I've been reading the various posts with interest as a few weeks ago we started to have similar issues. When this all started we had the message "This program is no longer available" but this then started to be issues with the picture freezing and sound stuttering. Bare with me it's a bit long and technical-ish.
Basically we don't have a standard Sky Q setup. Our boxes are part of an Audio / Visual system where we can watch them on any tv in the house. So we don't have easy access to the boxes, we can restart them though through a power distribution system which can target the boxes, it basically powers them off and switches them back on after 30 seconds. A few weeks ago our hdmi / ethernet network was replaced and the first issue we came across was the Sky Q box freezing (still picture and stuttering sound). We just assumed it was the new network and concentrated on that changing various handshake settings, power settings, timings etc etc. Nothing fixed it. Our main Sky box froze which then had the knock on effect of taking out the 2 mini boxes we have. We also have a few Apple TV's and various other hdmi based boxes attached to the same system and they were not affected.
It suddenly dawned on me the Sky box was the common fault. I made a note of the software installed on the box and it was Q350.000.12.00L (679jvlc). At worst the problem occurred every 10 minutes or so on the day I decided to contact Sky.
I spoke to Sky and the call handler agreed that due to the age of the box that maybe the hard disk was on its way out, they sent a new box out. We were without a box for a few days (Sunday the call was logged).
In the meantime I substituted the main Sky Q box in the system with an off the shelf Freeview box and used the same hdmi / audio connections that the Sky Q box used in the system. This box ran flawlessly for the time it took for the new box to arrive. This suggested to me that it was indeed the Sky Q box at fault and not our distributed TV system.
The new box arrived from Sky and I took out the Freeview box and powered up the new Sky box. I went into settings, turned off all the standby options (this is how the installers left the previous box) and checked the software version and it was still on an older version of some Q340 variant. I didn't update it as I thought I'd just thought we'd test it.
For the rest of the week the sky box ran fine until last night when the box had frozen again (still picture and the sound was stuttering). I did a reset and got the box back up and running. I went to check the software version and it had updated to the Q350 version.
So my conclusion (and that of our AV installers) is that the issue is definitely Sky Q v350 software in relation to HDMI handshakes. We do have various TVs, mainly Samsung and Sony Bravia. For years this system has worked flawlessly until this latest release of Q350. The fact that the Freeview box works fine on the same HDMI system proves it is the Q box at fault.
I hope Sky can get a fix rolled out as soon as possible. I may have to substitute the Freeview box again but given we're paying (a substantial amount) for a service we aren't getting, I think Sky need to acknowledge the issue and issue a statement as to a forthcoming solution.
