Apps becoming unresponsive lately

[UHD-Fool]

Hello... Sky stream has been generally working pretty well for us. We have excellent internet speed and the puck is connected via Ethernet.

Lately though, Amazon Prime Video app and also Netflix (the two apps we use most, so maybe all are affected?) have been freezing. You can press Home and get back to the menu, but you cannot actually do anything in the frozen app.

It is annoying especially because I cannot just force the app to quit and restart, I have to reboot the whole puck which takes a while.

Please create a way to force-quit apps when they misbehave.

[Johndm1957]

We have the same with C4 and C5 apps.

Gave up using the Netflix , Appleand Disney apps ages aho due to freezing  up.  I use an Apple  TV 4k now instead which works flawlessly. Only problem no ad skipping, so not paying for that now .

Coming very close to dumping Sky after 25 years of great service 

[UHD-Fool]

That's sad! Perhaps Sky should release a high quality "Sky App" (better than Now! TV)  that runs on Apple TV ... providing the live channels plus their first-party programming on-demand, Sky Store, etc.

It would still take some good programmers, but at least they don't have to run their own OS and host various other apps inside, and worry about hardware at all. I know, it's a little different than their current concept of being a hub for everthing streaming.

[Exiled-in-HH]

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@UHD-Fool wrote:

That's sad! Perhaps Sky should release a high quality "Sky App" (better than Now! TV)  that runs on Apple TV ... providing the live channels plus their first-party programming on-demand, Sky Store, etc.

It would still take some good programmers, but at least they don't have to run their own OS and host various other apps inside, and worry about hardware at all. I know, it's a little different than their current concept of being a hub for everthing streaming.

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In what way would you expect it to be better than NOWTV?

[UHD-Fool]

It would offer UHD 4k video quality (for same that is available on Stream), Dolby Atmos sound, Dolby Vision. It would have the breadth of live channels that a typical Sky package offers.

I believe that Now TV is set up as a lesser quality service than traditional Sky satellite or the new Stream service. It as been a while since I tired it, probably it has improved somewhat since then.

[Nigelb1972]

Try giving your puck the occasional reboot using the restart option from the settings menu. This will perform a full shut down and restart. Lagging apps can be the result of memory getting clogged in the same way a PC or laptop can start getting laggy if you just put it to sleep and never do a full reboot.

[UHD-Fool]

Indeed, I have started doing that -- a soft reboot. It's a drag when you want to watch a show and then you have to reboot for two minutes.

Maybe I need to put it on a plug timer so it powers off for 30 minutes at 3am or something. That's compensating weak operating system programming though! Memory leaks can be avoided.

The ability to maybe hold down some button on the remote when the app has frozen, making the Sky box force-quit the app, would be a faster work-around.

[Johndm1957]

I regularly reboot and power cycle, makes no difference, still freezes

[Exiled-in-HH]

NOWTV already supports UHD/HDR and ATMOS😉

[UHD-Fool]

Hmm. Ok, thanks. If Stream gets too annoying I'll check it out again.

[Skull+Treaty]

@UHD-Fool NOW (formally NOW TV) does support HDR/UHD/Atmos as long as you have the Ultra Boost add on. It's probably still more favorable in price too

[UHD-Fool]

It doesn't seem to have live channels ... we watch CNN and EuroNews live, Comedy Central shows,  maybe a few others that you'll find on a typical UK cable/satellite service. It doesn't look like Now has that.

[Skull+Treaty]

@UHD-Fool Nope, it's a learning curve. I'm a Stream user - and its not been the  best user experience (for us); the massive tree pretty close to us means our Sky Q was no longer suitable in the spring/summer. NOW is something we may look at - most of the time we use the apps for catchup TV via the Apple TV 4K device. 

[Exiled-in-HH]

CNN is available on the Amazon Prime and Rakuten apps ... as well as on many good quality Smart TVs along with EuroNews  ... for free😉