How is Peacock *so bad*???

[jducoeur]

Okay, time for a brief, mild rant.

So -- it's Olympics time. Yes, I disagree with the way the IOC has largely strong-armed Tokyo into going ahead with this thing despite the opposition of most of the residents. (And yes, it's dumb and irresponsible just on general principles, under the circumstances.) But yes, we're watching at least some of it.

We initially planned to record it on our Tablo. (Which is basically a DVR without a cable -- we have it hooked up to an HD antenna, which provides surprisingly decent broadcast TV reception.) But due to some sort of programming error, we didn't get the Opening Ceremonies, which sounded like fun. So we decided, what the heck: we'll use this as the excuse to try Peacock, which is the streaming service that is carrying the Olympics.

And OMG -- it's terrible.

When you pick up a prestige event like this, you are supposed to use it as a showcase, to convince people to use your service. Someone apparently didn't tell this to anyone at Peacock.

Just to begin with, navigation is almost incomprehensible. They put this idiotic talk show up front, and make everything else hard to find.

Worse, the point of streaming is to be able to watch what you want, when you want -- but in practice, they mostly just have highlights. I can't find a way to see much beyond their selected little highlights.

But the worst is that the actual technology is weak. We paid $10 for the ad-free version, because of course we did. But apparently "ad-free" means that the ads are replaced by a "We'll be coming back soon" screen for several minutes -- they're not actually cut, just blanked out. And adding insult to injury, the fast-forward doesn't show you a preview as you go, so you're left just guessing how far to go, and wind up scrolling back and forth.

Conclusion? We fixed the programming on the Tablo, because it is a far better way to watch the games than bloody Peacock.

I'm downright pissed off about it, since the money was so very wasted. Not only was this not a showcase for Peacock, it turned my opinion of the service from "enh" to "hell, no". Smooth job...

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

We keep meaning to sign up so we can watch "We are Lady Parts," but maybe during the Olympics isn't the right time. Thanks for the review.

[stitchwhich]

I didn't have the heart to watch the Olympics this year and your experience with Peacock is helping me feel better about that. What a mess.

[writerkit]

Peacock also does not work on Linux. Like, at all. Even when Netflix went through its phase of having issues with Linux several years ago, it still worked fine in Chrome. Peacock had a phase of working on Linux and has now stopped again-- which is annoying to me, because Peacock does have a few shows I want to watch badly enough that I'd be willing to put up with the interface issues.