Purchased TV Show won't play

I recently purchased a TV Show with iTunes and it was successfully downloaded. However, it won't play on iTunes and also will not play on Quicktime when I tried to open it in Finder. (stating it was a protect file or something like that) How can I fix this problem?

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you, but I can tell you that I'm experiencing the same thing. We just bought an Apple TV (I just set it up tonight). I had purchased a TV show for the kids on iTunes a couple nights earlier, but when I went to play it on Apple TV it said that it is an unrecognized format? Now why would Apple sell content that was not in the format to play on its own equipment?
I looked through the files to see what difference there might be because all of the free iTunes video plays fine. The only difference I could find was that this purchased show is 853x480 whereas the other videos are 640x480. I don't think that should make a difference, so it seems that something else is going on. Hopefully someone will have an answer.

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Purchased TV show won't play on Apple TV

i have two apple tv in my house. we bought a season of a kids show and when we went to play them it says it is a format not recognized. we bought them from iTunes:) Now the strangest thing is they play fine on the other apple tv we have in another room. Any ideas on why this unit is acting so strange?

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you, but I can tell you that I'm experiencing the same thing. We just bought an Apple TV (I just set it up tonight). I had purchased a TV show for the kids on iTunes a couple nights earlier, but when I went to play it on Apple TV it said that it is an unrecognized format? Now why would Apple sell content that was not in the format to play on its own equipment?
I looked through the files to see what difference there might be because all of the free iTunes video plays fine. The only difference I could find was that this purchased show is 853x480 whereas the other videos are 640x480. I don't think that should make a difference, so it seems that something else is going on. Hopefully someone will have an answer.

Itunes purchased tv show won't play on my appletv 2 i keep getting a error 406 but all the other content will play just fine.

I bought a season of Top Gear from itunes and tried to play it on my AppleTV 2, nothing would happen just the spiral processing thing. So I tried to air play it from my Mac. I would receieve error 406 about my appletv not being connected. So I tried to airplay other content to my appletv it all worked fine. Now the airplay icon on the bottom right of the itunes window will say "computer" but as soon as I click on any video or tv content itunes automatically airplays it to my apple tv instead of my computer. Please help!

(1) Like you I can stream video content acquired outside of iTunes to my Apple TV, but I can't appear to play any video purchased on iTunes. On the other hand, music I've purchased plays fine and since my music collection no longer includes protected files I'm of the opinion that this is most likely a DRM issue.
I don't know whether this issue appeared after iTunes 10.5 or the Apple TV 4.4.2 update.
It is of some importance to me that Apple resolves this quickly.
(2) I am not experiencing any issues with the bottom right hand output selection. Have you tried disconnecting from your network, starting something and then reconnecting to see if that resolves the issue?

Movie purchased in iTunes won't play. Audio is fine; video doesn't appear.

Movie purchased in iTunes won't play. Audio is fine; video doesn't appear.

Wormbog wrote:
I went back to iTunes but there's no option for me to re-download it.
Yes there is.
Go to the iTunes Store on your computer. Click the "Purchased" link about halfway down on the far right side. Click the "All" tab on top. The song is there. Re-download it.

Movie Rentals / Purchased TV Shows no longer play on iTunes

Playing movie rentals and purchased TV shows have been working just fine on iTunes until a few days ago when I attempted to watch a movie rental, a pop-up warning came on and I pressed OK too quickly to fully read it. It said something about being incompatible. Unfortunately, since the error, I'm unable to watch the movie or any of the purchased TV shows on my MacBook Pro. All I get is a black screen with nothing happening after repeatedly pressing the Play button. I've tried to delete and re-download the TV shows, and iTunes Support has had me delete the movie and TV shows and re-download them. Still getting the black screen. Can anyone help??

The lack of a purchase date, although I am not quite sure why it happens, does not in itself prevent the track from being authorized and played. However, since the account name is correct and they have disappeared from your purchase history, something may have been corrupted.
Unless someone here has a better idea, you should take it up with iTunes Customer Service.

Purchased music that won't play

I used to have the iPhone 4 now I have the 4s. Some of the music I purchased on the iPhone 4 seems to have transferred but not correctly. The info is on the 4s for the music but when I click a song it won't play it skips to the next available song. So far it's only been 1 album and a couple of songs that I had purchased on the 4. I've tried resyncing the music library several times both by just resyncing and by wiping the music off. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Turns out that he was right in that for some reason I had to reauthorize my computer. However, I felt it completely odd considering they played on my previous phone from my mac and it was my Apple ID. So weird. So I authorized the computer and it worked they play now.

HELP my Tv shows Won't Play on iTunes!!!

Please Help, I have always been able to watch all my fav shows on my MacBook now all of a sudden iTunes takes forever to download them and they won't play, they are frozen and I can only hear sound. I reported the problem weeks ago and I reported it for about 5 tv shows and tonight it's doing it again. I am at the end of my rope spending all this money and waiting hours to encounter a problem like this please help!

