Hudl 2 - "device is modified, go away" message

[Anonymous User]

Hi,

Maybe I'm the only one, but I just got a Hudl2 and installed the NowTV app and it isn't happy; it thinks the Hudl2 is modified and so now TV watching/Chromecast casting. This was a new purchase from Tesco. I set it up, it asked to update itself and that was that. It's running Android 4.4.4.

Does support need adding for the Hudl2, which I'm guessing does has some modifications by Tesco to ensure all shopping is done with them to get their profits back on track. I'm sure this tablet will sell by the bucket load due to positive reviews and a low price tag.

If it is just me, then any suggestions? If it’s the Hudl2 in general, will support be added?

Thanks!

[Andy]

@Anonymous User

No worries, there's plenty of us here who enjoy NOW TV but I do appreciate that it's all about whether the service works for you or not, and in your case if the only device you have available is your tablet then I understand that's not ideal. Have a go with the XBox (and do shout if you have problems!) and if you find it works well for you, you could always consider the Now TV box if you want to give the service another go. It's only a tenner and connects up to your Tv via HDMI (you can also buy it with bundles of movies, ents or sports passes to make it in effect free of charge).

One thing to bear in mind, don't forget to log out of the app when you've finished with your friends XBox, and if you do decide to give the service another go and want to check anything out first, feel free to ask on here!

Hope you get your sports pass working! 🙂

[Anonymous User]

Thanks again Andy.

All great suggestions from you and all appreciated.

the problem I have is that I like services like this, and as previously mentioned I have been a Netflix subscriber for years now.   However, when a company purposely deceives me I simply walk away and advise others to do the same and whilst the Now box may well work fine and be a decent price (as you kindly mentioned)- the fact NowTV have decided to purposely stop HDMI use from an Android tablet is very poor and I do class it as a con.

I'm not going overboard on this and hope it doesnt come accross as so, but even in speaking for over an hour to online NowTV staff yesterday I asked for a phone number so I could call them instead and was told they dont have phones as they are an online company.  Well as far as I know NowTV is owned by BSkyB and/or Sky plc... and that company doesnt have the infrastructure to receive phone calls...?  Just one of the many reasons I am very dubious of this NowTV company and in telling friends about the HDMI disabled feature today every one of them has reacted the same - ie surprised.

I suppose it all comes down to personal choice and when I make personal choices I consider a few things and have to say that (just as an example) Netflix allow phone calls, they also give great technical advice and they also do not trick their customers by disabling vital Andoid operations such as HDMI.

Hey Andy, thats great advice about logging out of the xbox360 when I give it back.  I had thought of that but your attention to detail and consideration is something that I admire and so thanks again for taking the time to help.  🙂

[Andy]

You're welcome 🙂

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@Anonymous User wrote:

I'm not going overboard on this and hope it doesnt come across as so

---

Not at all! To be honest it makes a pleasant change when someone takes the time to explain their situation properly rather than just have a quick rant, so I can definitely appreciate your point of view. Whilst I'm sorry I can't be of any real help, I know the community manager on here @Anonymous User is pretty active and does take note of feedback, even if it might not lead to any change in the short term.

If nothing else, hopefully you haven't been put off visiting the community again if you ever need to know anything! 🙂

[Anonymous User]

Hello @Anonymous User,

I'm sorry about the experience you've had with us.

The information given by @Andy and @Anonymous User is correct: The reason you're unable to watch via HDMI output is down to agreements with content providers. I know that other services allow this, but our licences are quite different, given we're covering both on demand and live content, as well as catch-up shows and live sports, so there are several differences.

We don't mean at all to deceive you on signing up, and I apologise if you feel that's the case. There's only so much space we can use to make people aware of the limitations of the service, and we wouldn't be able to fit them all in (no HDMI output, no red button, no subtitles, no pause/rewind, no recording, no on-demand sports, to name a few). But we do have this information readily available within our help pages and on this forum.

