Who's switching from Q to Stream?

[Ed.B.]

I'm not aware such a thing exists and Virgin is one of the worst companies to deal with on the planet so the last thing I want to do is give them more money 🤣

[tarbat]

---

@Ed.B. wrote:

I'm not aware such a thing exists

---

See the link in my previous post - https://www.virginmedia.com/tv/stream

Although how it compares to Glass/Stream, I don't know. It may also be substandard compared to Sky Q 😉

[fizzdisco]

Some more observations after an evening and morning playing around with Stream...

This is with the box connected via ethernet to a solid 74Mbps Sky Superfast broadband network and WiFi turned off in the settings.

The good.

Lip sync has improved by connecting direct to the TV and sending audio via ARC to the amp. 

Not experienced any buffering or picture break-up whilst watching live TV or any app content.

Dolby Vision & Dolby Atmos are available on Netflix, Prime & Apple TV+ apps. 

Dolby Vision is available on Disney+, but no Dolby Atmos.

UHD content is sharp and HDR works well. 

The bad.

Stream is not a good upscaler. Worse than Q for sure.

With Q I would leave the box on 2160P 10bit so that I didn't have to switch resolutions to watch any UHD content. This was fine. All HD channels looked fine upscaled by the box, not quite as sharp as native 1080i from the TV's Freeview tuner, but perfectly acceptable. 

With Stream set to output 2160P, all live HD channels look soft & compressed compared to Freeview HD. Switch it to 1080i and let the TV do the upscaling and things improve. Still not as sharp as Q was and not quite as sharp as Freeview HD, but noticeably better than the Stream's 2160P upscale. 

So, if you want the best HD image quality, it's probably best to leave the box on 1080i for the most part and switch to 2160P when necessary.

The UI is still sluggish. Compared to other streaming devices it just feels like it's struggling a little. There's a subtle but distinct lag between pressing a button and something happening. The home screen does not scroll particularly smoothly. It's badly laid out and just generally unintuitive. Needs updating to differentiate it from Glass. 

Some of the apps are painfully slow, similar to Q. Apple TV+ in particular is grindingly slow. I'm comparing this to how quickly they work on my TV apps, a Firestick 4K Max and an Apple TV 4K box. 

The apps are all locked to 50Hz or 60Hz with judder reduction turned on. iPlayer will switch (correctly) to 50Hz whenever it opens even if you have 60Hz set as your default.

Audio can be unpredictable on live channels. On several occasions I've switched to a channel, watched a bit, gone back to the EPG (channel still plays in the background) gone back to full screen and the audio has gone several seconds out of sync, as if the image froze when I went to the EPG but the audio continued. The image then can't catch up so you have to navigate away from that channel and back to it to get sync back. 

That's this morning's observations. 

[Ed.B.]

Ah thanks, didn't know about those. But I rather stick pins in my eyes than pay more to Virgin. 

Do sky block the use of the puck at a secondary address? Reason being I split my time between here and my girlfriend's so can I unplug it and take it with me like I take a PlayStation when I'm on holiday in Cornwall to watch via sky Go?

The FAQ says it must be used at the registered address. 

And do additional pucks talk to each other in any way, or is all functionality just handled via login?

[TechGuy007]

@fizzdisco Really useful comments. Thanks. Have you used the "cloud record" facility? Other people seem to be questioning if it even exists. And the "play from start" option - again, some are saying there's an issue where the programme cuts off when the live broadcast ends, if I've understood correctly? Be interested to hear your thoughts. 

[TechGuy007]

@oj01 @Ed.B. When you navigate to the live channel before using "watch from start", is the live channel in a small box or full screen? I've had an HD box for 14 years, and if both satellite feeds are in use, you sometimes get the live channel in a small box on the top right of the screen, potentially showing the live score of a sporting event. So I've almost perfected the art of looking away from the screen and muting the sound while navigating to the start of the game... 😁

[fizzdisco]

---

@TechGuy007 wrote:

@fizzdisco Really useful comments. Thanks. Have you used the "cloud record" facility? Other people seem to be questioning if it even exists. And the "play from start" option - again, some are saying there's an issue where the programme cuts off when the live broadcast ends, if I've understood correctly? Be interested to hear your thoughts. 

---

There is no cloud recording. Not in the sense of there being a big hard drive in the cloud that you have any access or control over. 

I've added a couple of things to the playlist but, as suspected, they just trigger the opening of iPlayer and ITV Hub to watch. I'll try some other non-free to air channels later, ones without a streaming app, and see how that goes. 

Watch from start does seem to pop up on most channels. On BBC channels you have to press the button with the three dots on it on the remote, then wait a couple of seconds while it loads the BBC's interface that pops in on the right hand side of the screen to enable you to select 'restart programme.' It's a slower process than what you got on Q and much slower than the 'Press green to watch from the start' that you get on Freeview. 

Other channels have the standard Q-style pop up at the bottom to watch from the start. It does seem hit and miss. Sometimes it appears, other times not. I've not watched enough to know if it does kick you off the stream when watching on 'chase-play', ie watching something from the start whilst it's still streaming live.   

