Your Apple TV is not authorized to play this content.

[aristobrat]

I've set my MBP up to sync with the Apple TV, and my roommate just set his up to stream.

If the Apple TV tries to stream any iTS protected stuff from his computer, it pops up with "Your Apple TV is not authorized to play this content."

How does one authorize the Apple TV to play content from a streaming computer?

 

[aristobrat]

The solution to this problem was to deauthorize my roommates iTunes and then reauthorize it.

He can now stream anything he's purchased from the iTS to the AppleTV and it works great.

What I really dig is that he's streaming an episode of Heros now to the AppleTV, at the same time the AppleTV is syncing my library, and it's working GREAT, all wirelessly.

 

[astorrender]

The solution to this problem was to deauthorize my roommates iTunes and then reauthorize it.

He can now stream anything he's purchased from the iTS to the AppleTV and it works great.

What I really dig is that he's streaming an episode of Heros now to the AppleTV, at the same time the AppleTV is syncing my library, and it's working GREAT, all wirelessly.

Deauthorizing an reauthorizing didn't appear to work. Has anyone else had this problem? I can play any content that is not protected but haven't been able to play anything that is protected. My content is on an external hard drive and hooked up to a windows desktop.

 

[astorrender]

Deauthorizing an reauthorizing didn't appear to work. Has anyone else had this problem? I can play any content that is not protected but haven't been able to play anything that is protected. My content is on an external hard drive and hooked up to a windows desktop.

After a series of authorizing and deauthorizing it worked. Not as seamless as I had hoped.

 

[aristobrat]

Yeah, it's weird. Had problems with the first one, but the other three iTunes in the house worked out with no issues.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I just bought an AppleTV (2.0), mostly to stream music to my home theater room via AirTunes and to rent HDTV movies (I've got a 720P projector and 93" screen with 6.1 sound in my home theater room). AirTunes and music streaming (all my music is ripped from my CD collection via Apple Lossless; I have no purchased AAC files to try) seem to work perfectly fine. I've watched podcasts as well.

However, when I first registered my new iPod Touch the iTunes store offered 3 free sample downloads (music video, tv show and an animated movie short from Pixar). These appear in my iTunes on my Mac and work there, but like the thread title suggests, I get a not authorized error when I try to play them on the AppleTV. It doesn't matter if I sync them to the AppleTV or not. Either way, it won't play them. They were downloaded before I connected the AppleTV (don't know if that matters). I've tried deauthorizing my Mac computer several times and reauthorizing it. It even says on the status bar that it's authorizing the AppleTV and then re-syncs the animated short to it again (i.e. I've set it to sync the short, but stream the tv show, just to compare behaviors). But it STILL refuses to play and the unauthorized error comes up. Frankly, I think it's ridiculous. I mean I know DRM sucks, but this is just a blatant rip-off. Imagine how ticked I'd be if I bought actual shows I wanted to watch and it wouldn't let me watch them on the AppleTV in my home theater room....

YouTube refuses to work on AppleTV as well, although it could be I need to create a login account on my computer for it first? YouTube shows on a computer browser without requiring a login account to display them so I don't see WHY it would need it. It just says no content found and there's an error with YouTube. Check back later. I tried again a few hours later and no dice. I'll try making and then using an account next, I guess. Like I said, Pod Casts work fine.

Mostly, I think the remote is too simplistic. It could use some dedicated search keys to find music, etc. faster. Having to scroll down THOUSANDS of song titles is just plain ridiculous. I saw that there is at least a SEARCH feature under music...oh wait. That's ONLY to search for music to BUY on the iTunes store. Once you've bought it, too bad. You can't search for it on your own system that I can see. True, I bought the iPod Touch to use with Remote Buddy (haven't set that up set), but that's beside the point. There's simply no reason AppleTV needs to be THAT obtuse about its features. Simple search features should be a given. A small front panel display like the SqueezeBox 3 uses along with some dedicated buttons on the remote would make it useable without having to have a TV turned on and/or requiring an iPod Touch to control the server-side Mac. Heck, they're both Apple products. Why doesn't AppleTV have built-in support to use an iPhone or iPod Touch as a remote if you have one??? Geeze Apple, get a clue and make this thing more usable.

