Guides / Screen recording with audio
Why is my Mac screen recording black or silent on Netflix, Apple TV+ and Disney+?
Updated 2026-09-03.
Your Mac screen recording is black on Netflix because the video is protected by DRM. In Safari and the TV app, streams are delivered with Apple's FairPlay Streaming, which Apple says lets providers "encrypt content, securely exchange keys, and protect playback on Apple platforms". Protected frames are not handed to screen capture, so the player area records as black, and DRM audio may record as silence too. No app, free or paid, changes this.
Why is my screen recording black on Netflix?
Because the pixels never reach the capture path. Streaming services encrypt their video and only a protected decoder inside macOS can display it. Apple's HDMI support page lists the apps that support this protected playback: "HDCP-encrypted playback from Apple Music, iTunes and QuickTime Player", and Safari when "the content is FairPlay Streaming-enabled". When such content is on screen, the compositor blanks that region for any screen capture, including Shift-Command-5, QuickTime, OBS, Zoom screen share, and AirPlay. You see the show; the recording sees black.
This is not a bug in your Mac or in the recorder, and it does not depend on macOS version; macOS 26 Tahoe behaves the same. Netflix's own help page says plainly that "Airplay and Screen Mirroring are no longer supported by Netflix", which is the same protection applied to a different output. The same applies to Apple TV+, Disney+, Prime Video, Max, and most paid services in Safari or their apps. Chrome and Firefox use Google's Widevine for the same services; the result in a recording is the same black box.
Why is the recording silent as well as black?
Two separate causes stack here. First, the built-in recorder never records system audio at all, DRM or not; it records a microphone. So a Shift-Command-5 recording of Netflix would be silent even if the video were allowed. That part is explained in why does my Mac screen recording have no sound.
Second, for apps that do capture system audio through ScreenCaptureKit, protected audio can be withheld too. In practice on this Mac, Apple TV+ and some Apple Music content may play silent in a ScreenCaptureKit capture, while unprotected sources (YouTube, Spotify's app and web player, SoundCloud, Twitch, Zoom, Teams, Meet) capture normally. Whether a given service's audio comes through depends on how the service protects it, and that can change with an app update. The honest statement is: video from paid streaming services will be black, audio may or may not be present, and neither AirCheck nor OBS nor Audio Hijack can promise otherwise.
What does and does not record on a Mac?
Sort your source into one of three groups.
- Unprotected video and audio: YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, most course platforms, Zoom and Teams calls, your own DJ software, games. Screen recorders capture the picture; ScreenCaptureKit apps capture the sound. Everything works.
- Protected video, audio not always protected: this is where the black-but-audible recordings come from, and where the table below says "varies". Test with a 30 second clip before relying on it.
- Protected video and audio: Apple TV+ is the clearest case on macOS. Black picture, silent track.
If your goal was the audio of a lecture, podcast or radio stream that happens to be on a video page, it is almost always in the first group and records fine as a sound-only file; see how to record audio only without video on Mac. If your goal was a film from a paid service, no recording route exists.
Is there a legal way to keep a copy?
This is not legal advice. Circumventing technical protection measures such as FairPlay or HDCP is prohibited by anti-circumvention law. The US statute, 17 U.S.C. 1201, reads: "No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." The EU has an equivalent rule in its copyright directive. Neither depends on what you intend to do with the copy. Tools that advertise a way around the black screen are asking you to break that rule, and they also break the service's terms.
What you can do: use the service's own offline download where it is offered, which on Apple platforms means the TV app or the iPhone and iPad apps rather than a Mac browser; record content you own or are licensed to record; or record the unprotected sources in the first group above. For calls and meetings, the consent rules are a separate question and are covered in is it legal to record a call on Mac.
To play HDCP content on an external display, HDCP playback requires an HDCP compatible display.
Apple, Connect to HDMI from your Mac
What a Mac recording contains for common sources (by protection design, not a per-service test)
| Source | Protection | Video in a screen recording | Audio via ScreenCaptureKit | Audio via Shift-Command-5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch | none for standard playback | yes | yes | no (mic only) |
| Zoom, Teams, Meet calls | none | yes | yes | no (mic only) |
| Spotify, SoundCloud | none in the capture path | yes | yes | no (mic only) |
| Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video (Safari) | FairPlay Streaming / HDCP | black | varies | no (mic only) |
| Apple TV+ (TV app or Safari) | FairPlay / HDCP | black | may be silent | no (mic only) |
| Apple Music (some content) | FairPlay | not applicable | may be silent | no (mic only) |
Apple TV+ and Apple Music behaviour observed on the author's Mac with AirCheck; other DRM services listed by their documented protection, not measured.
Where AirCheck fits
AirCheck helps only for the first group. It records everything the Mac plays through ScreenCaptureKit, so a webinar, a Twitch stream, a radio station, or a Zoom call becomes a clean 24-bit WAV or 320 kbps MP3 in ~/Music/AirCheck, with no video to strip. It is $39 once, needs macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, and is honest about the limit: DRM-protected playback such as Apple TV+ may play silent, and AirCheck does nothing to work around that.
When you do not need it: If your source is Netflix, Apple TV+ or another DRM service, you do not need AirCheck or any other recorder, because the capture is blocked by design and circumventing the protection is prohibited by law.
AirCheck records what your Mac plays, or any input, to one file. $39 once.
macOS 14 or newer. One-off payment. Fourteen-day refund, no questions asked.
Questions people ask
Why is Netflix black when I screen record but Zoom screen share shows it?
It usually does not; Zoom, AirPlay and screen mirroring get the same black region because they use the same protected capture path. Netflix's help page states that AirPlay and Screen Mirroring are not supported, which is the same protection applied to a different output.
Does OBS record Netflix on a Mac?
No. OBS uses the same ScreenCaptureKit path as every other macOS recorder and receives the same black frames for FairPlay-protected content. Unprotected sources such as YouTube, Twitch and meeting apps record normally in OBS with both picture and sound.
Can AirCheck record Apple TV+ audio?
Not reliably. On the author's Mac, Apple TV+ and some Apple Music content may play silent under ScreenCaptureKit, and AirCheck does not work around that. Standard streams (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Twitch, meeting apps) record normally.
Is it illegal to screen record Netflix for personal use?
Not legal advice: the recording is blocked by design, and circumventing the protection is prohibited under 17 U.S.C. 1201 in the US and equivalent EU rules, independent of personal use. Use the service's own offline downloads in its app instead, where it offers them.
Sources
- Apple: FairPlay Streaming
- Apple: Connect to HDMI from your Mac (HDCP)
- Netflix: Black screen with sound
- Netflix: What is HDCP?
- Apple: ScreenCaptureKit documentation
- Cornell LII: 17 U.S.C. 1201, circumvention of copyright protection systems
Related guides
- Why does my Mac screen recording have no sound?
- How to record audio only on a Mac, without making a screen recording
- What can the built-in Mac screen recorder (Shift-Command-5) record, and what can it not?
- Can you record Netflix or Apple TV+ audio on a Mac?
- How to record Apple Music on a Mac
- How to screen record with internal audio on a Mac
- Screen recording with audio: all guides
- Every guide, by topic