Cancelled Sky Stream 18 months ago - has it improved??

[dormouse]

I cancelled Stream about 18 months ago and have been happily using Now on an Apple TV. Saving quite a bit of money too. However, I'm missing the 'all in one place' Stream interface, so it is tempting to sign up again.

My main reason for cancelling was the frustrating reboots which seemd to be needed every week. We used apps a lot and after a few days one would freeze, requiring a reboot. Not a huge task, but you shouldn't have to do it so regularly. The Apple TV only needs a reboot when there is a software upgrade.

I know the apps are run on the server side, not the device, and was curious if upgrades over the last 18 months have made the reboots fewer?

Thanks

[Mark39]

@dormouse people have their own experiences, but personally I can't even remember when I last needed to restart my Puck. For me, my Puck has been more reliable than the Sky Q Mini box that it replaced. 

[Tommy2]

I only just got Sky stream in April, and whilst there are some issues (some glicthes such as missing episodes were on Sky Q as well) I am happy with it and confidnet that Sky TV through the internet is the way forawrd. More time and money is being invetsed in Sky stream now and when I wnet to teh Sky store they told me that eventually Sky will ahve to discontnue Satellite and thir focus is now on Sky TV through the internet. Id recommend giving it another chance, I certainly dont have to do a full reboot every week.

[Angel_Aka]

@dormouse 

I think that a glance through this forum will reveal to you that the Sky Stream experience remains distinctly variable for many people. 

There is simply no way to guarantee that it will work well for you unless you try it again.

There is the newer version 1B of the Stream puck which many people claim is faster and more reliable (for live UHD Sport in particular) but there's no way to request this version of the puck. 

There's also no way to guarantee which server your service runs from, no way to guarantee that your own broadband network will be stable enough to work, etc. Yes, it should just be plug and play, but for many people it's not. 

SkyOS is a sophisticated platform. It probably does work better than it did 18 months ago, but you put yourself in Sky's hands when you sign up. If you're happy for them to control everything and you miss their UI then go for it.  

Personally, when I switched from SkyOS on Stream to tvOS on Apple TV 4K boxes, I found the experience to be vastly superior on the Apple hardware. It absolutely gives me everything we watch 'all in one place' quickly and reliably. It lets me be in control of the apps I have on the box, of the individual subscriptions, of the frame rates, of the resolution, etc. It works a lot better for me. It won't for everyone. 

SkyOS runs perfectly well for hundreds of thousands of customers on hundreds of thousands of pucks. You'll just have to try it again to see if it works well enough for you. 

[Hunter2660]

Your best bet is to look through the various threads. At the moment you will find problems with Sky Sports UHD (about a year now so ongoing), problems with ITVX Ch4 & 5 apps using ad skip (although I believe a fix is now in place), the HBO Max app seems a common issue. Obviously these don't affect everybody so you may be lucky. Just remember to avoid the 2 year contract because if you feel you've made a mistake after the first month you'll be stuffed.

[JazTheTim]

I'm in my 3rd puck. 
it's much much more stable for me

now

reeboot every so often and it's fine. 

[WelshGeezer]

I signed up a month ago. I was using three pucks (v2's although some people hate you calling them a v2 or Gen 2 puck), now I have three glass TV's. The only issue that I have encountered would be this one:

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Stream/Streaming-puck-user-interface-icon-goes-blank-when-selected/...