Considering switching to Stream. Experiences?

[Wurst1]

We've been with Sky for 17 years and getting frustrated with how we as Sky Q customers seem to be disadvantaged compared to Sky Stream customers when it comes to what's included. The latest being Netflix is free for all Sky Stream customers, but we have to pay.

So, we're considering moving to Sky Stream.

We currently have Full Fibre 500 and get around 400mb download and have a busy household with multiple ethernet/wi-fi connected devices. We have our main tv (connected to Sky Q), two Sky mini boxes, multiple laptops/iPads/games consoles. At any one time (even early hours) there could be at least two computers in use and two tvs in use, sometimes more.

How reliable is Sky Stream? If it's entirely internet based, is Full Fibre 500 enough to handle the load when we could have multiple people using the connection at the same time. The Sky website seems to say it is, but in reality?

How does 4K/Ultra HD stream effectively? Is there much lag/stutter with live tv/sport?

Would be happy to switch, but need to be confident it's going to worth reliably/smoothly 99% of the time.

[Angel_Aka]

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@Wurst1 wrote:

Would be happy to switch, but need to be confident it's going to worth reliably/smoothly 99% of the time.

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It's impossible to say whether Sky Stream will work reliably and/or smoothly 99% of the time in your home. Every customer's broadband network is different. Some have a good experience, others have a terrible one. Lots of factors like network congestion, wall thickness, WiFi bands, network strength, etc can come into play and Sky's hardware requires as fast and stable a connection as possible. 

The only way to know is to try it. You can still revert back to Sky Q if you find it doesn't work well enough for you. 

[Chrisee]

@Wurst1  I have has Sky Glass/Stream almost since launch and found it at least as reliable as Q if not more so. Of course lose your internet connection you lose the service but full fibre is pretty reliable..

The most important thing though is not the speed of your broadband but the speed and stability of the WiFi network in your home. In practice each puck only can use around 35Mb/s even to stream the most demanding content which is UHD live sport. However stability of the signal is equally crtical. The pucks have a useful network test which shows the quality of the WiFi connection my 4 units all show as excellent and work without issue.

If you have a black Sky hub your Q boxes will currently be operating as WiFi hot spots which will mean your WiFi coverage will change as the pucks do not have thst ability. I bought myself a cheapish 3 unit TP-Link Deco system to replace my Q boxes when I switched which gives me a minimum of 150Mb/s in every room as I unit is on each level. 

Given decent connectivity the system works well for us but it isn't perfect no system is but picture quality is overall improved and every unit supports UHD/HDR unlike Q. The OS is different and requires adjustment to work well. It is being actively developed. 

[Wurst1]

Thanks @Chrisee 

We currently have the black Sky Q hub, I wasn't aware the boxes (including the mini?) acted as hotspots. Our service with Sky has been fine 99% of the time. We currently have Full Fibre 500, wonder whether there would be any real benefit to going higher. Would probably try Sky Stream first without upgrading to see if it copes.

[CoffeeDrinker]

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@Wurst1 wrote:

We've been with Sky for 17 years and getting frustrated with how we as Sky Q customers seem to be disadvantaged compared to Sky Stream customers when it comes to what's included. The latest being Netflix is free for all Sky Stream customers, but we have to pay.

So, we're considering moving to Sky Stream.

We currently have Full Fibre 500 and get around 400mb download and have a busy household with multiple ethernet/wi-fi connected devices. We have our main tv (connected to Sky Q), two Sky mini boxes, multiple laptops/iPads/games consoles. At any one time (even early hours) there could be at least two computers in use and two tvs in use, sometimes more.

How reliable is Sky Stream? If it's entirely internet based, is Full Fibre 500 enough to handle the load when we could have multiple people using the connection at the same time. The Sky website seems to say it is, but in reality?

How does 4K/Ultra HD stream effectively? Is there much lag/stutter with live tv/sport?

Would be happy to switch, but need to be confident it's going to worth reliably/smoothly 99% of the time.

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Full Fibre 500 is more than enought to cover your usage. Biggest question otherwise is do you have *rock solid* WiFi at every location where you'd want to use a Sky Stream puck?

Other question is do you have a WiFi 6 or above router. I'm guessing from your usage scenario/number of devices in use concurrently that you probably do - WiFi 6 handles the congestion of multiple devices competing for concurrent WiFI radio use well. Anything below that and you;ll probably get issues with so many devices demanding radio access at the same time. 

It might be worth doing a WiFi speed test with a laptop or mobile at each location you currently have a mini box to be sure. (The mini boxes themselves max out at HD so are far less demanding of WiFI than a 4K stream would be. Good mini box WiFi reception doesn't neccessarily indicate a good 4K Sky Stream experience at the same location).

We're now on full fibre 900, but even on the 67Mb/s line we had up until last November, two 4K streams going to Sky Stream and Sky Glass at the same time worked fine with our single WiFi 6 router. (No boosters or mesh network).

4K streams well on our Sky Stream and Sky Glass gen 1 devices. Sky's own 4K with HLG delivered HDR on demand is silky smooth. We've found 4K Netflix, Disney+ and Prime to be less juddery on our Apple TV 4K devices than on Sky's own, although my wife cares far less about this than I do. 

Can't speak to live TV or sports reliability sorry - we barely use the former and don't subscribe to the latter.

[Chrisee · Accepted solution]

@Wurst1 one of the selling points shen Q launched was its mesh WiFi when combined with a matched hub where every Q unit actscas a WiFi souurce. Sky's newer white hubs dont support the WiFi hot spots which cause angst over in the Broadband forum when customers upgrade to full fibre get one of the new hubs and the wifi speed around their home is actually worse.  These days the Q mesh technology is very dated and there are far better systems around including my cheapo Deco system which cost under £100. 

