Not able to view YouTube TV using docking station

USB Docking Stations UD-3900PDZ
1

I cannot see many programs while using the dock. Audio is fine, but they all are black screens. I’m running legal, purchased station materials.

Pat C. sent me the below answer over a year ago. I understand the answer but was hoping that there has been a fix since then, back in 12/22. The docking station is faultless but for this really disappointing item.

I was hoping your team has found a fix?

John

Hi John,

Thank you for replying back with the additional details! My name is Pat and I will be helping out while Richard is out of the office.

This is the expected behavior when playing back HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) video streams while the DisplayLink Manager App is running on macOS. The DisplayLink Manager App requires enabling ‘Screen Recoding’ permissions within macOS in order to export video data to the docking station over USB, enabling this setting in macOS disables HDCP video playback system-wide.

HDCP is used to protect video streams for most paid video streaming services like HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Comcast etc., non-paid services like standard YouTube don’t require HDCP and are unaffected.

I am sorry, HDCP streaming video content will be unavailable when using the docking station with the computer.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions, or if there is anything else I can do to help.

Pat
Plugable Technologie

2

Hi,

Thank you for contacting us, I am sorry, this issue has not been resolved.

HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is used to prevent recording of paid streaming video content. This requires a protected path from the source ( web server ) to the display, with every step in between providing assurance the stream cannot be intercepted, copied, or recorded.

Apple doesn’t have a dedicated USB Graphics Adapter security class and instead relies on the “Screen Recording” security features built into macOS for all USB graphics emulation technologies like DisplayLink. Enabling the Screen Recording security permissions for the DisplayLink software disables HDCP system-wide, not just on the DisplayLink external displays. This is what is preventing the video playback on the built-in display as well as the “Display 1” or “HDMI 1” connected display that is controlled by the computer’s internal graphics controller rather than the DisplayLink graphics technology.

Unfortunately, Apple has not implemented a separate security model for USB graphics technologies, at this time this issue is still unresolved, however some users have reported that switching from Safari to Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox, then disabling hardware graphics acceleration has restored video playback for some streaming services. Many paid streaming services host multiple video streams, with only the highest quality requiring full HDCP protection, by disabling hardware acceleration the browser may request a lower quality stream that is not protected and allows for streaming video to play correctly. We do not officially support this process and cannot guarantee it will work with all streaming video services, for reference here is how to disable the hardware video acceleration in both Firefox and Chrome browsers:

For Mozilla Firefox browser hardware graphics acceleration can be disabled by following this support article: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration

For Google Chrome browser hardware graphics acceleration can be disabled by:

  1. Navigating to “chrome://flags”
  2. Search for “Hardware-accelerated video decode”
  3. Change the value to “Disabled”
  4. Restart the browser ( Close and reopen )

This issue does not affect most free video streaming sites like standard YouTube where HDCP is not required for video playback.

I am sorry there is no resolution for this issue at this time.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions, or if there is anything else I can do to help.

Thank you,

Pat
Plugable Technology
support@plugable.com

3

Hello,

We’re closing this thread due to inactivity, but if you have any further questions please feel free to contact support@plugable.com and we’ll be happy to help.

Thanks,

Pat
Plugable Technologies
support@plugable.com