Does Everyone Agree Skyglass Still Has Major Bugs?

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@mandy+oconnor wrote:

Yes - my router is in the same room (average size room ) on a table not covered the only thing between tv and router is a chimney breast . Never had any problems before with my WIFI or tv freezing when I had a smart TV and sky Q. 

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Unfortunately comparing it to most other streaming devices is irrelevant as the Sky streaming platform fundamentally works differently. Most streaming debices have hard disks so apps are run locally and it can locally buffer programmes on the device which means any small WiFi packets drops don't affect the experience. The Sky streaming platform doesn't work in that way. Everything is hosted on Skys servers which means you need a constant internet connection for anything to work and small WiFi dropouts will affect the experience as you don't have that same local buffer you do on other devices.

[Hirsty+Barkston]

Hi - I get all of that but when I buy the whole package from sky I really expect it to work. It's been interesting that not all people have the same issues as me but at the TV the signal test says everything is good so it should just work. 

I have remedied this by turning the TV off fully regularly, disconnecting from power and then restarting - that usually works., But for the amount of money I spent and continue to spend it's really disappointing.

[Hirsty+Barkston]

I think there must be an inherent problem with some devices - it can't be this bad for people like us and yet for others there are no problems.

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

@Hirsty+Barkston 

Glass television sets will be as perfectly identical as the production line can turn them out.  Where there is some difference it's in mechanical elements such as speaker assembly.

The biggest factor by far in individual performance is the local wireless environment.

[Hirsty+Barkston]

Might have to upgrade to ultrafast with Zoom internet who have just installed right outside my house...

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Hirsty+Barkston wrote:

Might have to upgrade to ultrafast with Zoom internet who have just installed right outside my house...

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Don't confuse the broadband speed to your property with your WiFi network. You could have really fast broadband going to your property but still get poor speeds or intermittent connectivity if your WiFi network is poor and you are connecting devices via WiFi.

[Hirsty+Barkston]

I understand that but how can I know what speed arrives at the device? The sky glass test says the internet is excellent.

[Fothergill1]

@Hirsty+Barkston  You can check the speed being received at your Glass TV by using the Netflix App (Get help > Check network) and is often much less than you might expect.

The minimum speeds  recommended by Sky are as follows:

HD = 25mbps

UHD = 30mbps

HD + 1 puck = 30mbps

UHD + 1 puck = 35mbps

If your speed at the TV is borderline try connecting via Ethernet cable. If this is not practical you can use powerline adapters (about £30 at Amazon). Note the Ethernet port on the Glass TV (& pucks) only supports 100mbps so don't waste money on the more expensive 1gb powerline adapters

[Hirsty+Barkston]

Right, we have checked this and we have 35.5 mbps so shouldn't be any issues with bandwidth. 
only this morning (Sunday) at 7:41 I got the familiar "program waiting to load" error whilst watching the news on the bbc. 

it's so frustrating. 

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Hirsty+Barkston wrote:

Right, we have checked this and we have 35.5 mbps so shouldn't be any issues with bandwidth. 
only this morning (Sunday) at 7:41 I got the familiar "program waiting to load" error whilst watching the news on the bbc. 

it's so frustrating. 

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Is networked standby mode set to ON and overnight power saving mode set to OFF?

do you have other active devices using your WiFi at the same time? As the speed it's getting is at the top level of the minimum recommended, so it's possible it's still fluctuating below that level if other devices are actively fighting for the WiFi bandwidth as well.

[Hirsty+Barkston]

I'll check those other settings but this can happen at any time - first thing in the morning, first device turned on (othber than mobile phones etc), in the evening when we're watching tv and no-one else in.

I'll check those settings cheers

[MisterM18]

I have had Sky Glass for just over a month now. It has frozen a couple of times and I did have numerous issues with freezing and buffering on one occasion recently but these issues only lasted a morning. All was well in the afternoon after several restarts.

Why Sky think it’s acceptable to charge their customers £5 per month for their Add-Skipping function is beyond me, particularly given that I joined Sky from Virgin Media where you could forward and reverse adverts to your hearts content and this function was totally reliable and was free. The FF/RW on Sky Glass leaves a lot to be desired and sometimes I think it has a mind of its own! I wouldn’t pay the £5 per month to Sky out of principal as I think they should just include this within their monthly subscription cost but that will probably never happen. I wonder how may customers do actually pay Sky for Add Skipping and how reliable it actually is, given the FF/RW comments noted above and those that I have read elsewhere on here. I appreciate how Sky Glass operates is a different platform to Virgin Media but comparisons can still be made about how well the two systems operate.   