How do i email apple so i can maybe redownload it or at least not get charged for something that I can't even watch?

Song purchased on iPad won't play on iMac

If I purchase a song on my Mac via iTunes, then it plays fine on my iPhone or my iPad. Same if I buy a song with my iPhone. But on my iPad I purchased a song recently and it will only play on the iPad. The account is the same, and I can see the purchase in my account history if I look for it on itunes on my Mac. But if I try to play the song it tells me the Mac isn't authorized to play it (even after I re-authorized the Mac, just to give it a chance), and if I try to download it via the Mac, iTunes tells me the song isn't 'eligible for iCloud'.
I think they all have the same share settings and iCloud settings, so I'm not sure why this one device is causing this problem on the other devices. Luckily, I rarely purchase music using the iPad, but in this case I did and now it won't play anywhere else. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
ETA: all devices are up to date with the most current versions of OS X and iOS.

Wormbog wrote:
I went back to iTunes but there's no option for me to re-download it.
Yes there is.
Go to the iTunes Store on your computer. Click the "Purchased" link about halfway down on the far right side. Click the "All" tab on top. The song is there. Re-download it.

Purchased music videos won't play

The 2 iTunes music videos I bought won't play.
When I try to play either one, the error message reads
"If you purchased this song you can open iTunes and authorize this computer to play this song by entering you Apple ID and password"
It never gives a prompt for the password.
iTunes IS open, and all of my other purchases (non movies) play. I could play all of the videos when they were free on iTunes and never had problems.
I tried deauthorizing, then reauthorizing my computer--that didn't change anything.
I've been scouring the help section with no success. Please help!
M5884 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Nick A,
You may want to deauthorize and then reauthorize your computer for iTunes Store purchases. For information on deauthorizing/reauthorizing please take a look at this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesMac/7.6/en/15281.html
You do not need to format any purchases from the iTunes Store, they are already correctly formatted.
Hope this helps,
Jennifer B.
Message was edited by: Jennifer_B

NONE of my purchased TV Shows and Videos play anymore!

All of my purchased TV Shows and Videos that used to be fine no longer play... They come up as gray with no sound. Any ideas?

HI, I have the same problem, so you said you will need to update your quicktime...I have the most recent versions of iTunes and Quicktime, and have tried everything. Here is another post I made about this:
"Hi, this exact same thing has happened to me. However, I have updated EVERYTHING, i have the most recent version of iTunes and Quicktime. When i try to play a purchased video, even one i just bought last night, it says I am not authorized to play this, so then it tries to contact iTunes to let me authorize it, but it doesnt, a window pops up and says..."could not contact iTunes, you must download at least iTunes version 4.0 to authorize and play this video." this happens with any purchased video i try to play. The gray screen with no sound or video. Please help! I have tried deauthorizing and reauthorizing. Same problem still. An Apple Consultant friend of mine told me to delete the two iTunes plist files in my library and restart, and I did that but it still has the same problem! Please help! here or my email is:
[email protected]
thanks."
Please help!

2nd slide show won't play

After creating a dvd with two slide shows using iDVD, the second slide show will not play past the first image. The first show plays with no problem.
When the second show is activated the first image comes up but I can't advance to any of the others.
It isn't frozen as I can return to the main menu and can still activate the first show.
I've tested on 3 different DVD players with the same result
The theme is the basic green linen with the theme graphic and drop zone replaced by a plain black background and two slideshow buttons.
Both slide shows are set to manual advance, fade through black and no audio or video. The images were imported directly from iPhoto. The first has 82 images the second 42 (combination of jpeg and tiff files).
I've replaced all of the images with different files from other shoots but still get the same result. I've also recreated the project from scratch twice to no avail.
Any suggestions? Anyone else run into this?
Thanks!

I have experienced totally similar circumstances. My husband thought that I had posted your email. I have gone beyond pulling my hair out.....
I traveled 1500 miles this summer to scan 1000 old family black and white photos and slides. I am composing an idvd production using 500 slides that I have brought in from iphoto. Before placing in iphoto, I took all of them through Photoshop and placed a title on each photo. My idvd is composed of 6 slideshows, each ranging between 50 - 98 photos. After burning, they all play back on my ibook, although they have been burned on my standing machine. Playing them on a tv DVD, one particular slide show will not advance. It stays on the first photo. It will not advance, ever. I am using the Memories theme from 5.0, manual advance, and page flip. (I have tried several other transition options) I have burned a minimum of 20 DVDs with the same outcome. I have tried eliminating photos, using folders, I have made every adjustment that I can think of. I narrowed it down to 2 photos that caused slide shows to not open, and then after I eliminated them from the DVD, that very same slide show still will not advance. I have made sure all existing programs were turned off, and that I have file share off....
My super drive uses a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-104
Up until this year, all DVD slide shows ran without a hitch. Whether I use Apple DVD's or Memorex, I get the same problems. I have spent alot of money on this DVD and seems that I should have a result. I'm afraid to upgrade to TIGER. My family is waiting for their copies.
Any suggestions for me???????
This is my first posting and am not familiar with how it goes, but am hoping that we can solve our problems!

