Sky Stream puck - Sky Sports UHD problems

[Dean80]

I have had Sky Stream puck since the release date in October or November. Since then I have not been able to watch Sky Sports Live football in UHD without the screen stopping and restarting. I have discussed the issues with Sky support team and have had zero success. I keep getting told it is because I have too many devices connected to my Sky router. I do have around 20 but the majority of these are light bulbs or laptops and tablets they are turned off. I am told to get a smooth UHD picture I need at least 35 mbps which I am getting. Using Netflix I tested the speed and I am getting consistently above 50 and 60 mbps. I even ensured no other devices were connected other than my door been which only draw 1 mbps and I still had the problem.

At this point it is pointless phoning the Sky support team because they all stick to their script and advise me I have too many devices connected. They are not interested in hearing about the hours I have spent ensuring nothing else is connected when I watch the football. The interesting thing is, every other UHD source or channel works perfectly fine. It is only the live football which causes the problem. I have to watch in HD which is annoying after paying extra for the UHD package.

My stream puck is connected to the Sky router by an Ethernet cable so the issue is not Wi-Fi. I can also rule out slow broadband as Sky take great pleasure in telling me I am consistently getting 79mbps to the router. 
I have 4 stream pucks but only 2 are used consistently and they both have the issue with football in UHD.

Anyone else having these problems and know of how I can get Sky to take me seriously and actually help with the problem?

Thanks!

[leemcqueen4270]

Yeah I'm the same with live UHD content. Any movie I watch in UHD on demand is perfect.

[Floydianslip]

@Dean80 

I noticed this last night watching UHD football, Chelsea v Fulham. I know for certain it isn't my broadband, I have Fibre 900 FTTP and I use my own WiFi 6 router which is rock solid.. The issue has to be with Sky or at their CDN's.

[Chrisee]

@Dean80 UHD Sport uses considerably more bandwidth than UHD Movies as it is at 50fps as against 25fps so the results are consistent with data issues. As well as sufficent bandwidth you need low jitter - data packets arriving in order - where the system starts missing packets so the stream can stall.

If you are relying on the wifi from a Sky hub that is probably the issue. Potential solution is to use an ethernet cable shich solves the jitter issue, failing that buying a powerline adapter kit which uses the main wiring should work or investing in a proper whole home wifi set up which runs in Access Point mode and switch off the Sky wifi.

Frankly the free routers ISPs give out struggle with wifi in many homes especially if you have a lot of interference from neighbours' networks it not just a Sky issue.

[Floydianslip]

@Chrisee 

I had the same experiences last night as the original poster and its not my wifi or broadband, its Sky's output.

[Chrisee]

@Floydianslip I was not watching but please report any brosdcast issues to viewerR@sky.uk

[LMarr]

Same issue here with UHD sports and seems to have just started this week. I've got excellent mesh WiFi coverage throughout the house and the stream puck has been tested by both Ethernet and purely Wi-Fi and does the same. Literally NOTHING else has an issue either on the puck or any other device, just UHD sky sports and it's only after a period of time, not just straight away. After it gets going again it's roughly the same sort of time before it will first have a slight hiccup, come  back briefly, then almost always soon after goes to the black "loading program" screen.

[Floydianslip]

@Chrisee 

I have used that email in the past to report an issue, quite frankly the feedback you get from them is somewhat lacking. They don't even give you any idea your issue is being looked at or taken seriously. All I know is that it makes the viewing experience not what it should be.

[Chrisee]

@Floydianslip its a statistical thing your email may not result in much response but it is recorded and fed back to the broadcast teams and the engineers. The more reports the more likely they are to fix things. Broadcast issues are rraely fixed in real time anyway but faults need reporting.. 

[Dean80]

Thanks for sharing this email address. I have emailed them now as well. Hopefully more people will do the same so we can get this issue escalated and the attention it needs. Cheers

[gszab1]

I had this problem yesterday during the match too, but I noticed that on the Ultra HD channel (3050) there was way more freezes than on the Main Event UHD channel (401). At the end the Ultra HD channel was really unwatchable. So I'm sure the problem is not my fibre optic connection. Btw the box is hardwired.

[Chrisee]

@gszab1 in that case it sounds pretty certain last nights issues were down to an issue at Sky's end. Viewer Relations are the correct team but they wont like me encouraging more people to contact them. The forum managers will pick this up next week and are likely to pass it back but it does no harm for customers to tell Sky directly when they mess up. 

Nothing being reported in the Q forum so it looks like it is down to the streaming platform. 

[Floydianslip]

I'm watching BT Sport Ultimate now on Stream and its flawless, stunning PQ on my LG Oled, it'll be interesting to compare the BT coverage with the Newcastle v West Ham game tonight on Sky Sports.

[gszab1]

@Floydianslip yeah, BT Sport Ultimate is flawless here too now.

[R872]

Hi all, I have recently switched from sky q  to

sky stream using 3 pucks [content removed ] For me watching live football is impossible, constant picture freezes, sound dropouts etc. clearly a problem at their end as I have a super fast broadband and doesn't make any difference using Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Until sky sort this issue a workaround that worked for me was to let the football programme run for 15 minutes while you watch another channel, then switch to 401 uhd and select watch from start. If you don't mind being behind the live action then it seems to run smoothly with no issues. Probably a good idea to leave your phone on mute so your mates don't spoil it etc.

let me know if it works for you 🧐

Moderator note: language removed