Multi Room

[SteveT10]

Have 4 multi room boxes for 5 plus years.  We updated our contract last week and now we can no longer use more than 2 muilt room boxes at the same time.  What has changed and now have an issue of kids not being able to watch TV in their rooms at the same time.

Why?

[nigea99]

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@SteveT10 wrote:

Have 4 multi room boxes for 5 plus years.  We updated our contract last week and now we can no longer use more than 2 muilt room boxes at the same time.  What has changed and now have an issue of kids not being able to watch TV in their rooms at the same time.

Why?

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hi @SteveT10 

SKY Q has never been able to support more than 2 mini boxes in use for Satellite TV or recordings (it is a physical limitation of the main box)

It may be possible to use more than 2  if the first one(s) being used are using an app such as Netflix

[SteveT10]

We have happily used all 4 boxes at the same time for years and never had a problem until we updated our contact on Thursday.

[PandJ2020]

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@SteveT10 wrote:

We have happily used all 4 boxes at the same time for years and never had a problem until we updated our contact on Thursday.

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The main box doesn't have the hardware capability to support 4 boxes concurrently.  The limit is 2 (other than the app functionality as described above)

Sky Specs here: Here. 

[oj01]

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@SteveT10 wrote:

We have happily used all 4 boxes at the same time for years and never had a problem until we updated our contact on Thursday.

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No, you haven't. It's a physically impossible scenario apart from using Apps as described.

[TimmyBGood]

Strictly speaking it appears to be a somewhat arbitrary  limitation applied in software, not hardware: a 2TB or 1TB UHD/HDR main box has sufficient tuners for two Mini boxes and two Sky Go client devices to be in simultaneous use, but the Go capacity isn't reallocated to Minis.

Also interesting to note the spec sheet lists ability to 'broadcast Ultra HD content'...

[PandJ2020]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

Strictly speaking it appears to be a somewhat arbitrary  limitation applied in software, not hardware: a 2TB or 1TB UHD/HDR main box has sufficient tuners for two Mini boxes and two Sky Go client devices to be in simultaneous use, but the Go capacity isn't reallocated to Minis.

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Could be - I wonder if the Go functionality has less overheads than a mini.  We obviously don't know how Sky's proprietary technology works but I believe I did ascertain that mini transmission for live channels is buffered to hard disk first that introduces an overhead.  Whether the main box has sufficient buffers to smooth this process out (for 4 mini's), especially for a fragmented hard drive, is unknown.

FWIW there have been other historical posts with reports of more than 2 mini's working and suddenly ceasing.  Whether this is a 'glitch' where the limit is not imposed or simply the user discovering the concurrency limit we'll never know.

However, if it was previously serving 4 mini's without limit then what is clear is that Sky won't be investigating this as a 'fault' given the official limit.  The likelihood of this limit being lifted (even if possible) is zero imho.