content to HDCP without any form of notification to content owners. I could see them converting all “new” content but not “all” content.
I guess I will stick to doing my own converting and not buying the HD content from iTunes any longer. Sad that Apple can make my $1800 display obsolete overnight by doing something like this.
I also have to say this is one of the *worst* experiences I have had dealing with Apple Support and Customer Care. I have left another voice mail for Chad and if I do not hear back from him in 4 days I am going to call back in and find someone else to talk to.
Glad I have a PS3 so I could watch BluRay content if I wanted to. I am very glad that I did not run out and buy a BluRay drive for my mac pro just to see this issue.
Michael Newman
- 03/17/09
- 11:31 AM
Thanks for this post. I’ve been running into this exact problem and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. All of my prior HD purchases (from Sept. 08 and earlier) play fine with no problems. It’s my most recent purchases that won’t play HD (one from Dec. 08 and all of my 09 purchases so far).
Interesting note: It is my Mac Pro that won’t play the HD files. If I transfer the HD files to my old iMac (previous version to the current iMac) they files play completely fine.
One way I’ve found to deal with this is to find the folder containing both the HD and SD version and open the SD version in Quicktime. It’s ridiculous that I have to do this, but I can at least view the shows I’ve purchased, all be it, not HD.
I had contacted Apple in January 09 on this issue and their solution was to set my iTunes library to completely download every show I’ve ever purchased from them. I downloaded a few and quickly realized they wouldn’t work either!
Joseph Crawford
- 03/17/09
- 11:47 AM
Yes you can do it with your method of opening the files with Quicktime (SD) but the HD versions still will not play on an HD 30″ screen that is 1 year old this month. You can also right click the item in iTunes, select the Version option and choose Standard Definition.
The issue though is that we should not be locked down to watching the SD versions of the content we purchased. Especially when our hardware is only 1 year old.
iTMS– in my opinion. I have not and will not buy anymore content from iTunes so long as they have business practices like this. I will continue to use other methods.
Michael Newman
- 03/17/09
- 01:30 PM
I didn’t know about the right-click and picking the version (HD or SD). Thanks for that tip.
And I completely agree with you, it’s sad that this problem is occurring.
Joseph Crawford
- 03/17/09
- 01:34 PM
The worst part is that no one from Apple has contacted me to date. The customer relations team really does not care about this issue from what I have seen.
They cannot even offer to rectify the situation with an adapter which I think is ridiculous!
Zack Brock
- 03/23/09
- 03:27 PM
Joseph, did you get in touch with anyone at Apple other than Chad to get this issue resolved?
I just purchased 4 episodes at $2.99 each of Battlestar Galactica Season 4 in HD via the iTunes Store on my Mac Pro and I cannot play them, I receive the same gray screen and HDCP error message that you receive.
I have two 24″ Dell LCD panel’s plugged up via DVI that are less than 9 months old to my Mac Pro. I’m pissed that I paid the extra $1.00 per episode to find out that I can’t play the HD content.
I’m anxious to hear your results and any updates. Thanks!
Joseph Crawford
- 03/23/09
- 03:37 PM
Zack,
I have not. I have been so busy that I have been unable to take the time to sit on hold and try to get to someone. I plan to try to get a hold of someone tomorrow evening. I will let you know what happens.
MacAddict
- 02/19/10
- 08:11 PM
I just upgraded to the new MAc Pro 2.9 top of the line workhorse that had Snow Leopard pre-installed (Never had it before) Got all the latest updates, connected it to my 4 year old 30″ display went to watch a movie and I got the same problem. Did a search and found this site. Good thing is I never purchase any movies/music from iTunes or any electronic site whats so ever, the ones that I do have a free intros shows. Always get a hard copy of my media from amazon or a local dvd.cd resale shop, mostly used for a discount. Then copy it to my HD. The thing is that I am starting to hate Apple as much as Windows now. I just don’t see why I pay 6 thousand dollars for a computer that is just as annoying to use as the one I was hating on. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I am geting fed up with all this bullshit from 2 monopolizing companies who shit all over there customers, and we have no real choice but to use them anyway. A government who is basically a high cost whore, and a people who are totally confused and complying with whatever they sell us.
Vincent
- 03/25/10
- 08:25 AM
I just bought a season of South Park and an episode of 24; then I find out I can’t play them back on my VGA-connected projector or HDTV, aargh!
I get it, no more video purchases from iTunes, just wait for the blu-ray to come out on Netflix.
What I don’t get is why?
What could these control freaks possibly have to gain by letting us watch content we PAID FOR on one display, but not another?
Do some TVs have build-in hard drives or optical disk writing capability? Or is this just a backanded way to make us upgrade our displays?
Refund requested from Apple, Netflix membership upgraded! Clueless morons…
Joseph Crawford
- 03/25/10
- 09:16 AM
Vincent,
I totally agree with you. Why can we not play the content we bought on whatever display we wish. The issue seems to only be with the HD content. When you buy an HD product from the iTMS you also get the SD version. One way to get around this is to tell iTunes to play the SD version. I forget how to do this but I believe you can right click the file in iTunes and set the option there.
I do not like the fact that I could not play HD content on my HD displays that I bought from Apple. This is the exact reason I have not purchased ANY apple product since this took place. When I called in to find out what Apple would do about the situation maybe they would have given me an adapter free of charge they told me there was nothing they could do. Why could they lock me out of watching my paid for HD content on a 30″ Apple Display that was about a year old at the time.
Since Apple was not willing to do anything about the situation that they introduced and basically said sorry you will need to buy a new display I have vowed to never buy another Apple product for any reason. No gifts, no personal purchases. Hey I even thought about selling my mac pro with both displays and going back to Ubuntu for my workstation. I have not asked any of my employers since to give me an Apple computer to work on/with. In-fact I have requested NON Apple computers.
After this situation and seeing how Apple can do what they want to their customers without any regard I have started to go Anti-Apple.
Don’t get me wrong they have awesome products, I just do not agree with the business practices that they have been using lately. Everything from the iPhone apps being rejected for ridiculous reasons to forcing their customers to upgrade hardware because they want to put HDCP in place.
John N
Welcome to the world of HiDef DRM!
BluRay has it, HDDVD has it and any future device that you want to play MPAA member content on will have it. What’s worst is that if you buy HDCP Authorized items for your entire set (TV, Video Player, Receivers) and someone figured out a firmware hack to bypass it. MPAA can then disabled HD output for that device on future movies.
Note this all extends to computer equipment. Your video card may be able to display 4000×4000 crispy resolution but if it’s not HDCP Authorized it will output DVD quality (this part is left up to the provider to implement)
I have experience this by jumping on the HD bandwagon too early and having a non-HDMI LCD.
As for the adapters there are a few companies out there trying to find a legal method of letting you use HDCP content but I gave up a year ago so I don’t know how well they work.
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