I also think I'd prefer an option for a monthly flat fee to watch tv shows and/or movies. It's cool I can have it play a show I may have missed the previous week on cable tv, but having to pay $1.50 or $2 or whatever to watch something I should have been able to catch on cable (plus tv programs are NOT available in HDTV from Apple, only a select number of movie rentals) just doesn't feel right, especially since I don't normally watch a tv show more than once in a lifetime. A flat rate to watch them per month would feel more 'right' (more like cable). An option to rent tv shows (say for 50 cents) instead of 'buying' them would be better also. I see little advantage to buying something like the old Voltron cartoon series by season for $22-25 or so when I can get DVD versions for about the same price with higher quality video and remixed 5.1 sound on a hard archived medium (not a bits that could disappear or refuse to play for some bizarre reason like above).

I do see a good market for the HDTV movie rentals (given that there is nowhere locally to rent blu-ray and I hear as much as 50% of Netflix blu-ray discs have issues playing due to scratch sensitivity) and thus the convenience factor makes sense for HD movie rentals, maybe even non-HD movie rentals (although they really should have 5.1 on them as well).

The other issue I see is the network speed. I've got a NetGear draft N gigabit router and AppleTV shows a 'full graph' signal reading for the wireless connection on the other side of the house on the first floor, so the signal issue seems fine so far. But I timed transferring a 102 megabye lossless file to AppleTV (i.e. sync'ed "Dogs" by Pink Floyd to it) and it took around 22 seconds to transfer. Well, that's around 37Mbit if I did my math right. That's more like 802.11G speed. Right now it's the only device on the network (i.e. the iPod Touch disconnects when it powers down) and the NetGear router claims it's connected as a 300Mbit device (how it portrays a,b,g by speed descriptions, I suppose) so that seems kind of poor for a full signal unless they simply don't get along in N mode (neither makes it easy to tell). It doesn't matter a whole lot since the Internet connection is only 5Mbit and I don't plan on sync'ing much data (again, mostly for streaming music and renting HD movies directly), but still.

They had no Airport Express units in stock at Best Buy nor anywhere in Best Buy's warehouse system in all of Ohio according to the lady there. I don't know if that means the Airport Express is getting an update (to 802.11N?) or Best Buy simply can't get their hands on any for whatever reason. I've seen no mention elsewhere about it. So I've been thinking of getting a 2nd AppleTV to use purely as an AirTunes device (for now; my high-end audio room upstairs has no tv or monitor at the moment, but that may change when flat-screen 46" HDTVs come down in price). I'd rather not put full time "G" connections (as in always on unlike the iPod Touch) on the N network if I can help it as I plan on getting a MBP next and I'll want to use it around the house and on the back porch and not want it slowed by a G device for transferring files, etc. It's too bad Apple doesn't get their WIFI lineup all to N. The AppleTV should be able to bridge like the Express as well, IMO and there's no reason (other than software) it shouldn't be able to.

I also don't get why they don't include an Internet browser and wireless keyboard option. I mean if the Nintendo Wii can have a browser, I'd think a full blown 1GHz AppleTV running OSX should have one. I can browse off a tiny iPod Touch, but not on my 93" screen without requiring a laptop or MacMini (which doesn't have 802.11N either).

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Sure enough, I went back to Best Buy to get another AppleTV to use for AirTunes and they had the new Airport Express 802.11N in stock. I got one for $79 since they had the wrong sign up (clearance sign for old "G" model but none were in stock for a week now so someone screwed up).

 

[Seshaw]

Help: Transferring files from Apple TV to MAC

Has anyone encountered the ability to transfer files from an Apple TV to a MacBook?

We recently had our house robbed in which they took our macbook and our external hard drive, but left the apple TV.

We have all of our pictures and music stored on the apple TV which would be very helpful to have back on our mac and in our external hard drive.

Does anyone know away to sync this content back to our mac?

 

[dmm219]

I also think I'd prefer an option for a monthly flat fee to watch tv shows and/or movies. It's cool I can have it play a show I may have missed the previous week on cable tv, but having to pay $1.50 or $2 or whatever to watch something I should have been able to catch on cable (plus tv programs are NOT available in HDTV from Apple, only a select number of movie rentals) just doesn't feel right, especially since I don't normally watch a tv show more than once in a lifetime. A flat rate to watch them per month would feel more 'right' (more like cable). An option to rent tv shows (say for 50 cents) instead of 'buying' them would be better also. I see little advantage to buying something like the old Voltron cartoon series by season for $22-25 or so when I can get DVD versions for about the same price with higher quality video and remixed 5.1 sound on a hard archived medium (not a bits that could disappear or refuse to play for some bizarre reason like above).

