Sky Q vs BBC iPlayer/Apple TV picture quality (Open Golf)

[Stuart261]

I had been watching the Open Golf on one of the Sky Sports channels (HD, I don't subscribe to UHD) and generally I've been happy with the picture quality (Sky Q, LG C9OLED TV).

Out of interest I watched the BBC highlights via the iPlayer app on my Apple TV 4K using the same TV. The picture quality looked quite a bit better than Sky Q. As far as I know the iPlayer is streaming in HD.

Is it my imagination or is this anyone else's experience?

I've read that Sky Stream can appear higher quality than Sky Q, albeit some people are having problems.

Is it the case then that Sky Q has fallen behind in terms of picture quality, compared to streaming?

[SlenderRobert · Accepted solution]

---

@Stuart261 wrote:

I had been watching the Open Golf on one of the Sky Sports channels (HD, I don't subscribe to UHD) and generally I've been happy with the picture quality (Sky Q, LG C9OLED TV).

Out of interest I watched the BBC highlights via the iPlayer app on my Apple TV 4K using the same TV. The picture quality looked quite a bit better than Sky Q. As far as I know the iPlayer is streaming in HD.

Is it my imagination or is this anyone else's experience?

I've read that Sky Stream can appear higher quality than Sky Q, albeit some people are having problems.

Is it the case then that Sky Q has fallen behind in terms of picture quality, compared to streaming?

---

If you watched via the iPlayer app on your Apple TV 4K box then you're actually watching upscaled 720P - that is the maximum resolution iPlayer operates at on that device. It just shows how good an upscaler the Apple TV 4K box is as I too often find it looks as good, if not better, than what my Sky Stream puck outputs (which is 1080i upscaled to 2160P). If you watched via the iPlayer app on your LG OLED then you'd have got it in 1080P to compare. 

The native HD output of Sky Q is starting to lag behind. I noticed when I switched from Q to Stream that the image was a tad sharper and less posterised.  

Sky is generally a much more content focussed service than quality. They just want to give you as much choice as possible but not necessarily in the best quality. Their native UHD output is generally very good but HD quality varies a lot and their hardware is not particularly good at upscaling. If you don't subscribe to UHD then I'd leave your Q box set to output the native 1080i signal, then your TV will do the upscaling and will probably do a better job. 

[Stuart261]

Thanks! You've explained that really well.

I'm not particularly well informed technically, but I do seem to to be sensitive to small subjective differences in picture quality.

Without opening a can of worms, it sounds like  Sky Stream with UHD would be a better option than Sky Q, purely from a picture quality point of view, albeit that Sky in general will never be top quality?

P.S. I had also been watching the Tour de France in HD on the Discovery Apple TV app and again, the quality was far better than Eurosport on Sky Q.

[SlenderRobert]

---

@Stuart261 wrote:

Thanks! You've explained that really well.

I'm not particularly well informed technically, but I do seem to to be sensitive to small subjective differences in picture quality.

Without opening a can of worms, it sounds like  Sky Stream with UHD would be a better option than Sky Q, purely from a picture quality point of view, albeit that Sky in general will never be top quality?

P.S. I had also been watching the Tour de France in HD on the Discovery Apple TV app and again, the quality was far better than Eurosport on Sky Q.

---

I'm the same - I notice image quality a lot and have definitely gravitated away from Sky's hardware more and more in the past couple of years. Most of our viewing now comes via apps either on my Panasonic OLED or the Apple TV 4K box. The Sky Stream puck sits unused for days on end and is only used for watching the very rare Sky-exclusive show. 

If you were to switch to Sky Stream just make sure it would suit your viewing habits - it's very different to Q, slower and much less versatile, particularly when it comes to ad skipping and recordings (or lack of.) 

[Stuart261]

I think I'm coming to the same conclusion, because I've been so struck by the Apple TV picture quality.

The only thing keeping with Sky TV at all is (some) Sky Sports content.

I could fill that gap by dipping into Now TV using their Apple TV app. Do you have any experience or thoughts about what it's picture quality would be like? Again, I've read some bad reports, but maybe the Apple TV's upscaling would compensate?

[SlenderRobert]

---

@Stuart261 wrote:

I think I'm coming to the same conclusion, because I've been so struck by the Apple TV picture quality.

The only thing keeping with Sky TV at all is (some) Sky Sports content.

I could fill that gap by dipping into Now TV using their Apple TV app. Do you have any experience or thoughts about what it's picture quality would be like? Again, I've read some bad reports, but maybe the Apple TV's upscaling would compensate?

---

We're not sports fans in our house I'm afraid so I don't have any direct experience of watching it via NOW on the Apple TV box. I have watched some Sky Cinema stuff on it though and with the Boost add-on it does give perfectly good 1080P and 5.1 audio which upscales very well. 

You can always try it and cancel after a month - that's the beauty of NOW.