New MacBooks and MacBook Pros require HDCP for some iTunes videos

Some owners of the new MacBook and MacBook Pros have discovered something strange when you try to play some iTunes video content to an external display. If that display is not HDCP compliant, then iTunes will return an error saying that a connected display is not authorized to play protected movies.

While this may seem like a minor issue, consider if you plan on playing a purchased iTunes movie through a projector. Most projectors these days still feature a VGA input for connecting a computer. These users will now be unable to play content purchased from the iTunes Store.

So far, only the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros have prompted users when attempting to play videos to non HDCP sources. It has also only been reported to happen with some videos, but an exact list has yet to be gathered.

HDCP stands for High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection. It was developed by Intel to stop copying of protected media over digital connections such as HDMI or DisplayPort.

There has not yet been an official word from Apple regarding this issue. It may remove some of the recent momentum that the iTunes Store has accumulated, and turn more users toward Netfix Streaming service that has recently become available for mac users.

Via [ArsTechnica]