Sky Q hints & tips

The Community is a place where likeminded people come together to discuss and share their knowledge about everything Sky, some members are a whizz when it comes to new tech!

 

Here are just some of the handy tips they’ve contributed to help others get the most from Sky Q:-

 

Freddy+Hayward has too many remotes and wants to use their Sky Q remote to turn off their TV

 

"am I able to turn off the tv using one of the Sky Q remote?"

 

Mark39:- Just press and hold  the power button on the Q remote for several seconds until the TV goes into standby. A short press turns off the Q box, a long press turns off the TV.

willowsfarmers is tired of manually scrolling through the TV guide

 

"How do you change the day when searching for programs in TV Guide instead of scrolling to the right?"

 

LixyPete:- Cunningly Sky have hidden this in a help article, fast forward goes forwards 24, rewind back 24, and play jumps to now.

 

Srik loves to flick between 2 channels

 

"Is there a way to go back to the previous channel you were watching?"

 

Dazzasky:- If you swipe right on the touchpad remote it will bring up a screen at the bottom where you can select your previous channel.

Fredrussell discovers how to find their Sky Q remote

 

"Just realised there is a button in the centre of the Q on the Sky Q 2TB box. Gave it a press and was greeted by what sounded like a quiet smoke alarm. Wasn't too impressed and spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what it was without any joy.

 

Went to turn it off with the remote to find out it was actually the touch remote. So it turns out if you lose your remote down the couch you can find it with the touch of a button."

S1 outlines how to quickly access your recordings

 

"By mistake, just found that by pressing the Sky logo on Q remotes takes you straight to recordings............"

Superdavebrown was forever fast forwarding

 

"Say I want to go to 30 minutes on a program, other than fast forward is there another way?"

 

Tarbat:- Swipe UP then swipe RIGHT and it will jump forward

 

simon194:- Easier still with the touch remote, use voice control "Go to 30 minutes" or "Skip 30 minutes".

 

 

s.shenton sometimes loses track of everything they’ve watched

 

"I have downloaded a box set, does anyone know you can tell if it has been viewed?"

 

Simon194:- Programmes that have been viewed will have a blue progress bar underneath the tile picture.

 

Chrisee:- A white dot indicates that material has not been viewed.

PixelPerfect is struggling to find Dolby Atmos enabled content

 

"Any way to find what Dolby Atmos content is available apart from live sport?"

 

trevforum:- I use Voice Control and ask "Show me Dolby Atmos content”

 

 

Got any tips up your sleeve that you would like to share? Let us know by joining the conversation in the Sky Q forum. 

 

 

 

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Comments (31)

A big thanks to all of you who replied regarding the problems I had with watching in 3D and the fact that the Qbox had locked down 2160/10 with no obvious way of resetting. Between you, you have solved the problem for me. If ever you're in my neck of the woods - that's a pint I owe you all!

Hi

 

Has anyone experienced the Sky Q box and Mini box making the surface that they stand on extremely hot, both boxes are in free air, one on the kitchen worktop and the other on the cupboard top along side the TV.

 

On moving the boxes and placing my hand flat on the area that the boxes were standing on I have to remove my hand as the Area is very hot, the top of the boxes are also quite hot, I am concerned that they may be hot enough to damage the serfaces.

 

I have reported this to Sky.

I have Sky Q and when I go into the menu for recorded programs the programs have recorded but the is no picture of the recorded programs on the menu. Where the picture should be there is just a blank blue square. Any one know to sort this problem out?

I am no expert but I had a similar problem which was only rectified by increasing the download speed. In other words, your broadband speed/width is less than the service requires. The other way this is caused is that some specialist channels like "Hotchanda" do not provide a "still" for your menu. Third and final, have you re-booted your Q box? Sincerely hope one of these works for you as I konw how totally frustrating "Q" can be.

Hi

 

I am on Fibre to Home so increasing the speed anymore is not viable.

 

Thanks for your interst though

Hi all I'm having problems with images on my sky Q planner and also they not grouping? I have tired re-booting and turning it all off and tired up dated it and still nothink happens? Can any1 help me please? 

