topic Re: Sky Stream Query in Sky Stream

Sky Stream Query

tippunmon — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:34:15 GMT

Sorry for such a basic question, but assuming I sign up as a completely new user for Sky Stream, with Ultimate TV and Sky Sports packages, will I get HD channels, where appropriate? This basic question doesn't seem to be obviously answered on Sky website, maybe it is buried somewehere along with a Full Channel List for Ultimate TV as I couldn't easily find that either

Re: Sky Stream Query

SKY1992bf — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:37:34 GMT

@tippunmon All channels on stream are hd as standard

the tv channel list is below

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/tv-channel-list-sky-glass

UHD query

tippunmon — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:44:13 GMT

Potential new subscriber considering Sky Stream with Ultimate TV and Sky Sports. Notice there is an optional UHD channel for various channels. I must be doing something wrong (possibly wrong tv setup) as whenever I've attempted HDR, or similar before the picture quality has been very poor (for example on BBC Freeview Wimbledon, press green button for experimental hdr/whatever). I have a 3 year old 4k Sony Smart tv with Freeview Play etc etc etc. On BBC HD and other HD channels accesed through Freesat or Freeview I get a lovely sharp, clear picture with good detail. If I switched to the "better picture" option on Freeview the picture becomes muddy and lacking in detail. I should mention I live about three miles away from the main mast and have a good quality engineer installed digital aerial , so transmission strength is not an issue.

Wondering whether investing in UHD would be a waste of time?

Please be aware I have no problems with 4k content on the likes of YouTube.

Re: Sky Stream Query

tippunmon — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:48:16 GMT

Thanks for that. I did find that page myself, but you see there lies the problem. You know about the HD channels, but as a potential new user I didn't and find this page does not explicitly state "BBC 1 HD" etcetera, so it became necessary for me to ask. Thanks for your help.

Re: UHD query

GD1 — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:48:40 GMT

@tippunmon I have merged your post to this existing thread, you don't need to ceate multiple threads when you could simply ask the questions in your original thread.

Re: UHD query

tippunmon — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:50:21 GMT

Thanks. I was used to help forums which only permit one question per topic, so submitted accordingly. Thanks for your help.

Re: UHD query

BenJoBanjo — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 11:39:19 GMT

@tippunmon wrote:
Potential new subscriber considering Sky Stream with Ultimate TV and Sky Sports. Notice there is an optional UHD channel for various channels. I must be doing something wrong (possibly wrong tv setup) as whenever I've attempted HDR, or similar before the picture quality has been very poor (for example on BBC Freeview Wimbledon, press green button for experimental hdr/whatever). I have a 3 year old 4k Sony Smart tv with Freeview Play etc etc etc. On BBC HD and other HD channels accesed through Freesat or Freeview I get a lovely sharp, clear picture with good detail. If I switched to the "better picture" option on Freeview the picture becomes muddy and lacking in detail. I should mention I live about three miles away from the main mast and have a good quality engineer installed digital aerial , so transmission strength is not an issue.

Wondering whether investing in UHD would be a waste of time?

Please be aware I have no problems with 4k content on the likes of YouTube.

You can only get UHD HDR content from the BBC if you stream it via the iPlayer app, not via Freeview.

Freeview only broadcasts in HD - there is no HDR.

If you watched Wimbledon via one of the UHD HDR streams on the iPlayer app then you will have received it with the HLG format of HDR. This is the same HDR format which Sky use for all their UHD HDR live sport, and for all their on demand UHD HDR content.

The thing to note about HLG is that it requires your TV to have quite a high peak brightness in order for it to look good. If your TV can't go very bright then it can make HLG HDR look dark and a bit muddy.

Try playing something on the iPlayer app on your TV in UHD HDR and check the picture settings on your TV. Try tweaking the brightness and contrast if you can and see if you can get it to look any better. If you can't then your TV may not be best suited for HDR.