On the topic of the forum, our support model is different to the likes of Netflix, in that it's online only. Of course Sky has the infrastructure to offer a voice call centre, but the approach here is intentionally different. By making our service online only, we can actually save customers time in getting a resolution to any issues. Our help pages and forum contain a heck of a lot of knowledge that many people access simply by using an internet search engine, without having to navigate to our website first. Because we solve so many problems that way, that then means that people who do need to speak directly to us can get straight through to live chat without having to queue.

I hope you managed to watch the match the other day, and also hope that my explanation has clarified things a little.

Thanks,

Tom

[Anonymous User]

Hi Tom-R

Thanks for the reply.

I now understand that the reason you disable HDMI is due to licensing, but this is not what your customer service staff told me and I have 3 lengthy saved logs that show this. Your staff told me it is disabled because of "buffering". But all in all, as a service user I don't need various people giving me various reasons or (in some cases) excuses for the lack of HDMI output - I simply need to be informed BEFORE I decide to use your service that you have disabled such a vital feature and again I clarify that nowhere on your site does it tell me in advance that you have disabled HDMI within your app. This, (in my opinion) is deceitful.

I have to disagree with you saying that you dont have space on your website to let people know of the limitations. My device and my equiptment is not limited in terms of its operations, and neither is your Android app. It all comes down to the fact you have disabled the HDMI function completely and I suggest this is a completely different thing to a 'limitation'. You mention that you cant also list other 'limitations' and I do agree that red button, subtitles, recording etc etc are all limitations and I dont think any end user would expect one or all of these functions to be within the app. However, HDMI out is NOT a function of the app... its a function of Android 4.4.4 and you clearly state on your website that your app works on all Android devices of version 4.0 and above. HDMI is an android function and you have disabled it purposefully and not told anyone about that. Let me make this clearer if I may please:
If you had disabled the volume control on my device I would equally as annoyed as its an Android function. But if you disabled overlay subtitles, recording or red button (for example) then I would not be annoyed as it is a limitation you have chosen to build into the app. I take great exception to your company disabling a function that is inherint in the Android operating system. I watch Netflix, YouTube, iPlayer on my TV via HDMI from my tablet. I play Chess and a few other games on my TV via HDMI from my tablet. I use messenger services and use my Google Play Music on my TV via HDMI through my Android tablet... yet... you decide to disable it.

Well I've made very clear that disabling such a function is deceiptful however I do take on board that you do not wish to deceive people and so I expect to see a notification on your website that you have disabled HDMI on your app thus rendering a via useful and popular feature of the Android system completely useless as you state "But we do have this information readily available within our help pages". Okay, I respect that and so would like you to please publicly link up to the "help pages" that tell me that your app won't output HDMI from Android.

Getting back to your licensing issues though for a moment please Tom. I don't care about licensing issues you have as you are a HUGE profit making company and the licensing issues statement doesn't hold any credence for me. In the end, I had to borrow someones xbox360 in order to watch the football game on the big TV. If you can do it for the xbox360 - then you can do it for Android.

May I please quote you again: "By making our service online only, we can actually save customers time in getting a resolution to any issues". Well Tom, if you could only read the 3 HUGE logs from your online chat sessions that spanned (in total) over an hour I'm pretty sure that with a simple question being asked anyone would rightfully deem the 3 online chat "help" experiences I had as very time consuming and unproductive. And lets please keep in mind that you have told me something (in terms of licensing) that NOBODY in your "help" chats told me and that is proof enough of my point.

In terms of using an internet search engine to find help, whether it links to your website or another location... I am not prepared to do homework for a company that failed to tell me something very simple indeed. I have just done a character count on your page: http://help.nowtv.com/article/Android-devices.
The character count has shown me that there is ALOT of room and space for you to tell people that HDMI is disabled. On this page you tell customers about a lesser used and lesser available Android operation such as 'eye tracking' - but you fail to mention about the HDMI. Regardless of that though, there is PLENTY of room for you to include about the HDMI on this page as your page reads:

Tech Spec
We recommend the following Android device specifications for the best NOW TV app performance.
1.0 Ghz
1GB RAM
480x800 Screen Resolution
'Eye Tracking' features should be disabled. (Smart Stay / Screen)

There is certainly enough space for that little nugget of info to be appended as follows:

Tech Spec
We recommend the following Android device specifications for the best NOW TV app performance.
1.0 Ghz
1GB RAM
480x800 Screen Resolution
'Eye Tracking' features should be disabled. (Smart Stay / Screen)
HDMI output is disabled on all Android devices.

