@dbader wrote:
@Anonymous I don't see how the absence of Sky software can stop the operation of a Humax box which has its own software.
But I take your point in that, no I haven't actually done that yet.
The question is what remains for control software in a Sky Glass TV that is not receiving the complimentary inputs from Sky via the Internet.
I always believed that the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, so the answer to all the questions will only come when someone has tried this scenario.
Perhaps there is a Sky user out there who has done so?
I pass it over to this community for input.
See it's not that you can't use it (although if you go back to Sky Q you pretty much can't as some of the Sky Q remote keys activate functions on the Sky Glass. The main one is if you turn the Sky Q box on it will turn the TV off. If the Sky Glass remote activated functions on the Sky Q that would be fine as turning the TV on would turn the Sky Q box on but it doesn't. Some of the other keys also activate Glass features such as taking you out of what you are watching and back to the home screen) but more it reduces what setting options you can change which is already pretty limited.
You basically end up with a really dumb TV, that actually isn't very good (poor viewing angles, fairly poor colours configs out of the box for most content, especially content fed via the HDMI's and only one custom setting for all content rather than being a different one for every type of input and a too low amount of nits to display HDR well which coupled with it using the method of lowering the average brightness level to keep the HDR range which might keep the image clearer at the top end as it's not clipping the dynamic range but which makes HDR content much darker than. On TV's like this clipping works much better), without some of the settings (and features, for example, you can't use your voice to switch inputs) that at least give you some reason to own this TV over a better TV/Soundbar combo for around the same price. The value in the package is the software, not the hardware and without a subscription, there is basically no value in the software.
All this pushes you, unless maybe it's perhaps just a kitchen or office tv that is there just for background noise than actually be watched; to keep at least the basic subscription around. And Sky will know this which is why I'm saying they could have cut their profit margins on the hardware which based on the fact you can get much better TV's and soundbar combinations for the same price and they make a profit, must be pretty big and put panel with better colour representation, better viewing angles and which could produce a HDR image that most people would find acceptable (even if it was lower nits if they had gone with one that clips the HDR that would have satisfied most people buying a TV in this price range, anyone who cares about the shortcomings of using clipping has a much better TV already).
They seem to have taken the Apple Approach, charge a premium on the hardware rather than what Amazon/Google often do and that's selling it at almost cost trying to lock people into their eco-system where they can make more profit from than they could off the hardware. The only difference being Apple produces devices that have been swarming to pay the premium as they are high quality and Sky haven't. While they still needed better beta testers who seemingly were too scared or too lazy to provide Sky with decent feedback I suspect more people would have been willing to put up with the service teething problems if the TV/Soundbar was better than anything you could get for the same price and it's really not (especially at the 55" size which are the most popular size at the moment so carry the best cost to inch ratio).