Re: UHD query

tippunmon — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 11:44:34 GMT

Thanks. You are correct I believe some picture adjustment would be needed. I do have my own preferred settings on the Sony, but it would be a shame to have to have different picture settings for different resolutions. Unless I can store different profiles - now there's a thought to investigate.

Re: UHD query

BenJoBanjo — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 12:58:42 GMT

@tippunmon wrote:
Thanks. You are correct I believe some picture adjustment would be needed. I do have my own preferred settings on the Sony, but it would be a shame to have to have different picture settings for different resolutions. Unless I can store different profiles - now there's a thought to investigate.

Many TVs will automatically store settings for each source and format and will automatically switch to the appropriate setting when it detects the relevant format. So you could have one set of settings for regular SDR HD viewing and another for HLG HDR UHD viewing. If your TV handles different HDR formats then you could also have slightly different settings for HDR10 and Dolby Vision if your TV is capable. My Panasonic TV for example stores them for each format so I've only had to tweak the settings once for each format, and now it switches automatically.

Re: UHD query

Nigelb1972 — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:51:31 GMT

@tippunmon Sky use HLG for HDR on their content so you'll need to check your TV to see if it's compatible...

HDR10 and Dolby Vision are used by Disney+, Netflix etc but you need to have the relevant subscription for the individual apps as having the Stream UHD bolt on won't add UHD HDR to these apps...

Re: Sky Stream Query

CPR17 — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 20:04:08 GMT

Just got my Stream and Sky Glass Air Tv after 20+ years of Sky+,SkyHD and Sky Q and while there are certainly more HD channels on Stream,not every channel is HD,the music channels for one are all SD.I know the content is to be expected but all the graphics and onscreen logos are definitely SD.

Re: Sky Stream Query

Hunter2660 — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 20:46:02 GMT

@CPR17 wrote:
Just got my Stream and Sky Glass Air Tv after 20+ years of Sky+,SkyHD and Sky Q and while there are certainly more HD channels on Stream,not every channel is HD,the music channels for one are all SD.I know the content is to be expected but all the graphics and onscreen logos are definitely SD.

Yes there are still SD channels on Stream, but they are far better quality than the equivalents on Freeview and Satellite.

Re: Sky Stream Query

tippunmon — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 20:51:13 GMT

At the moment I'm leaning towards either keeping my Virgin Media broadband with some haggling about price and speed and adding Sky Stream with Sky Sports or otherwise giving notice to VM and going all in with Sky broadband, Ultimate TV, Sky Sports. Have to see how I get on with my end of contract haggling - wish me luck!

Re: Sky Stream Query

CPR17 — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 20:54:03 GMT

Yes I agree but "the answer" on this thread says that all channels are HD and that's not true

Re: Sky Stream Query

tippunmon — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 20:57:43 GMT

What annoys me about this (I'm on the spectrum) is that I would expect all the HD channels to be clearly identified as such, so that a prospect could make an informed decision.

Re: Sky Stream Query

Fothergill1 — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 22:38:00 GMT

@CPR17 wrote:
Yes I agree but "the answer" on this thread says that all channels are HD and that's not true

@CPR17 The "answer" is correct. SD is no longer supported and all channels on the streaming platform are HD or better. If you want UHD that is an add-on at additionnal cost.

Re: Sky Stream Query

TimmyBGood — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 07:30:00 GMT

@Fothergill1

I'd suggest a complication is that a few of those channels still carry a percentage of SD content because in some (usually vintage) cases there's just not anything else available.

It's probably more accurate to say there's no longer a supplementary charge for non-free-to-air HD channels.

Re: Sky Stream Query

Hunter2660 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 15:13:55 GMT

Here is a more comprhensive list of channels available on Glass/Stream. As you can see the SD channels are clearly marked. But the SD channels are in a far higher quality than you'll find on Freeview/Freesat because less compression is used, (there isn't a need to fit channels into a limited space as there is on Freeview/Satellite), so the picture looks far sharper and crisper in comparison.

List of channels on Sky Glass & Sky Stream (United Kingdom & Ireland) – TVCL – TV Channel Lists