In my argument, the difference between both the little nuggets of info simply comes down to deceit.

Thank you for your nice words about watching the match. I did manage to watch the match after over an hour of useless chat in your live chat, messing around trying to borrow and setup and xbox360, and having spoken to many friends who were just as staggered as I was about this whole HDMI charade. Indeed, I watched the match - but I didn't enjoy.

Your explanation hasnt clarified anything unfortunately though Tom, but I thank you for taking the time to reply anyway. You would be able to clarify things 100% for me however if you can link (as mentioned above) to the webpage that tell potential customers that HDMI out if disabled on their Android devices. May I also lastly give my verdict on the licensing issues you have.
Let me please make you aware that YouTube is basicly a video service for business and personal users alike. However, it DOES also have live events in addition to stored streaming media. It also DOES have pay-per-view and subscription channels. The differences between NowTV and other online streaming services are minor and not as drastic as you have advised. As I said previously, you allow streaming on the xbox360 via HDMI to a bigger TV and every other online media streaming service I've used (and still use) allows output to a bigger TV via HDMI and for those reasons alone I remain completely clueless as to why a huge organisation such as BSkyB or SKY plc (whoever you are) have prevented such a regular function on a platform that us extremely popular.

[Anonymous User]

To mikemurray,

artesea may have asked a useful question there but its vital to note that there are 2 different major issues.

1.Some people are reporting that even non-rooted devices still won't allow NowTV to run although I am not fully versed in this issue and so cannot comment on its validity.

or

2.Devices the app works on purposely won't let you output via HDMI as NowTV prefer to con people into spending their money without publising this deceiptful HDMI disabling on their website.

If you have an Android device of 4.0 or above and it is not rooted and has sufficient RAM and specs as detailed on the NowTV website then I suggest you demand an answer from NowTV and/or ask for a refund.

However, if the NowTV app works on your Android device but won't let you output to HDMI then I suggest you summise that NowTV has conned you too, request a refund and pick another way of using the services NowTV offers without having the deceipt that NowTV clearly demonstrate.

Sorry I can't be of more help mikemurray. 

[Anonymous User]

Yet in a strange twist of fate....

Side loading the app on to non Google android devices with or with out touch screen NOW works...

http://community.nowtv.com/t5/Android/Install-NowTV-app-on-Non-Google-Android-OS-AKA-Amazon-Fire-OS/...

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the welcome Andy.

Unfortunately I wont be a member of the community for long as the amount of problems I have with NowTV since first discovering it yesterday have led me to be extremely dubious about it and its failings.

I maintain the views I wrote in my post above but as I now have the sports pass I am going to borrow an x-box 360 to try and get NowTV up and running on that before I delete from everywhere.

Thank you very much for the link of supported devices, your time is appreciated.  However, I do have a supported device - its a Hudl2 Android tablet and its very annoying and a great inconvenience that NowTV hide the fact they have blocked the HDMI function thus meaning I've now had to ring someone and explain just how much I've been conned by NowTV and that I'd like to borrow their xbox360.

Anyway, hopefully the xbox360 will work when I pick it up in an hour but after seeing how this NowTV company operates and fools its customers I'm fully expecting for another message to appear that will read something like...

'Oops, this device is supported too, but as you've played Minecraft we have disabled the NowTV viewing option'.

Cheers again Andy 🙂

[Anonymous User]

I too am really disappointed. I bought a Hudl2 particularly because it has a

HDMI connection and I often use Nowtv to watch football matches. I haven't seen any information anywhere to say that HDMI is blocked on android. By the way, last night I spent a fraught hour fruitlessly scrabbling around trying to get my activated sports pass to work. Most unsatisfactory!

[Anonymous User]

@Anonymous User 

I have a feeling that one can't project NOWTV from a tablet to a TV, via hdmi, due to licencing restrictions.

Not tried it myself as I use a Roku