topic Re: Sky stream in Sky Stream

Sky stream

raymond18 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:19:45 GMT

I am looking at getting stream, but looking at various comments not so sure ?

Re: Sky stream

MarkGoldsmith — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:26:12 GMT

@raymond18 it comes down to personal preference. One thing to bear in mind is that if you just read opinions from

this forum you may get a more negative view as this community is generally designed to help people who may be suffering some issues, however this would cover only a small percentage of the total customer base that have the Sky streaming platform.

Really the decision to make is if having everything being streamed and not being able to 0hysicsllu record anything to a hard disk is right for you. You can only watch shows on-demand that are available on the relevant catch up service, and of course some of those catch up services you would need to be a subscriber of e.g Disney + or paramount + in order to watch shows that are licensed to those platforms. A number of the other on-demand services like ItV X or bbc IPlayer will only generally have shows available for a limited time as well.

i should add I love stream, I've had it for about 3 months now and prefer it over the traditional satellite based platform.

Re: Sky stream

raymond18 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:33:36 GMT

@MarkGoldsmith do you have fttp, I have fttc 35 when I asked if I could be upgraded to stream told no.

Re: Sky stream

Fothergill1 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 23:25:38 GMT

@raymond18 The most important thing for the streaming platform (Glass or Stream) is to have a stable wi-fi signal and sufficient speed. The minimum speeds recommended by Sky are as follows

HD = 25mbps

UHD = 30mbps

HD + 1 puck = 30mbps

UHD + 1 puck = 35mbps

If you have other devices taking up bandwidth you may need even more.

In addition to the information already provided by @MarkGoldsmith you should also be aware that the streaming platform has fewer channels than the other Sky platforms such as Sky Q. The following link shows the current channel list as well as the channels not currently on Glass or Stream: https://www.sky.com/help/articles/tv-channel-list-sky-glass

Re: Sky stream

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:37:17 GMT

@raymond18

I am fairly new to Stream and i must say that i love the picture quality which excedes Sky q in my opinion. So impressed that i posted this review

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Stream/My-Sky-Stream-review/td-p/4560723

If you have the broadband speed go for it. For me HD quality takes 6-8 Mbps whilst UHD takes 18-25Mbps

Re: Sky stream

martswain — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 06:45:51 GMT

I purchased stream when their HD requirement was 10 Mbps.

I agree with @cookiemonsteruk that HD streaming consumes a maximum of 7 Mbps of bandwidth.

Whether that bandwidth is available depends entirely on what else is happening in the home but stream certainly prefers an ethernet connection.

With my 35 Mbps connection I can use stream, Sky Go on two devices and Youtube on another all at the same time with no issues.

Re: Sky stream

raymond18 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 08:04:37 GMT

@Fothergill1 Thanks for reply, My problem is my WiFi speed is not consistent that is why I asked to be upgraded and told no by CS.

Re: Sky stream

Floydianslip — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 08:07:48 GMT

@raymond18 If you have reservations about your Broadband speeds or fluctuations with the speed I'd stay with Q.

Re: Sky stream

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 08:15:56 GMT

@raymond18

This is where i put my broadband hat on and ask if you could enter your full postal address in the link below and post the table after removing your address from the image

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

To see how openreach fgures match up

And if you are a sky broadband customer post your hub stats

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/How-to-find-your-Sky-Broadband-router-stats/m-p/2855717#M101474

Re: Sky stream

raymond18 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 08:35:33 GMT

@cookiemonsteruk Hi at the moment i have fttc and sky q my contract is coming to the end, i phoned CS and asked if i could upgrade and have fttp and stream told no and not given a reason. Spoke to openreach and asked if i could have fttp and was told no problem as it is fitted to the pole outside my house. so your guess is as good as mine, Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Re: Sky stream

Fothergill1 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 09:53:54 GMT

@raymond18 I would tend to agree with @Floydianslip (post 8 above). However as you have a 31 day cooling off period you could give a Stream puck a try for a couple of weeks to see how you get on and if your broadband is sufficient. As you broadband is borderline, and if it is practical, I would advise an Ethernet connection and not Wi-Fi. If it is not practical (as in my case) then you could try some powerline adapters which are about £35 on Amazon.

If you are going to purchase some powerline adapters don't waste money on a 1GB model as the ethernet port on the puck (and Glass for that matter) only support up to 100mb.

Personally I love the convenience of being able to watch what I want when I want on the streaming platform.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Re: Sky stream

raymond18 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:11:43 GMT

@Fothergill1 Thanks for reply, I agree with what you are saying, but my question is why sky customer sevice said no to me upgrading to full fibre and sky stream, and (2) why should i have to go out and by power plugs and cables when i know i can get full fibre to the property by other isp's. I think Sky like making thing's awkward when trying to negotiate new deals at end of contract.

Re: Sky stream

raymond18 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:37:27 GMT

Thank you to all who have replied, i have decided to look at other isp's.

Re: Sky stream

Fothergill1 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:52:05 GMT

@raymond18 wrote:
@Fothergill1 Thanks for reply, I agree with what you are saying, but my question is why sky customer sevice said no to me upgrading to full fibre and sky stream, and (2) why should i have to go out and by power plugs and cables when i know i can get full fibre to the property by other isp's. I think Sky like making thing's awkward when trying to negotiate new deals at end of contract.

@raymond18 TBH I don't know why you were told that, one would think that Sky would be keen to upgrade you. Maybe it was just a poorly informed adviser you ended up speaking to as it's a lottery as to who you get.

