At the risk of letting the cat out of the bag, with someone at NBC insisting
they have to be "hard to get," what this article says appears to be only
partially true. At least, today. Not completely true.
There are indeed some shows that give the error message as shown in the
article, and others that stream just fine, from a PC with the new Edge browser,
to TV set, over HDMI. This Peacock TV site seems to be a gussied up version of
what's available at nbc.com, perhaps more like CBS All Access. But unlike CBS
All Access, it offers a free, ad supported TV programs, or a "premium" package.
A couple of years ago, maybe more, some articles had explained how ad-supported
FOTI streaming was gaining momentum, and it might just be the case. I've always
thought that a migration of FOTA TV to FOTI makes perfect sense. It fits right
in the way people have watched TV all along, and how people typically use the
web.
Bert
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https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/peacock-doesnt-support-hdmi-connection-to-external-monitor
Peacock Doesn’t Support HDMI Connection to External Monitor
By Daniel Frankel 11 hours ago
Users lament yet another living room viewing restriction for new streaming
service, which already can’t be watched on Roku or Amazon Fire TV
NEW YORK—Peacock will not allow users of its platform on personal computers or
mobile devices to port the video to their TV monitors via HDMI.
The restriction represents yet another barrier to living room viewing of
Peacock, which already lacks app support for the two biggest connected TV
platforms, Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
“HDMI connectivity is not supported at this time,” Twitter handle operators for
Peacock told a bereaved user last week. “Users will not be able to view via
external monitor connection. They will need to use their PC, mobile or one of
our other supported devices directly.”
The Peacock posting directed the user to this link, which lists the devices for
which the Comcast and NBCUniversal streaming app, which launched nationally
July 15, is supported.
Peacock is supported by both the Google and Apple software ecosystems. In
addition to connected TV devices powered by Google’s Android TV OS, as well as
Apple TV gadgets, Peacock can be watched on personal computers via the Google
Chrome Browser, for instance. MacBook users can watch it in Chrome or Safari.
And of course, users of Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices can watch
Peacock on their gadgets.
But Peacock users can’t hook up these PC and mobile devices to an external
monitor via HDMI and watch Peacock. TV Technology's sister site Next|TV tried
using a 2015 MacBook Pro and received the same error message as those legions
of users complaining on Reddit did—a screen pops up on the external monitor
featuring a sad-eyed kitten indicating, “something went wrong.”
Conversely, we hooked up our version 1.0 AirTV device, powered by Android TV
and connected via HDMI to the same TCL 55-inch monitor, and we were able to
watch “30 Rock” on Peacock just fine.
Interestingly, the lack of external monitor support seems confined to HDMI.
Next|TV connected its 2020 MacBook Pro to a 19-inch monitor via USB Type C
(Thunderbolt 3) to DVI cable. We were able to watch Peacock original NASCAR
documentary “Lost Speedways” just fine on the external HP monitor.
Side note: The documentary was pretty disappointing: not much meat to the
sandwich. Just Dale Earnhardt Jr. walking around an overgrown abandon speedway,
making odd observations. Hoping for better luck with Peacock original “Brave
New World.”
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