A lot of rubbish is spoken about how everyone needing gigabit broadband in practice most users rarely go over 150Mb/s even with multiple simultaenous users. One of the largest uses of data is streaming video which tops out at 35Mb/s for low latency live sports in UHD with all of the bellscand whistles of Dolby Atmos and HDR. Netflix etc its more likecw5Mb/s.

As it happens the way Openreach operate full fibre 30 connections on your distribution point share a single 2.48Gb/s link from the exchange so it doesn't take a genius to see if more than people started to use a gigabit each the system hits a snag. In practice while connections can slow a bit at peak times serious issues are very rare.

[splatto]

Surely the Netflix tiers are the same on Q as stream as long as you have Sky Ultimate.

[Angel_Aka]

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@splatto wrote:

Surely the Netflix tiers are the same on Q as stream as long as you have Sky Ultimate.

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They are, yes. It's the pricing that's variable. 

Sky Ultimate on Stream/Glass has Netflix Standard with ads included in the price, which differs depending on whether you take a 31 day rolling contract or a 24 month contract. 

Sky Ultimate on Q is an add-on to the Sky Signature base pack. The cost of Ultimate on Q can vary depending on what else you have in your subscription but it gets you the same Netflix standard with ads tier that you'd get on Ultimate with Stream/Glass. 

On both systems you'd then pay extra (again, no fixed price - it varies between customers) for Standard ad-free or Premium 4K/ad-free Netflix. 

[Wurst1]

@splatto Sky Ultimate is the same for Sky Q or Sky Stream - the issue I have is that Sky Essential (the lowest tier tv package) now includes Netflix, whereas Sky Signature (apparently the older name equivalent to Sky Essential and only available to existing Sky Q customers) doesn't include Netflix. 

[Wurst1]

Thanks again @Chrisee - our router is just the regular Sky Q hub that came with our Sky Q 2TB box - I believe this is just WiFi 5. From your experience it sounds like just buying our own will be the best option when we try Sky Stream. Frustrating that Sky's newest router doesn't support hotspots - they're inviting a lot of potential issues with patchy signal from their own customers.

Appreciate all the info - it's made me feel a bit more confident about switching over.

[lettice]

@Wurst1 

I have Sky Broadband Ultrafast 500 and use the sr203 like yourself.

I have had no issues with a reliable wifi connection to both my Sky Stream pucks, in the two years I have had Sky Stream.

Sky Stream for me has been very reliable in that time.

I have one puck in my lounge, one in a bedroom, with my Sky router in the middle of the house, sitting about six feet or so off the ground in another room that is through the main stairwell and back from the lounge.

Mine is a brick built Victorian house, which I have found for me and along with all my neighbours who have similar, the design helps with the flow of the wifi through the property and into our front and rear gardens.

Ive always been a fan of the sr203, it provides a good range of wifi all around my house and outside in my long back rear garden and also in the front outside of the house for ring security cameras and Sky Protect doorbell kit.

Like you also, when I had Sky Q, I had no issues at all with a Sky Q Main box and a mini connecting over wifi, on the fibre connection and previously on my Sky 80/20 connection.

Of course, all house layouts and designs are different and can have an effect around the positioning of the router and some carful thought is needed for devices like the Sky Stream pucks and Sky Q boxes.

One other aspect for consideration, is that the Sky Stream pucks, we have seen can suffer from some interference, so careful  positioning can make a big difference.

If it helps for your planning of Sky Stream, I always provide the following for those that may be suffering from interference;

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.
Best not to sit it on a glass shelf. Wood is generally the best.
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.

If it helps, have a read of my journey from Sky Q to Sky Stream, link listed below in my signature.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Wurst1 wrote:

Thanks again @Chrisee - our router is just the regular Sky Q hub that came with our Sky Q 2TB box 

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If that's actually a Q Hub (flat, two ethernet ports, no 'Voice' LED) then Sky should already have been in touch about replacing it because the model no longer meets UK security regulations for routers.

https://sky.com/skyhuboptions 

 

[groupcaptain]

@TimmyBGood @lettice @Chrisee 

When I moved from Sky Q to 2 pucks and a Glass Air, I was told that, like Sky Q, if a cabled the networking, the devices would act as WIFI access points. The conversation in this thread perhaps suggests otherwise. Could someone please clarify? Thanks

[Chrisee]

@groupcaptain I think there was a misunderstanding the Sky Glass TVs  and Stream pucks are simple WiFi client devices so cannot act as an extender unlike the older Sky Q boxes. Using Ethernet to connect these devices is sensible but does not change how they work but it is advised to turn off the units WiFi as they can revert to trying to use that in place of the wired connection.

[groupcaptain]

@Chrisee Thanks for clarifying that. I was suspicious that might be the case. I have 2 pucks working fine & a Glass Air but, since the last OS update, the Glass Air is playing up; I have posted on a few threads including this one here which explains the issue (and my frustration...). All 3 devices are ethernet connected. I have already tried switching off WIFI in the Glass Air but the problem persists. If you have any suggestions to fix the issue with the Glass Air, I'd appreciate your advice. I am far from alone in having this issue. As you will see from the linked thread, a Sky Community member is aware and confirmed there is an issue that is being worked on but I am concerned that they seem to believe the connection getting dropped and the random images appearing are 2 separate issues despite them both starting to happen at the same point in time and the day after the OS build level moved from 038 to 039.