topic Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup in Sky Q

Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

SkyK1600 — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 10:25:27 GMT

Hi, I know there are a lot of discussions on this, but things seem to change quite quickly and was just after peoples experiences.

We currently have 3x Sky+ boxes which all go out through RF into the loft, mix up, and then come down to 6 TVs, all controlled by Magic Eyes. This works really well for us, but seems to becoming to the end of it's life ☹️. With this, I can put a film on in the main room, and watch exactly yhe same image of that film in the Dinning Room, Kitchen and Bedroom as I move around the house.

We have rulled out going to Stream and are looking at going to a 2TB Q Main box with 4 Q Mini Boxes, and leaving one TV connected to a SKY+ box purley as Freeview box.

I understand this will be different in the way that it works, ie we cant watch exactly the same image as is on the main box, but for Live TV or if you are watching different things this wont be an issue.

So my questions are:

Has has anyone else got the same setup, with a main box and 4 mini boxes and spread around a reasonably large house?
Does your WiFi cope OK?
Do you need to do anything in particular for best performance?

Thanks

Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

MightyQuinn — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 10:57:07 GMT

Hi @SkyK1600

First thing to note is the sound on the Mini boxes will be out of sync.

Second thing is you can only use two Mini boxes at the same time.

Sky Q 2TB boxes are very rare, you would be better off getting the latest 1TB box which is exactly the same as the 2TB box, but obviously a smaller hard drive.

Unlike Sky+HD, Sjy Q primary function is to act as a time shift. For example, I rarely watch anything live and delete the recording once it is has been watched immediately.

If you wish to retain one Sky+HD box as Freesat then you must let Sky know when you order.

On to your questions.

1. There are probably 100s of thousands with the same setup.

2. Sky Q does not use your WiFi, it uses the Sky Mesh WiFi generated from the Main box.

3. Ethernet is the best way to connect the Main box to the Mini boxes.

I recommend to save you a world of pain, to keep your Sky+HD setup unless you can network all the boxes by Ethernet. Buy extra box(es) on eBay to keep in reserve.

Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

oldfella — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 11:00:47 GMT

@SkyK1600 wrote:

Hi, I know there are a lot of discussions on this, but things seem to change quite quickly and was just after peoples experiences.

We currently have 3x Sky+ boxes which all go out through RF into the loft, mix up, and then come down to 6 TVs, all controlled by Magic Eyes. This works really well for us, but seems to becoming to the end of it's life ☹️. With this, I can put a film on in the main room, and watch exactly yhe same image of that film in the Dinning Room, Kitchen and Bedroom as I move around the house.

We have rulled out going to Stream and are looking at going to a 2TB Q Main box with 4 Q Mini Boxes, and leaving one TV connected to a SKY+ box purley as Freeview box.

I understand this will be different in the way that it works, ie we cant watch exactly the same image as is on the main box, but for Live TV or if you are watching different things this wont be an issue.

So my questions are:

Has has anyone else got the same setup, with a main box and 4 mini boxes and spread around a reasonably large house?

Does your WiFi cope OK?

Do you need to do anything in particular for best performance?

Thanks

Hi @SkyK1600

You can have up to four minis installed on loan each subject to a one off upfront charge and all under by one single Q monthly Multiscreen subscription
However only two minis can be used simultaneously on all 2 TB boxes and the 1 TB UHD Main boxes to watch Sky Q content.
The original 1 TB non UHD box (32Cxxx) only permits the use of one mini at a time.
If Sky Apps are already being used on some of the minis these will not normally be counted as in Q use and therefore can be used in addition to the above limits.
See the following link for the Versions of main Q box referred to above.
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/sky-software-updates.
Subject to the above limits Sky Q minis can be used completely independently of the main Q box and the same or different program or recording can be viewed on each Q box. Even if viewing the same content it is completely independent and can be viewed at the same or different point.
Minis can do all the features same as the main Q box and can set or delete recordings on the main Q box hard drive. There is one single storage area on the main Q box with no profiles and no indication of which Q box has set a recording. (Unlike Sky+HD Multiroom which has independent storage and planners).
It should also be remembered that minis cannot view UHD recordings or content.

Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

TimmyBGood — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 12:00:11 GMT

@SkyK1600 wrote:

I can put a film on in the main room, and watch exactly yhe same image of that film in the Dinning Room, Kitchen and Bedroom as I move around the house.

That's potentially replicable with Q from just a main box, but you'd need a reasonably sophisticated HDBaseT distribution system.

Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

nigea99 — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 12:10:37 GMT

@SkyK1600 wrote:

Hi, I know there are a lot of discussions on this, but things seem to change quite quickly and was just after peoples experiences.

We currently have 3x Sky+ boxes which all go out through RF into the loft, mix up, and then come down to 6 TVs, all controlled by Magic Eyes. This works really well for us, but seems to becoming to the end of it's life ☹️. With this, I can put a film on in the main room, and watch exactly yhe same image of that film in the Dinning Room, Kitchen and Bedroom as I move around the house.

We have rulled out going to Stream and are looking at going to a 2TB Q Main box with 4 Q Mini Boxes, and leaving one TV connected to a SKY+ box purley as Freeview box.

I understand this will be different in the way that it works, ie we cant watch exactly the same image as is on the main box, but for Live TV or if you are watching different things this wont be an issue.

So my questions are:

Has has anyone else got the same setup, with a main box and 4 mini boxes and spread around a reasonably large house?

Does your WiFi cope OK?

Do you need to do anything in particular for best performance?

Thanks

To use SKy Q and any Freesat Box (be that an old SKY HD box or other) you need a Hybrid LNB - SKY no longer supply these & there is a chance that they would not support the use of one (may depend on the engineer)

You may, also, wish to read some notes I have made for people considering switching from SKY +/HD to SKY Q

SKY +/HD to SKY Q

Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

SkyK1600 — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 12:30:20 GMT

Great write up, thnak you.

Luckily the Sky + box I want to keep is on my Annex so shoud be OK to keep as a freeview - its a real shame that can't be used to record if out of contract ☹️

Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

nigea99 — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 12:44:04 GMT

@SkyK1600 wrote:

Great write up, thnak you.

Luckily the Sky + box I want to keep is on my Annex so shoud be OK to keep as a freeview - its a real shame that can't be used to record if out of contract ☹️

Does it have it's own dish ?

Re: Moving to a 4 Mini Box Sky Q setup

SkyK1600 — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 12:47:15 GMT

Yes, on its own dish/LNBs, so should be OK. Not putting a Q box in there.