Maybe phone them back and speak to someone else and if necessary explain that other ISPs have said they would be happy to upgrade you to FTTP. If you are not currently tied into a broadband contract with Sky you could consider moving to another ISP if Sky don't want to play ball. You do not need to have Sky BB to have Sky Stream (Sky BB is not even available at my location).

Re: Sky stream

Ziggi — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 23:36:13 GMT

Just changed from Q . Going to cancel tomorrow as is bloody awful. Like watching the old voice over Chinese films😢 such is the delay plus screen either freezes or goes blank. What the hell. Don't do it.

Re: Sky stream

Floydianslip — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:29:59 GMT

@Ziggi Had stream for 18 month now, 4 pucks and not had any issues. Far superior picture quality than Q, connected to a Denon 7.2 receiver via eARC sound is also superb. I don't miss Q or a hard drive full of programmes I never had time to watch either.

Mind I wouldn't have entertained Stream unless I had FTTP, which I do, also use my own router which has excellent WiFi coverage. If things are right Stream is superb.

Re: Sky stream

Padam_Padam — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:36:02 GMT

@Floydianslip wrote:
@Ziggi Had stream for 18 month now, 4 pucks and not had any issues. Far superior picture quality than Q, connected to a Denon 7.2 receiver via eARC sound is also superb. I don't miss Q or a hard drive full of programmes I never had time to watch either.

Mind I wouldn't have entertained Stream unless I had FTTP, which I do, also use my own router which has excellent WiFi coverage. If things are right Stream is superb.

This is the key thing. The vast majority of Sky customers don't. They use the basic ISP-provided router and want simple plug and play with no faffing around with ethernet, WiFi mesh or powerline. Those that switch from Q expect it to work like that - turn it on and use it.

But many forget that with Q an engineer would set up the dish and make sure a viable signal was being received otherwise the product is useless. With Stream, the onus is on the customer to make sure their broadband is up to the job, because without a decent network the product is useless.

Re: Sky stream

PSC133 — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 10:35:13 GMT

@Floydianslip wrote:
@Ziggi Had stream for 18 month now, 4 pucks and not had any issues. Far superior picture quality than Q, connected to a Denon 7.2 receiver via eARC sound is also superb. I don't miss Q or a hard drive full of programmes I never had time to watch either.

Mind I wouldn't have entertained Stream unless I had FTTP, which I do, also use my own router which has excellent WiFi coverage. If things are right Stream is superb.

I think that one thing that people with slow internet forget to investigate is the availability of mobile broadband.

I'm in a semi-rural location which is currently not listed in the Openreach plans for FTTP and no prospect of any other company venturing near. I have 6 pucks which I used to run by load balancing 2 FTTC lines averaging 35Mbps each. (Admittedly it would be unusual for more than 2 pucks to be in use at the same time.). This was quite successful.

A few months ago I noticed that my mobile phone had started to connect to 5g whilst at home and on further investigation, using friends' phones on different networks, I discovered that I had an excellent connection to both Three internet 5g and EE 4g+, even though their coverage maps suggested that I haven't.

I found the best position in my home to site a decent dual sim router which allows me to lock to a particular mobile broadband tower (Gli Inet Spitz) and now I have a Three internet connection of in excess of 700Mbps with an automatic fallback to EE 160Mbps should there be any Three issues (which are fortunately rare). This connection is fine for the pucks and can use all 6 at the same time, should that be necessary, with no obvious glitches caused by the internet connection - just the usual inadequacies of Sky Stream which many people experience. All my pucks are connected by Ethernet to a central switch.

This setup costs me significantly less monthly apart from the initial cost of the router.

The only thing that I haven't discovered is the exact position of the mobile tower but there isn't one within a mile of me. I'm very happy.

Re: Sky stream

Jay0232 — Fri, 03 May 2024 15:54:10 GMT

I've read quite a few posts on here about upgrading to Sky Stream. So I want to share my experience with you.

An existing Sky customer for 22 Years, had Sky Q multi-room which was out of contract, price increased from £57 to £99 a month, which made me think about my options. At first i wasnt even aware of Stream. What I did know was that our viewing habits had changed and that we didn't record anything anymore, the multi-room had given up on our WiFi, and then main Sky Q box frequently also dropped off the network. So we essentially were streaming pretty much everything on our iPads, even Sky Go.

After being passed around to 7 different agents and a full hour and 35 minutes, spoke to a chap with a strong Welsh accent who was brilliant, he informed me of Stream and how it matched our requirements and would actually cost the same, and we would have 4k on all pucks. I agreed and the devices arrived literally the following day, actually within 12 hours of placing the order at 7:30 the previous evening.

The devices arrived and within minutes, a simple next, next, finish wizard and boom they were setup, so simple and actually super intuitive.

I love the playlist that replaces recordings, streaming is quick, picture quality is brilliant, superior to Sky Q for sure. I read a review which said apps open slowly, I think they're much quicker.

If you don't record anymore, have fairly decent internet, use a multitude of streaming services, then this is the next step for you. Highly recommended.

Re: Sky stream

Jay0232 — Fri, 03 May 2024 16:04:38 GMT

There are plenty of reviews on Sky Stream, essentially you can simply switch from Q to Stream. What you need to know is how good your internet connection is, remembering that each device if connected to a 4k TV can stream UHD at 2060p definition, so to avoid disappointment allow at least 50MB per stream, I've read it can be lower. Also remember that you can't record anything, instead it's replaced by playlists which rely on catchup services like iPlayer and ITVx - live TV works great, maybe 10 seconds behind terrestrial, for me it's the next logical step for on demand entertainment.