Switching from SKY + / SKY HD to SKY Q - some points to note

[TimmyBGood]

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@noelmartin53 wrote:

will the other 2 Sky Q boxes be inferior to the main Q box.

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Q Mini boxes cannot output UHD.

[Irish-Steve]

So, our 2  HD+ boxes are being replaced by Q later today, the system is showing a 1TB UHD box is coming, and Mini boxes, which I'm annoyed about, as we had a 2Tb and 1TB Sky+ box, so we're losing storage by upgrading, but if the Q system is going to be as short a life as seems possible, possibly only 2 or 3 years, we'll be moving to another service or alternative system  sooner than later, so it may not be worth getting into a fur fight over that, we've had enough trouble getting the Sky mobile up and running, and I'm still working through all the issues that have been caused by moving from FTTC to FTTH, the number of devices that use the WiFi is significant, and changing all of them to work with the new SSID is a PAIN, I'm beginning to wish I'd just changed the Sky box to have the old SSID etc, it would have been a lot simpler.

There's a new viewing card arrived in the post, so that raises the question, will the old viewing cards still work in the HD boxes, as long as we don't let them connect to the internet, or will the system disable them over the satellite link, we have a multiswitch, which I'm upgrading to facilitate the Q system, so the old boxes will still be capable of connecting to Astra, I'm not looking to use them for watching or recording new material, but we have some ancient recordings on the drives that won't be ever be rebroadcast or replaceable, so I'm going to have to try and find a way to archive them off on to a PC or similar if we want to watch them again, and if the box can still play back, I can leave it doing exactly that with a PC connected for however long it takes, without any issues as long as the viewing cards remain usable for accessing the drive.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Irish-Steve wrote:

if the box can still play back, I can leave it doing exactly that with a PC connected for however long it takes, without any issues as long as the viewing cards remain usable for accessing the drive.

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The HD boxes will cease to allow hard drive access at some unpredictable point in the future: in some circumstances this is probably more rapid with a satellite feed still attached (but they wouldn't get a signal through a Q LNB anyway). It may simply happen the next time they are powered on and unfortunately at that point all recordings have passed beyond use because they are encrypted at rest.

[nigea99]

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@Irish-Steve wrote:

So, our 2  HD+ boxes are being replaced by Q later today, the system is showing a 1TB UHD box is coming, and Mini boxes, which I'm annoyed about, as we had a 2Tb and 1TB Sky+ box, so we're losing storage by upgrading, but if the Q system is going to be as short a life as seems possible, possibly only 2 or 3 years, we'll be moving to another service or alternative system  sooner than later, so it may not be worth getting into a fur fight over that, we've had enough trouble getting the Sky mobile up and running, and I'm still working through all the issues that have been caused by moving from FTTC to FTTH, the number of devices that use the WiFi is significant, and changing all of them to work with the new SSID is a PAIN, I'm beginning to wish I'd just changed the Sky box to have the old SSID etc, it would have been a lot simpler.

There's a new viewing card arrived in the post, so that raises the question, will the old viewing cards still work in the HD boxes, as long as we don't let them connect to the internet, or will the system disable them over the satellite link, we have a multiswitch, which I'm upgrading to facilitate the Q system, so the old boxes will still be capable of connecting to Astra, I'm not looking to use them for watching or recording new material, but we have some ancient recordings on the drives that won't be ever be rebroadcast or replaceable, so I'm going to have to try and find a way to archive them off on to a PC or similar if we want to watch them again, and if the box can still play back, I can leave it doing exactly that with a PC connected for however long it takes, without any issues as long as the viewing cards remain usable for accessing the drive.

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hi @Irish-Steve 

@TimmyBGood  has advised regarding the recordings

As mentioned in my initial notes here SKY Q uses twin cables (it needs 1 for each polarity)   - is your multiswitch suitable for twin inputs - SKY will want to run a cable bypassing it unless it will cope with both inputs and capable of passing through the full wideband signal - as also mentioned SKY replace the LNB with a wideband LNB that SKY Q needs (unless fed from a dSCR system) 

[PJS88]

Hi all

Hoping you don't mind me asking a dumb question. I am moving from SkyHD to the SkyQ box as part of this upgrade. I subscribe to  TNT (formerly BT) Sports via BT rather than through Sky directly, and also to Premier Sports.

