SkyGlass Awful

[bob1234]

@Chris+DI am sure they could market it as an improvement, better fuel consumption, lower tax and emissions etc etc.

[gryffe]

I wouldn't say my experience was awful, overall it's been pretty good apart from the Playlist which currently I am not liking at all compared to Q.

So seems only fair to talk about a positive experience from Glass that trumps what Q can do. On Q if you used an App like Youtube, or BBC Sounds etc. you could not navigate elsewhere on the Q platform while staying within the App, you were locked into the App and had to come out of it. However on Glass you can be listening to BBC Sounds and decide you want to check something out elsewhere, so hit the Home button and you can do anything you like (check playlist, TV Guide etc)and still hear the music from BBC Sounds,. The same goes for any other App, at least it does for the few I tried it with.

[gryffe]

Ok after my post above showing Glass in a positive light, I now need to post something negative. Switched on the Arsenal game on Sky Sports and the HD picture looked pretty decent, when I changed it from HD to UHD the picture got quite a bit darker, in such a way that I actually preferred the HD. Then after about 2 mins of watching the game the players all appeared to be running about at double speed, this lasted about 20 seconds. Then after another ten minutes had passed the picture badly distorted and the players looked a bit like silhouettes for about 5 secs. I guess this could be broadband related? I hope not because I am at the highest BT package outwith FTTP in my area, I get between 60 and 70mb download and the TV sits about a foot away from the BT smart hub router, and is connected by ethernet cable. My broadband is very reliable normally.

Will see how this pans out over the weekend, but sadly another poor experience.

[S44TUH]

On my 55" the HD picture is also better than UHD on the football (the F1 was fine earlier) - too washed out - like there's a fog on the ground.  Have no buffering or stuttering type issues though. Maybe it's a football thing - can't cope with all that green!!?

[Satele]

 

So tonight was my first experience with an UHD stream delivered by Sky (put the TV itself through the paces last night with some Apple TV content). Watching the Arsenal game in UHD was perfect. No issues with playback or stuttering and the picture quality was simply excellent. Great contrast, not washed out at all, good colour levels but not oversaturated. 

Not the best photo from the corner of the sofa but you get the idea. 

[AUS191]

The uhr footie for me was darker, after 10 mins of watching it started stuttering and crashed and went black and TV turned off. 

Not ideal

[gryffe]

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@AUS191 wrote:

The uhr footie for me was darker, after 10 mins of watching it started stuttering and crashed and went black and TV turned off. 

Not ideal

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Not just me then (see post 93)

[Anonymous]

I tend to agree with lots of the comments. Sky is trying to position Glass as a central entertainment hub, but the interface with external apps is not great. Of course people are going to watch BBC etc via their Sky TV, since the most popular programmes are still on the Freeview Channels, and if you've got Sky you'll use it to watch these. The interface with iPlayer is awful. You have to press "Select" so many times, plus you are now limited with how much time you have to watch these programs, rather than recording them and having as long as you want. Like lots of people, I like to record and watch when I like - recording is far superior play back experience than that offered by Sky Glass. Fast Forward and Rewind on Glass is poor

The Play Now function is not great. I also have lots of stuff I've watched, or started and didn't like cluttering up this panel. 

Watching Sky Channels I often get a black screen, and then the program rewinds about 3 seconds.

It's also playing havoc with my home theatre set up, and causing it to switch to the TV speakers, even when I'm not using the Glass, but other peripherals attached to my Sony Amp. Also when watching Prime Video it often loses the HDMI connection to the Amp - only since Sky Glass.

Good effort, but for now, Sky Q is the better option.

[Arnold2000]

It's different to Q. More to do with on demand and interface with external apps. No better or worst than Q but some people with miss the recording feature

[bob1234]

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@Arnold2000 wrote:

It's different to Q. More to do with on demand and interface with external apps. No better or worst than Q but some people with miss the recording feature

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It does not matter if it is recorded or not but there needs to be someway of finding things you have marked in the guide and being able to watch them.

[Downwardii]

Well i'm hoping the Football will be no worse in UHD than it was on my old TV glass is replacing

I bought an Oled for the football as the cheap LED just didn't like fast moving sports.

The cheap LED is now used with Sky Mini which is rubbish so hopefully glass replacing the tv and broken sound bar will be an improvement.

Its also £1 more per month than I pay for Sky Q.

As long as the puck works with the main Oled tv for Sports that's fine. 
Can't say I watch Live TV apart from sports. 

[sceptic101]

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@bob1234 wrote:

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@Arnold2000 wrote:

It's different to Q. More to do with on demand and interface with external apps. No better or worst than Q but some people with miss the recording feature

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It does not matter if it is recorded or not but there needs to be someway of finding things you have marked in the guide and being able to watch them.

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Agreed, based upon the negative feedback so far I'm sure they'll end up making some UI improvements to address this, like an extra tab perhaps. 

[PeterR99]

Sky have been pretty brave with the new UI and way of working. Sky Q was a great box, and suits many people, but by moving towards an all(ish) on-demand world, will Sky Glass give people what they want.

There were bound to be issues with the new system and software. I have the main glass tv upstairs, and a puck on my OLED tv downstairs. Like many people invested in a new TV recently, so happy to continue using that. Not used main glass TV that much, but the puck has been good and not so good. Compared to the old Sky Mini box, the puck now supports 4K, but the early software has some work to do. I’ve noticed a few issues. I get the screen going black and rewinding a second or two when it resumes. This was noticeable when watching the F1 qualifying in UHD via the Puck, when I fast forwarded through the first part and when I pressed play it went black a few times but then settled down. It also seems to have a slight issue with my home theatre setup (Denon Amp and Sony OLED TV) in that occasionally it seems to think playing audio through the TV speakers is what I’m after and loses the link to the Home Theatre speakers. I’m hoping an early software update will solve these issues.

The Play List and Play Now certainly need some work, but once again feedback from early users will hopefully drive some improvements. Likewise the Program Guide needs some work.

Recording is more of an issue. Sky have tried to become the first place people go to watch all of their video content be it Netflix, Disney, BBC etc, but by losing the ability to record all the Sky channels, and using 3rd Party Apps, you do start to wonder how much am I watching on Sky, and would I be better with Now TV and simply use the Apps on my Smart TV to watch all the other stuff. Depends on how slick they make that interface, and currently it needs more work.

The actual Sky Glass TV is a bit of a beast, but the sound is good, although picture quality not up to my Sony OLED. Also the stand takes a bit of work to put together – something more akin to the Sony stand would be better, although it seems very sturdy once assembled. Good Sky refrained from emblazing a Sky Logo on the front, and the front looks neat.

Over-all a good attempt, and should get better over time

[Downwardii]

Ah crap forgot my amp doesn't support 4k pass through.

Assume the puck doesn't have optical connection ?

[Lucio1985]

Interesting reading all the comments. As early adopters it’s not really surprising that there are a few issues. Reading through the comments, I seem to have had most of those listed. Black screens, Play Now items not being removed, getting slightly frustrated with how long it takes to start up the BBC iPlayer etc, issues with the Puck and external speakers, not really liking the new TV Guide which doesn’t show all the items from multiple channels that have already been added to the Play List. However, as an early adopter I’m not really surprised, and we need to wait 6 months and see where Sky Glass ends up. As an internet based service, this must give Sky much more options to update and improve the UI than the Sky Q boxes. For Sky not having to send out engineers to fit Dishes is a win win, and as more people end up with super fast internet, it’s the way to (eventually) go.