Sky Q - confusion

[Jim-AFCB]

Sky customer since 1992.

Today, an agent phoned me and we had a discussion about his offer of a Sky Q box (I have a legacy Sky HD box)

Gave me an offer of Sky Q, free box and spare multi-room box (can't remember what it's called, but works over wifi) and £5/mo for the multi-room, and a slightly lower monthly bill. 

OK, says I... then we had a discussion about whether I could still watch legacy sky recordings on my HD box (which I could keep) if it was no longer connected to a dish and the card presumably deatcivated or moved. Never got an answer to that one, but then he mentioned about Sky Q only working on the Internet.

"What?" says I "you mean it doesnt use a dish to get signal??!" I know Sky Glass doesn't, but we're not talking about that.

I'm not happy to put all my eggs into the Internet basket (I list internet for a month last year!) like that so I elected to remain with using my Sky HD box... but now I read you do need a dish to use a Sky Q box.

What's going on? Did the agent misinform me and I spent 30 mins on the phone for nothing?

[TimmyBGood]

@Jim-AFCB 

Sky Q is fundamentally a satellite television system (with some online functionality) and requires a satellite signal from an individual dish or a compatible communal dish distribution system.

Recordings on a Sky+ hard drive become unplayable once the subscription transfers to Q because hard drive access is a subscription feature.

[nigea99 · Accepted solution]

hi @Jim-AFCB 

As @TimmyBGood  says the main Q box is similar in connections to a dish as SKY HD although it has wifi built in as well ethernet to connect to the internet for Catch up/On Demand & of course the Apps that SKY HD doesn't have

The minis get their content via the main box (over wifi or ethernet) and do not connect direct to the dish

You may, also, wish to read some notes I have made for people considering switching from SKY +/HD to SKY Q

SKY +/HD to SKY Q 

Edit : Yes once the accoount is swiched you can't access recordings on the SKY HD box

[Jim-AFCB]

Thanks all, for the pointers.

Yes, when I was talking to the agent, I thought I was going mad as I was sure Sky Q used a dish as well. I knew the miniboxes worked over wifi only! He didn't have a clue about old HD+ recordings, at first he told me that it might be possible...

One question - can one watch one channel on the main Sky Q box and another channel on the minibox? I assume that is the case.

Understood re: recordings on Sky+ HD boxes. I suggested to Sky some 12 years ago (when I acquired my current HD box, that it really ought to be quite simple to be able to transfer recordings from old Sky box to new one at a time of upgrade... both boxes have an ethernet socket, surely it ought to be a simple software routine for an installer or able user to carry out.

it is very annoying that you lose older recordings when you change your Sky box and they really ought to do something about that.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Jim-AFCB wrote:

One question - can one watch one channel on the main Sky Q box and another channel on the minibox? I assume that is the case.

Yes it is: actually different content on each of two Mini boxes plus each of two Sky Go client devices in the same household as the main Q box (as long as that's the current 1TB UHD/HDR model)

I suggested to Sky some 12 years ago (when I acquired my current HD box, that it really ought to be quite simple to be able to transfer recordings from old Sky box to new one at a time of upgrade... both boxes have an ethernet socket, surely it ought to be a simple software routine for an installer or able user to carry out.

it is very annoying that you lose older recordings when you change your Sky box and they really ought to do something about that.

That won't happen: aside from the technical and logistical challenge (very different generations of hardware and operating system) it's a rights thing.  The hard drive is there to facilitate downloading of on-demand content and time-shifted viewing as a limited exception to copyright law, not to create a semi-permanent media archive (despite that being how everyone uses it ; ) and Sky would be on very thin ice with the rights owners if they ever considered doing so.

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[nigea99]

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@Jim-AFCB wrote:

Thanks all, for the pointers.

Yes, when I was talking to the agent, I thought I was going mad as I was sure Sky Q used a dish as well. I knew the miniboxes worked over wifi only! He didn't have a clue about old HD+ recordings, at first he told me that it might be possible...

One question - can one watch one channel on the main Sky Q box and another channel on the minibox? I assume that is the case.

You can watch any channels or recordings on the mini, be that the same or different to the main box but they do get their content from the main box, where the recordings are stored (& can be  watched on any box except the UHD ones which are only available on the Main box 

Understood re: recordings on Sky+ HD boxes. I suggested to Sky some 12 years ago (when I acquired my current HD box, that it really ought to be quite simple to be able to transfer recordings from old Sky box to new one at a time of upgrade... both boxes have an ethernet socket, surely it ought to be a simple software routine for an installer or able user to carry out.

Even if there was software to allow this it would be very time consuming. 

it is very annoying that you lose older recordings when you change your Sky box and they really ought to do something about that. 

TBH SKY boxes are not really intended for long term storage - just 'Time shifting' although the reliability (particularly of SKY HD) does mean people hang on to recordings - I admit I tend to but we should always be prepared for total loss due to a failure 

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