Can't watch anything

[KyraK]

So, we have this cute little puck called. Paul. Unfortunately Paul doesn't like working but just sits on his bottom all day, flashing away and pretending to work. His duties when he does actually work, it doesn't last long. He loves to make blue screens, stop any programmes from working, and when they do work they do not last long as his other trick is to lead me into a false sense of hope but then stop working and goes back home. I have tried the "help & support" in order to persuade Paul to work properly again but alas the minion at Sky just tell me to press lots of buttons/let Paul sleep and awaken him again along with ever other persuading idea. At the end of that, there was nothing else they could do. The minion I spoke with, when I suggested replacing Paul with Phil (a replacement puck) it was deemed Phil was too young. So please please please join me in my quest to get Phil so that I can watch TV without shouting as it stops working. And hopefully a cute minion at Sky might be kind enough to help, if not one of you incredible community. Thank you so much.

[Angel_Aka]

@KyraK 

Paul's always been workshy. Sits around all day, pretending to be busy but in reality is doing nowt. 

Hopefully someone in HR can send Phil round to take over... but then again, I've met quite a few Phil's who have a pretty shonky work ethic too...

Best of luck!

[lettice]

@KyraK 

Loved reading your post, made me laugh.

Can you give us a bit of background of your setup with your puck and its puck network speed.

Plus, exactly what you have tried so far, assuming you mean a settings restart.

We have been advised to not encourage customers to do a factory reset, unless Sky have asked you to or you are on call or chat  with Sky, as it can sometimes cause some account issues that only a backend Sky team can sort for you.

As a starter,

Can you do a network speed test on your Puck.
Launch Netflix on your pucks (you do not need to be logged into it, if you do not use netflix) and scroll down the left menu to Get help.
Choose Check Network.
Would suggest running the test several times, say over a half hour period.
What is your speed?

If that speed looks ok, we can think about an escalation for a possible replacement puck with the Sky Community escalation team.

[KyraK]

We have a network speed of 28mbps. Does that sound right? I was on phone at the time of a reset, but nothing came of the phone call.

Or WiFi is working well with no interruptions on everything apart from Paul the Puck.

I have done a reset on our TV to check that, but the actual TV isn't showing any issues.

Really don't know what to do now.

[Angel_Aka]

---

@KyraK wrote:

We have a network speed of 28mbps. Does that sound right? I was on phone at the time of a reset, but nothing came of the phone call.

Or WiFi is working well with no interruptions on everything apart from Paul the Puck.

I have done a reset on our TV to check that, but the actual TV isn't showing any issues.

Really don't know what to do now.

---

I'm afraid Paul has put in a report to HR that he simply cannot work under such conditions. 

28Mbps is actually on the slow side in order for Paul (or indeed Phil) to function with any sort of reliability. 

Sky recommend a minumum of 25Mbps but the reality is, if you have any other devices in your home using any bandwidth, or your speed fluctuates in any way, pucks under any name (mine was called Pru) simply will not work well. 

What speed of broadband are you supposed to receive at your router?

[KyraK]

We usually average quite a high Mbps rate as we use a satellite WiFi provider and the receiver is in place with no instructions. We do plan to move it onto the top of our property as our neighbours have done over the next few days.

I have reun the speed test and it is now 89mbps!!

[lettice]

Afraid if that 28Mbps  is the speed that the Sky Stream puck Netflix app Speedtest is showing on your puck, then that is what is causing your issue.

The Sky recommended  minimum broadband speed for running with Sky Glass/Stream is 25Mbps.
Or 30Mbps if you add an extra Sky Stream puck or watch in UHD.

You can add a another few Mbps per puck on top of that if you use the Sky Sports 'live sync' or the new 'real-time' broadcaster for ITV and BBC.

At 28 Mbps, you really are at the lowest limit and we often see customers around the 30-40 Mbps mark that do not have that much of a reliable and stable experience around those speeds with Sky Stream/Glass.

If you can, try connecting your puck via an ethernet cable direct to your router.

Assuming your overall broadband speed supplied to your household is not that high.

Have you looked at maybe seeing if you can get a Fibre broadband line from the likes of Sky or an altnet provider. It's often not that more expensive, in the 100Mbps to 500Mbps offerings.

edit:

See you have a ran another test and it's 89Mbps, that is quite a big jump from 28Mbps to 89Mbps.

Sound like you are maybe getting some kind of local interference if your wifi is changing speed that much.

Assume that is starlink, I know of a few that use that very well with Sky Q and Sky Stream.

Some often mention latency with satellite broadband, but it was once in the early years an issue, but recently has been greatly improved and as I said I've seen it working well.

Sounds like you may have to look more at your local network and any interference.

I will add here, some other areas that may help if any kind of local interference is affecting your puck, it can make a big difference. You may though already be aware.

Make sure you have a good 6-8 inches free on all sides of the puck.
Do not stack the puck on top of any other device.
Make sure the puck is in the open, not tucked away in a cabinet or sat directly behind the TV.
Make sure you have no other devices that can cause interference closeby, like cordless phones, radiators, baby monitors, smart meter in home displays, microwaves and the like.

Plus, if you do try using an ethernet cable, turn wifi OFF under Network.

[KyraK]

Yes it is Starlink because our neighbourhood does no have regular WiFi connection capabilities. So satellite or for some (not us) 3 home broadband. We used the 3home broadband for a couple of years when we first moved here, but the satellite is by far the best.

We do usually average over 60mbps, it was just unfortunate that I can't read as when looking again at speed test history I should have seen that it was 78 and not 28. I blame falling over one of our dogs and losing glasses. I think Paul is sending out evil spells because he is likely to be booted out soon.

Thanks again.

[lettice]

---

@KyraK wrote:

Yes it is Starlink because our neighbourhood does no have regular WiFi connection capabilities. So satellite or for some (not us) 3 home broadband. We used the 3home broadband for a couple of years when we first moved here, but the satellite is by far the best.

We do usually average over 60mbps, it was just unfortunate that I can't read as when looking again at speed test history I should have seen that it was 78 and not 28. I blame falling over one of our dogs and losing glasses. I think Paul is sending out evil spells because he is likely to be booted out soon.

Thanks again.

---

Ok if that's the case, it should work relatively well day to day.

Streaming in any form will have the occasional glitch now and again and Sky Stream can and does sometimes blip for many reasons, but it should be only occasionally.

Your connection then looks stable and if you can assume that you have no local interference , we can if you like escalate to the Sky community team, who may after some questions and tests push through a replacement with you.

Let me know if you would like us to do that.

[KyraK]

Hi

Yes, please do escalate as despite a generally good signal, I think Paul needs to be replaced. Thanks so much for all your help.

Just one thing - when they contact me it needs to be by either email or other non-verbal communication as I have speech difficulties due to a long term health issues.

Thanks again.

Yvette

[lettice]

@KyraK 

All will be done via online chat with Sky.

I've escalated this to Sky and they should be in touch with you soon about it.
Look out for a message from Sky on your email and Sky Community private messages.
Look out for the blue chat bubble within your Sky community.

Note: Escalation conversations automatically close if there is no response within 48 hours.
More about an escalation here;
https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/My-post-has-been-escalated/ba-p/3711147#M1014

[lainys]

Thanks for escalating this @lettice . We’ve sent an invite to chat.

Please be aware conversations automatically close if there is no response within 48 hours.

Lainy