I had the same problem of lost thumbnails and series not stacking. Started last week. I rebooted the box (disconnected the power for a minute or so and then allowed it to restart.) It didn't do anything to programmes I had already recorded, but new programmes recorded after I did it had thumbnails back and started stacking again. Not happened since (touching wood rapidly)

Sky Q.

On switching ON, the display defauts to "Top Picks". Is there a way to default to "tv guide" instead?

Getting+Old I suspect you are stuck with it, as that seems to be the default position. I have been told that this may change "later in the year." But until then I think we're all stuck with it.

Anonymous

Why can't I see all the hd channels? I just get a comment "your subscription doesn't cover this channel" I was not informed that this was an  option when I ordered my q multiroom and variety bundle.  I am very disappointed by this as I watch a lot of the programs on the discovery, national geographic and eden channels. Where do I go from here?

 

Firstly, have you tried re-booting your main Qbox. Next, was this new to you or did it replace an earlier Skybox. If it was new to you, get on to Sky because they have probably sold you the wrong bundle. If you are exchanging an old system for Q, then I suspect the problem was in the switch over when the Q system was installed. Did the engineer check all the channels before he/she left? Again I suspect you will need to contact Sky and explain the situation and get a re-visit from the engineer. I am not a "teccy" expert so if you get a reply which is different from someone else, try their remedy first. My sympathy for your plight....they should have ironed the bugs out of Q before they marketed it. All the best.

Do Sky themselves ever look at questions posed by their users? If they do, why don't they answer? If they don't, why not?

Sky claim they read every one (note the word "claim".) They also have contact numbers, but service levels are poor and waiting times of over a hour have been known. This is only my opinion but telephones need people, complaints need people, but like almost everywhere these days, Sky try to get away with the barest minimum and good customer service is the first to be abandoned. They know they have only one serious competitor (Virgin) who are equally as inept and are currently "sleep walking" into a situation where their version of Q (called V6) is equally as bug ridden and customers who have chosen it have as many, if not more complaints regarding it....it's also quite expensive and doesn't guarantee UHD yet, although they claim it's the reason for marketing it! Please forgiive the vitriol, but at the moment it is my personal belief we are screwed.

Hi all,

ive got sky q installed.Just one mini box in seperate room.Ive got a. Bose solo 5 sound bar with the mini box.The Bose delivers just a crackling noise listening to the radio or non HD Tv channels.I can reset the mini box and then I get normal sound on all channels.

      When I connect the Bose to the Two terrabite box it plays perfectly.Had a great sky engineer here today,he says there is a soft ware fault on the mini boxes.To overcome the problem he went into settings ,came out of Dolby and into normal,...and the problem is gone.Obviously I haven't got the use of Dolby on the mini box,and will have to wait for SKY,to deal with the software update on the mini box.

     The other problem is the optical cable will not connect from the TV direct.Will,only connect ,mini box to Bose.

Anonymous

Why have the recording thumbnails gone blank? We used to be able to see images now there is nothing - just titles. . 

Hi,

 

Does anyone know what happens if you connect a Sky Q box to an existing Sky Plus LNB. Is it a case case of it working but with reduced functionality (e.g.2 channels only) or does it just not work at all?

Thanks.

Clubswiger (Boomslinger) do you do sound for film or TV? The only way that most of us have got round this problem (and it appears to be fairly common) is th re-boot your Q-box. Leave it with the power off for about a minute then switch on again. I doesn't always work and even if it does, it wil only start thumb-nailing from when you re-booted. Best of luck - I thinkwe're all Guinnee Pigs for Sky!

Hi Macdoogal, while installing my Q-box, I asked the engineer the same question and he said that the two had been deliberatly made incompatible due to the fact they wish to stop anyone "pirating with an old box. Totally unacceptable as this now means that any stored recordings on the old boc are useless. So sorry, we're stuck with it. 

Anonymous

My sky Q is still not working properly, there are still no pictures on my home screen. This seems to be a common problem and I was told weeks ago a new software update would sort out this problem. 

Surprisingly there has still not been a software update and I've been told sky are not yet sure when the update will be. 

Does anyone know when the update will be?

I was told by Sky engineer it would be "mid-March."