When the SkyQ box is installed will these subscriptions automatically migrate to my new box and therefore be receivable? Or will I have to contact both BT and Premier to advise them I have a new box and viewing card? I'm assuming the latter but any guidance is much appreciated.

[nigea99]

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@PJS88 wrote:

Hi all

Hoping you don't mind me asking a dumb question. I am moving from SkyHD to the SkyQ box as part of this upgrade. I subscribe to  TNT (formerly BT) Sports via BT rather than through Sky directly, and also to Premier Sports.

When the SkyQ box is installed will these subscriptions automatically migrate to my new box and therefore be receivable? Or will I have to contact both BT and Premier to advise them I have a new box and viewing card? I'm assuming the latter but any guidance is much appreciated.

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hi @PJS88 

I will be honest, I am not an expert regarding TNT (ex BT) but I think the sube will switch OK without further intervention.

One thing I do know is that when customers pay direct rather via SKY you need an additional subscription add on for any mini boxes (which is not needed for customers paying via SKY)

[PJS88]

@nigea99 
Thank you so much for your prompt and helpful reply.

You were correct! My TNT Sports subscription via BT, and Premier Sports subscription have both migrated over without any need for me to contact any of the service providers.

Just wanted to clarify the outcome in case it helps other users. Thanks again.

[roshazy]

Ordered Sky Q but engineer declined to instal due to our poor wifi - meanwhile all Sky channels and functionality (pause, rewind, record etc) disappeared from our second box. Sky say there's no work around so I'm stuck with basically a freeview box. Is it straightforward to simply unplug this and replace with a Freesat box? At least then I have pause, rewind, record?

[Chodley]

Did they do the dish work first then??

Is it the internet connection bandwidth or the signal strength where the Q is that is a problem? If the latter, that's fixable.

a freeview box will only work if it's a 4K one I think, they can use the new LNBs. And I bet they disconnected the second pair of cables so that will need re-attaching.

... but skyHD can't use the new LNBs so if that is still working on one box, I'm actually confused what they did here.

[roshazy]

The engineer was only here ten minutes - he didn't touch anything. I'm not technical but I believe it was the signal strength that was the problem - we only get about 7Mbps maximum and Sky give us a 1Mbps Guaranteed Minimum Download speed - is that relevant?

[TimmyBGood]

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@roshazy wrote:

we only get about 7Mbps maximum and Sky give us a 1Mbps Guaranteed Minimum Download speed - is that relevant?

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Sky recommends a minimum of 3Mbs for Q on-demand service, and streaming apps basically won't work, but all live television arrives over the satellite dish and broadband speed isn't relevant to that, not is it supposed to be a reason for Sky to refuse installation.

[Chodley]

He didn't touch anything but your 2nd box stopped working?

[roshazy]

That's correct. We agreed to upgrade to Sky Q (after repeated emails saying we could do it free of charge) on August 13 this year. We were given an installation date of September 5 but on August 15 all Sky channels and functionality to the second box stopped. I followed all the recommended steps to try and restore it - rebooting etc - then rang Sky who said it was a glitch and would be resolved at their end. Nothing happened, I raised an official complaint with Sky after the failed installation but I was basically told there was nothing they could do and we were welcome to leave Sky at any time without penalty. That's after 26 years!

Thank you for taking the time to look at this problem.

[LP]

@nigea99  Thank you for an informative post.  I am back in this dilema once again.  I had an order about 18 months ago which had to be cancelled as the engineer on arrival said it was too far from the main BT hub to serve the rest of the house.  It was a nightmare to revert back to Sky+ and took nearly 12 months to get the refund!!  I am now (with the latest letter warning about no more suport) - thinking about trying again.  

We have 3 parts to the house all of which are served by the same BT network - boosted by BT mini disks. 

1 x Sky+ in small sitting room with an RF device to the adjacent bedroom (just one of these is in use at a time)

The other Sky+ box is in another part of the house on a multiroom contract.

I would like to add another box / connection into my son's bedroom plus another box into our main sitting room

ie total of 1 master and 4 slaves.  What do you think?

Broadband speed - download 425-500Mbps

Really resitant to changing as know I will struggle with any new interface but keen to get the additional boxes.

[Rickie]

I've just had the letter too.

So there are no reminders?

I can't see any advantage to upgrading to Q?!