This is quite a human response. Its also "wrong". There have been numerous studies that nearly 95% of subsrciption services end up OVER charging a customer for the contest they actually use. Here's some quick math: Average cost of a season on iTunes is around $35. Average monthly cable bill in the US (tv only) is around $100 per month. So yearly, you pay at least $1200 to watch your "free" shows with commecials...one time only. Now, at $35 for a show's season, you would have to purchase nearly 35 (34.28) ENTIRE seasons of shows to reach the same amount. Do you watch 35 entire season's worth of shows each year? 95% of american households don't (even with children in the house). AND that doesnt include the fact that you can watch the shows anytime you want...AND you own then...forever.

The math is simple, Cable is almost always a ripoff. But since its the model cable companies have used for years, consumers are duped by it. The human mind likes knowing there is not limit to how much they can watch (even though they never watch enough to make the subscription worth it).

Now, if you are one of the rare households that actually does watch more than 35 entire seasons of shows each year...cable IS the way to go for you.

But I also agree with your point...there should be a "rent" option for tv shows. As most shows you don't necessarily want to watch again. I think Apple would move FAR more tv shows this way...I am assuming the studios are against it however, as it makes no business sense not to do it. Everytime someone sees the 1.99 or 2.99 next to a single episode, the normal human reaction is not positive (for the erroneous reasons above). Its bad marketing in my mind...

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

This is quite a human response. Its also "wrong". There have been numerous studies that nearly 95% of subsrciption services end up OVER charging a customer for the contest they actually use. Here's some quick math: Average cost of a season on iTunes is around $35. Average monthly cable bill in the US (tv only) is around $100 per month. So yearly, you pay at least $1200 to watch your "free" shows with commecials...one time only. Now, at $35 for a show's season, you would have to purchase nearly 35 (34.28) ENTIRE seasons of shows to reach the same amount. Do you watch 35 entire season's worth of shows each year? 95% of american households don't (even with children in the house). AND that doesnt include the fact that you can watch the shows anytime you want...AND you own then...forever.

That's nice of you to tell me how "wrong" I am for my opinion, especially given I said my ideal would be to rent a tv show from Apple (say for 50 cents an episode) and get rid of cable. But a subscription is only a bad deal if you don't make use of it.

You speak in seasons of shows. Who watches TV that way exclusively? I watch news, for example in spurts. I don't watch "episodes" of it. I don't know how they could sell CNN through iTunes save specials, etc. Charge by the 15 minute interval?

In any case, a single episode of TV might last 22 minutes to 44 minutes (without commercials or 30/60 with them). How much TV does an average American watch in week? 20-30 hours seems to be the number I'm seeing online (Nielsen stated in 2005 a number around 31 hours a week for an average American and that's ONE PERSON not including a spouse or a whole family living in the house). Let's go with the lower number for demonstration purposes and to give you a major edge. Furthermore, let's assume half those shows are 60 minute episodes and the other half are 30 minutes (in reality there might be movies, etc. also and the news, etc., let alone channel surfing, but you were talking about tv shows so let's go with that). That means an average person is watching the equivalent of 30 episodes of tv shows a week. How long does a season last? It varies from 6-27 episodes. A typical number is around 22-23 episodes. Let's go with 25 episodes to give your method the edge. That means any given tv series in this example only spans 25 weeks out of the year. That means to fill the yearly average "quota" for a typical American, you need over 60 tv series worth of episodes (to go by your example).

You said,

Do you watch 35 entire season's worth of shows each year? 95% of american households don't (even with children in the house).

Sorry, but by my very simple calculations, you are just flat out WRONG (to borrow your own term). The AVERAGE person (***LET ALONE HOUSEHOLD***!!!) watches over 60 seasons worth of tv every year. That's the AVERAGE (using very low-ball figures at that)!

You give an example of $100 a month for cable. I have cable with an HD/DVR cable box plus 80 channels of analog available in almost every room in the house. I get almost 50 HD channels and over 200 SD channels (but no premium channels). The cable portion of my monthly bill is $70. For $100 a month I could have HBO, Showtime and Cinemax added! So I honestly don't believe for a minute that $100 is the "average" monthly cable bill to begin with. Standard cable here would be $30 a month and about $60 for all but HD/DVR.

So even if I watch 30% less TV than the average American, your model still doesn't make the grade. iTunes would have to cost 50-200% (depending on your household size) less for it be a competitor to cable for all but those watch very little tv or very little network tv.

Even so, if it works for you, great. But don't tell me how "wrong" I am when you didn't research your numbers.