The market loves competition. Competition pushes technology – and the user experience – forward. In the early days of streaming, we were lucky to be able to watch movies and TV shows in high definition with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Today, you can stream your favorite shows and movies in 4K resolution, sometimes in Dolby Vision or HDR10+ dynamic HDR (high dynamic range) and even in fully immersive Dolby Atmos surround sound. Once a competitive differentiator that separated the premium streaming services from the basic services, now 4K resolution with HDR and Dolby Atmos surround is considered “table stakes” and is expected by tech-savvy consumers, particularly those who are paying extra for the “Premium” streaming plans.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service may have been a little late to the 4K/Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos party, but the service does now offer select titles in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos immersive surround sound. The streamer even announced that this year’s Sunday Night Football games would be broadcast in 4K HDR with fully immersive Dolby Atmos surround sound. Hear the crunch of the tackles and the roar of the crowd with dynamic sound coming from all around and even above you. Sounds pretty cool, right? The trick is getting it to work.
Peacock and Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos: A Mixed Bag
Peacock’s support for 4K/HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content isn’t exactly “universal.” While it does work on some Roku, Amazon and Apple TV streaming boxes, it is not supported on many popular streaming devices and platforms. As a tech review site, we have access to a fair number of different streaming devices, so we decided to give Dolby Atmos a try on Peacock and are here to report back with our results.
For testing purposes, we tested the devices on two different 4K Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos-compatible TVs, a TCL QM8K (2025 model year) which uses the Google TV streaming platform as well as a Panasonic Z85A OLED TV which is built on Amazon’s FireTV platform. For Dolby Atmos sound reproduction, we tested using two Dolby Atmos-capable Denon A/V receivers, as well as a Klipsch Flexus Core 300 soundbar system, all of which support Dolby Atmos surround sound.
As for content, we used two movies which are currently streaming on Peacock, both of which are described in the service as supporting both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos surround. The movies were “The Fall Guy” and “Jurassic World: Rebirth.” If the service can deliver 4K/HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos from these films, then it should also work on the Sunday Night Football broadcast.
Amazon Fire TV
Peacock does have some support for 4K/Dolby Vision and Atmos on Fire TV. We tested a 2023 model Fire TV Stick 4K and were able to get 5.1 channel Dolby Digital sound, but not Dolby Atmos. However, on both a Fire TV 4K Max streaming stick (2024) and a Panasonic Z85A OLED Fire TV (2024), we were able to get 4K resolution, Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos surround working properly on compatible titles.
Roku
Peacock says on their web site that select Roku streaming devices support Dolby Atmos, including the Roku Ultra. We did not have a Roku Ultra on hand to test, however we tested Dolby Atmos content on the company’s latest Roku Streaming Stick 4K (Model 3830R) and found that Dolby Atmos did not work on the Peacock app. We tested this connected through the TCL TV, using HDMI/eARC to connect to the Klipsch soundbar, but also tested with the Roku stick connected directly to the soundbar and the results were the same: no Dolby Atmos.
Apple TV 4K
We had better luck on Apple TV, with the Peacock app running on a 2023 model year Apple TV 4K streaming box. On this hardware, we were able to get 4K/HDR and Dolby Atmos surround working correctly from compatible Peacock content.
Google TV/Android TV
Support for Dolby Atmos and 4K/HDR content on the Android TV and Google TV platforms seem to be the most problematic for Peacock. While some users report success in being able to stream 4K content from Peacock in both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos on some Android TV and Google TV streaming devices, others report no support for either Dolby Atmos, and not even for any sort of 4K streaming video, with or without HDR.
We tested Peacock Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos streaming on the Google TV version of the Peacock app on a 2025 model year TCL TV, the QM8K MiniLED TV. This is one of the company’s highest performance model TVs from 2025 and we have confirmed that it supports both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos on most streaming services. Sadly, Peacock is not one of these services.
On the TCL Google TV, we not only did not get Dolby Atmos, we couldn’t even get Dolby Digital 5.1 or any sort of 4K feed from Peacock. The best we could get was a standard 1080p (HD) feed with stereo 2.0-channel PCM sound.
I contacted Peacock support via in-app chat and confirmed that I had gone through all of the necessary debugging steps: cleared cache and data from the Peacock app, uninstalled and reinstalled the Peacock app; did a hard reset on the streaming device (streaming stick or TV); re-started my network router, etc. None of these actions resulted in any improvement. And the “escalation” to tier two support led to a less-than-helpful reply from Peacock support:
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We have reviewed your case and found that you are looking for the Dolby Vision content. However, we would like to inform you that the content you are referring is not available on Dolby Vision. We do have “JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION’ content on Dolby Vision. We will take it as feedback and will ensure the proper teams are made aware of this.”
So… I had asked about Dolby Atmos, and specifically listed the content I was trying to view in Dolby Atmos. Peacock’s “customer care” team claimed the content I was watching was not available in Dolby Vision (which is, in fact, not the same thing as Dolby Atmos). And it wasn’t even true. Both titles I was testing are listed as supporting both Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision in the Peacock app on the affected devices.
We reached out to PR reps at both TCL and NBC Universal but have yet to receive a response. If we do hear back with any recommendations or an official statement of device support, we’ll be sure to update this article.
This Sunday, we’ll try the Sunday Night Football stream on Peacock specifically and will report back as to whether we’re able to view it in 4K/HDR with Dolby Atmos surround sound on any of our current devices. But based on our current testing, we’re expecting mixed results.
The Bottom Line
While it’s great to see efforts from streaming services to up their game when it comes to audio and video quality, it can be frustrating for consumers when they try to actually take advantage of these improvements and hit roadblocks, like we did in our testing. For Peacock specifically, I’ve had similar issues in the past, notably when trying to view the Olympics in 4K with Dolby Atmos. In that case, I actually had the best results tuning into the live Over the Air ATSC 3.0 broadcast from my local NBC affiliate. When we test again on Sunday, we’ll also check the local OTA feed and compare the results. Stay tuned.
How about you, eCoustics readers? Are you able to see Sunday Night Football (or really any live sports) in 4K/HDR with Dolby Atmos? If so (or if not) let us know in the comments, and be sure to note what gear you’re using.
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