Purchased song but won't play

Hey everyone,
So I just purchased Joss Stone's new single and downloaded it. For some reason though, it will not play. The video works fine but when I click the song nothing happens at all. Any suggestions?

I am having the same issue. Ever since I updated iTunes to 7 and the following updates, I have had this issue. It happens with purchased music and videos. I downloaded the Super Bowl Highlights and still haven't been able to watch them.
The purchased songs will play for the first day I have them, and then they will not play any more. Sometimes, the song will play again, and nothing else on the playlist will work...fast forward to the next day, the newly purchased song/songs will not play, and the rest of the playlist will work fine. Aggrevating, to say the least.
Please help us....

When I'm trying to sync my iPad with iTunes on my MacBook Pro, i keep getting a message that certain recent purchases (TV shows) won't sync because the computer is not authorized. But, it IS authorized! What's going on here??

I've recently upgraded my iPad to OS 5 and I am running iTunes 10 on my MacBook Pro. For some unexplainable reason, I'm now getting a message that items (mainly TV shows I've purchased through iTunes) are not able to be downloaded because the computer is "not authorized." But the computer IS authorized. I follow the instructions to "authorize" it and, of course, I'm then told that the computer is already authorized! Still, the downloads won't sync.
Can anyone help me out with this?

I have the same problem. It is only with tv shows and only with programs I have downloaded after the software update.
Apple support sent me the above link too....but it doesn't solve the problem...my computer is authorized and the content is in my library and will play on my Mac air, but it will not sync the tv shows, it keeps saying my computer isn't authorized for it.
No answers here, but you are definitely not alone with this issue.

Purchased TV Show won't sync to iPod with no error messages or action

I've ripped two seasons of a tv show onto my computer and they sync to my video iPod just fine. I purchased the only 3 episodes I wanted of a later season, but they won't sync to the iPod. It gives me no error messages about authorization, and it won't allow me to drag the files to the iPod. Do you think this is an authorization problem? This is the first macbook, iPod, and iTunes account I've ever had.

The key phrase is "iTunes includes the capability to convert SOME movies into a format that can be played on an iPhone or an iPod that supports video playback."
The original poster is a Mac user. I find QuickTime Pro to be an excellent tool on the Mac for converting video files to the touch.
There certainly are some file formats QT won't convert, but if the file he has plays in iTunes it should convert with QT Pro.

Songs Purchased from iTunes Won't Play on iPod

I purchased some songs from iTunes. They play perfectly fine on my computer through iTunes. However, when I disconnect my iPod from my computer and try to listen to those songs with my headphones or in my car through my iTrip, my iPod just skips over those songs and goes to the next song in the shuffle. Or when I try to play the whole album, it'll show 1, then 2, then 3, and so on...it skips through the whole album then ends up at the main screen without playing a single song. I've tried deauthorizing/reauthorizing my computer, I've restored my iPod many times, I've cleared my library and restored it with my backup files, I've uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes, I tried using an old updater to get the previous iPod software, but that doesn't play vidoes, and I've done all of the above on three different USB ports.
I've called Tech Support many times and they keep telling me the same thing and nothing works.
So, I finally made my way into traffic-congested Tysons Corner to the nearest Apple Store and all the guy could tell me was that the file was corrupted and to re-download my purchases. So, I go back home, get on iTunes, search for my purchases and I'm told that my purchases can only be downloaded once.
OMG! Someone help! Is there anyone out there having the same problem!??!?!
Dell Dimension 4550 Windows XP

Enable the iPod for disk use. See How to enable disk use.
Go to "my computer" and from the tools menu/folder options/view tab, enable "show hidden files and folders" in the advanced settings pane. Open the iPod in "my computer". Look for a file called "iEKinfo". Is it there? If so, make a copy of this file and save it somewhere easy to find (the desktop for instance). Do this also with the "iTunes DB" file. Don't worry if you can't see these files.
Create a new administrator account. Log out of the current account and log in to the new one. Then restore the iPod to factory settings.
Open iTunes, connect the iPod and set the transfer preferences to manual transfer. Then download the free single of the week from the iTunes Music Store. Verify that song plays in iTunes.
Now, drag this song only to the iPod, and eject the iPod from iTunes and disconnect it from the computer.
Does the song play on the iPod ok? If so, log out of the new user account and log back in to your normal one (the one you have issues with) and reconnect the iPod to the computer. Keep manual transfer selected for the moment. Drag some of the older purchased music (the ones that wouldn't play before) to the iPod.
Eject the iPod and disconnect it. Do those songs now play ok?
If not, first try this step.
Delete the SC Info.sidb file. Open iTunes again.
Now transfer some of the affected music to the iPod again. Does it play ok?

Purchased TV Show won't play

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