[Andym15]

@fizzdisco 

Thanks from me too. This is all extremely helpful and has potentially saved me hours of frustration and hassle.

Upscaling seems particularly problematic. Switching resolution would get old really quickly. That's not likely to be a firmware fix. It's going to need a new device.☹️

[fizzdisco]

---

@Andym15 wrote:

@fizzdisco 

Thanks from me too. This is all extremely helpful and has potentially saved me hours of frustration and hassle.

Upscaling seems particularly problematic. Switching resolution would get old really quickly. That's not likely to be a firmware fix. It's going to need a new device.☹️

---

The poor upscaling probably won't be noticed by many people. It really depends on what you've been used to watching. I noticed it straight away though - on both TVs I tried the box on. Noticeably poor compared with the Freeview HD equivalent on both a Samsung and Panasonic TV. 

Even the 720P live stream of BBC1 from the iPlayer app on my Apple TV 4K, upscaled to 2160P, looked sharper than the 1080i stream, upscaled to 2160P by the Stream box. 

It's a shame as the Q box used to do a pretty decent upscale job. 

[TimmyBGood]

---

@Ed.B. wrote:

Do sky block the use of the puck at a secondary address? Reason being I split my time between here and my girlfriend's so can I unplug it and take it with me like I take a PlayStation when I'm on holiday in Cornwall to watch via sky Go?

That's not permitted according to the contract, and Sky state they reserve the right to detect such use and ultimately charge an additional full subscription for it

And do additional pucks talk to each other in any way, or is all functionality just handled via login?

No, they don't.  Any synchronising of data is done server-side.

---

[TimmyBGood]

---

@TechGuy007 wrote:

Have you used the "cloud record" facility?

---

As has been repeatedly stated, no subscriber 'uses' that.  The system decides, based on whatever logic Sky applies, if any such facility, if it exists at all, is 'used': there's no user interface for it or user management of it.

[fabmartel]

---

@fizzdisco wrote:

---

@Andym15 wrote:

@fizzdisco 

Thanks from me too. This is all extremely helpful and has potentially saved me hours of frustration and hassle.

Upscaling seems particularly problematic. Switching resolution would get old really quickly. That's not likely to be a firmware fix. It's going to need a new device.☹️

---

The poor upscaling probably won't be noticed by many people. It really depends on what you've been used to watching. I noticed it straight away though - on both TVs I tried the box on. Noticeably poor compared with the Freeview HD equivalent on both a Samsung and Panasonic TV. 

Even the 720P live stream of BBC1 from the iPlayer app on my Apple TV 4K, upscaled to 2160P, looked sharper than the 1080i stream, upscaled to 2160P by the Stream box. 

It's a shame as the Q box used to do a pretty decent upscale job. 

---

That would be me then lol I can't see the difference between HD and UHD that's why I didn't sign up this time to the extras. I've got eyesight woes and get injections in my eyes every other month. I'm really hopeful for sky stream but reading your useful comments about the responsiveness of the UI makes me think that it won't last long and I'll end up going back to Sky Q 

[fizzdisco]

---

@fabmartel wrote:

---

@fizzdisco wrote:

---

@Andym15 wrote:

@fizzdisco 

Thanks from me too. This is all extremely helpful and has potentially saved me hours of frustration and hassle.

Upscaling seems particularly problematic. Switching resolution would get old really quickly. That's not likely to be a firmware fix. It's going to need a new device.☹️

---

The poor upscaling probably won't be noticed by many people. It really depends on what you've been used to watching. I noticed it straight away though - on both TVs I tried the box on. Noticeably poor compared with the Freeview HD equivalent on both a Samsung and Panasonic TV. 

Even the 720P live stream of BBC1 from the iPlayer app on my Apple TV 4K, upscaled to 2160P, looked sharper than the 1080i stream, upscaled to 2160P by the Stream box. 

It's a shame as the Q box used to do a pretty decent upscale job. 

---

That would be me then lol I can't see the difference between HD and UHD that's why I didn't sign up this time to the extras. I've got eyesight woes and get injections in my eyes every other month. I'm really hopeful for sky stream but reading your useful comments about the responsiveness of the UI makes me think that it won't last long and I'll end up going back to Sky Q 

---

Yikes. That sounds rough. I hope your eyesight improves. 

Stream might be OK for you - the UI is only sluggish compared to other devices so if you've never had those devices it might feel super-slick to you. The icons are also all quite large and easy to see so for those with vision problems it may actually be quite useful. 

[jamesrobinson6]

You need to revert within 31 days on that case.

[TechGuy007]

@TimmyBGood Well, it might have been said repeatedly but not to those like me who've just joined in the discussions! I get the fact that it's effectively a "black box" solution that the user doesn't control. That said, I don't think most sports events like Premier League football are available on catch up services (at least, not in their entirety), so if it's available to the user after the live broadcast has finished, then it probably is stored on the cloud.