I do use the Continue Watching rail and I don’t recall having experienced any issues with it however, the Playlist function doesn’t appear to fully update to the latest episodes of some programmes and when it does update it can take a while for this to happen. This does make it more difficult than it should be to keep on top of what you have and haven’t watched and as mentioned above, I joined Sky from Virgin Media where all of my recordings were in date order and were all accessible in one place so it was very easy to manage.

Watching the euros on iplayer was fine. The option offered to watch any of those games in UHD was a complete waste of time as the picture was simply too dark in comparison to the HD broadcast.

I have posted on here previously about my inability to access the My5 app and I have read several posts from other customers who are experiencing similar issues with My5. I will end up having to ring Sky again to chase a resolution on this as having to wait for what is approaching nearly a month for that particular issue to be resolved is not really acceptable.  

I am aware that Sky employees ‘monitor’ the posts on here but I have only ever seen occasional responses from Sky employees regarding certain issues that their customers are experiencing. They appear to be happy for the Sky Communities Superusers or other customers to provide answers to the issues raised. By comparison, Virgin Media’s Community forum seemed to have a lot more responses from Virgin Media employees once they heard about an issue that their customers were experiencing. I am not sure how much notice Sky actually take of the posts on here but they should really take more notice and perhaps employ a dedicated team who can deal with the issues that are being posted about with a view to resolving them for their paying customers.  

On the whole, I think Sky Glass is ok. I wouldn't rave about it and I will have a decision to make in 17 months time when my current subscription with Sky expires. Hopefully within that time, Sky will change and improve certain things. They certainly need to judging by some of the posts and complaints that I have read on here.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@MisterM18 wrote:

I have had Sky Glass for just over a month now. It has frozen a couple of times and I did have numerous issues with freezing and buffering on one occasion recently but these issues only lasted a morning. All was well in the afternoon after several restarts.

Why Sky think it’s acceptable to charge their customers £5 per month for their Add-Skipping function is beyond me, particularly given that I joined Sky from Virgin Media where you could forward and reverse adverts to your hearts content and this function was totally reliable and was free. The FF/RW on Sky Glass leaves a lot to be desired and sometimes I think it has a mind of its own! I wouldn’t pay the £5 per month to Sky out of principal as I think they should just include this within their monthly subscription cost but that will probably never happen. I wonder how may customers do actually pay Sky for Add Skipping and how reliable it actually is, given the FF/RW comments noted above and those that I have read elsewhere on here. I appreciate how Sky Glass operates is a different platform to Virgin Media but comparisons can still be made about how well the two systems operate.   

I do use the Continue Watching rail and I don’t recall having experienced any issues with it however, the Playlist function doesn’t appear to fully update to the latest episodes of some programmes and when it does update it can take a while for this to happen. This does make it more difficult than it should be to keep on top of what you have and haven’t watched and as mentioned above, I joined Sky from Virgin Media where all of my recordings were in date order and were all accessible in one place so it was very easy to manage.

Watching the euros on iplayer was fine. The option offered to watch any of those games in UHD was a complete waste of time as the picture was simply too dark in comparison to the HD broadcast.

I have posted on here previously about my inability to access the My5 app and I have read several posts from other customers who are experiencing similar issues with My5. I will end up having to ring Sky again to chase a resolution on this as having to wait for what is approaching nearly a month for that particular issue to be resolved is not really acceptable.  

I am aware that Sky employees ‘monitor’ the posts on here but I have only ever seen occasional responses from Sky employees regarding certain issues that their customers are experiencing. They appear to be happy for the Sky Communities Superusers or other customers to provide answers to the issues raised. By comparison, Virgin Media’s Community forum seemed to have a lot more responses from Virgin Media employees once they heard about an issue that their customers were experiencing. I am not sure how much notice Sky actually take of the posts on here but they should really take more notice and perhaps employ a dedicated team who can deal with the issues that are being posted about with a view to resolving them for their paying customers.  

On the whole, I think Sky Glass is ok. I wouldn't rave about it and I will have a decision to make in 17 months time when my current subscription with Sky expires. Hopefully within that time, Sky will change and improve certain things. They certainly need to judging by some of the posts and complaints that I have read on here.

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Unfortunately the nature of a streaming platform being predominately app based knd of enforces Sky to charge for the skipping of ads, as tehy have would have to pay a fee to the likes of ITV and Channel 4 for the fast forwarding of the ads to work on their apps on the Sky streaming platform. The alternative would be for a customer to have to subscribe individually to ITV X and Channel 4 premium tiers to completely remove the ads just o those apps, which would be more than the £5/month.

[SJH4]

Day one adopter, my gripe at the moment is 2 programmes are on my playlist that I never added and cant get rid of!! 

[Hirsty+Barkston]

Sorry my friend, that is standard. Having to look a Gary linekars face as the first program every time!