Feedback on sky stream

[paul8881]

Hi,

I've had sky stream for some months now, whilst i can see what its trying to acheive, there a lot of things that would prevent me recommendaing to others and not to go back to Virgin when my contract is over.

I want to understand, if i am the only one with these issues,  general problems or i misunderstand it:

• fast forward / rewind
  • behaves differently in every app. slow to response, often just give up
  • Flakey in many circumstances, mainly on live tv. You rewind for some time, tv just returns to live
  • Your on delay, than normally between 15 and 30 mins time it will just return to live by itself 
  • Fast forwarding adverts as i've paid for 'no ad's' is just painful.
• the 'new' program indicator appears to be rarely used.
• iplayer takes ages to open
• the 'start from beginning' its too easy to press accidently
• takes too many clicks to get to TV guide
• voice search, works 50% of the time.
• Playlists
  • generally not easy to use or clear, it all needs to be re thought. It seems to be in a type of most recent order, yet when you go into it, ofter then latest program isn't there
  • you go into a 'new' program and its not there when it opens the app.
    • see 24 hours in police custody on channel 4, and many others
  • Confusion between what you click and what it opens, E.g. click something from saved from sky sports f1 and it opens f1 in channel 4.
  • You cant specifiy new or reruns, it shows everything across all channels. E.g. select who wants to be a millionaire and its always at the top of my list because some random channel is replaying it every day. I just want to watch if there are any new ones.
• Watched / recently played
  • Particularly in relation to play lists, its very annoying to know what you've already watched and partly watched. I understand these features are there, but in general it doesn't work. Iplayer related content seems a bit better at it
  • E.g. with a 'traditional' record features, it just stacks them in one screen and you shows you watched then you can delete. This simple workflow is just not possible.

thanks

[Jones_The_Cat]

@paul8881 

An excellent summary, and pretty much identical to my experience. 

I gave it a year but nothing improved significantly so I'm currently in the final days of my cancellation period, having switched to an Apple TV 4K box which is performing infinitely better than the old Stream puck.

I'd be willing to give Sky another go in the future, but not on the present hardware. Stream was perfectly fine if all you wanted to do was turn on a live channel stream and leave it. Everything else was just too fraught with unpredictability for my taste. Watching TV is supposed to be enjoyable and relaxing, not endlessly infuriating when the ad-skipping goes wrong or the stream stops for no logical reason.  

[Freddie+Hayward]

Hi Guys, just to give a balanced view, I too have had Sky Stream well over a year now, bought it during it's soft launch.

In my opinion the product has evolved over the past year, I get a rock solid WiFi connection, no crashing of the box, no break up of watched programmes, 

And no I am not one of 'those' that just watches live events, all my programmes are Play Listed, I've not had one issue with the Apps (well apart from iTV X), and the way it is seemlessly integrated, and everything works just fine,

The only area that still needs work is the continue watching rail, but that I 'feature' I never use now, as everything I need is in my personal play list.

not everyone will agree with my comments, but thought I'd just give my honest opinion,

[MarkGoldsmith]

To me streaming at this point differs wildly based on personal preference. I too have had few issues or complaints in the 2 months I've had Stream.

are there required improvements to the UI and some features, yes but that will always be the case. Ultimately these types of things end up lower on the priority list than the bigger bugs.

[Bill051]

@paul8881 

Hard to disagree. The most disappointing thing is that the parts that work worst are on Sky's own channels which makes me think it's not a hardware issue but a software one. Stream is really a type of file manager/finder that sometimes just can't find stuff.  I've previously mentioned my issues with "The Football Show"

[Fothergill1]

@Freddie+Hayward  That's pretty much my experience.  I have had very few hardware issues and those that I have had have all been resolved by a quick system reboot.

I also find the continue watching feature infuriating but it woud be brilliant if it worked properly.  I made the mistake earlier today of doing a little research on behalf of another poster and I now have four programmes stuck on my CW rail which just won't disappear. This is the one thing that is slowly driving me away from the Sky streaming platform now that there are other options.

[KildareP]

Have to agree with the above.

The service, in theory, is great.

In reality:

- the hardware appears to be tasked with far too much than it's capable of - slow, laggy, glitchy

- playlist can take days after content is available in the respective broadcaster apps before it shows up, if at all

- the puck insists on switching itself to standby after a few hours, I presume to save bandwidth in case the puck is left "tuned" to a channel with the TV off.

If they could package Sky Stream into an app like Now TV and use an Apple TV as the box, I reckon it'd be a winner on all fronts.

As things currently stand, once my 12-months are up, I'll be cancelling.

[Fothergill1]

@KildareP  I do think that in the 18 months I have been on the streaming platform things have definitely improved but as you indicate there is still a long way to go. If it could be as good as Apple TV everyone would be happy 😀

[Bill051]

@Fothergill1  @KildareP 

I don't know anything about AppleTV. Am i right in thinking some of our Sky Stream channels are unavailble for it?

[Jones_The_Cat]

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@Bill051 wrote:

@Fothergill1  @KildareP 

I don't know anything about AppleTV. Am i right in thinking some of our Sky Stream channels are unavailble for it?

---

The Apple TV 4K box is a streaming device which has advantages and disadvantages over Sky Stream.

The main difference is that Sky Stream is based around having a full EPG with every channel available as a live stream. There is then an on demand catalogue of Sky programmes available, as well as a selection of third party apps to stream other programmes on demand from BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, Channel 5, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Apple TV+, etc. 

If you watch live TV and like being able to plan your viewing in this way then Sky Stream is a good choice. 

The main advantage of the Apple TV 4K box is that it offers more user choice. You purchase, and own the box itself and are free to download apps of your choosing to fit your own personal viewing habits. You can still watch live TV from all the main networks, but only via the appropriate apps. You are not tied in to any long term contracts, and can add programming to a watch list in a similar manner to Sky Stream's playlist function, which keeps track of where you are in a series. 

The Apple TV 4K hardware is also more expensive and is therefore faster and more reliable than the Sky Stream puck. It can stream higher bit-rates from certain apps for improved picture quality, and offers HDR10+ and frame rate matching for those who care about such things. 

Sky Stream is more about convenience, whereas Apple TV 4K is more about quality and versatility.

Each have a place in the market, whichever you prefer is largely down to what you watch and how you prefer to watch it.  

[Bill051]

@Jones_The_Cat 
So are all channels on Sky Stream available via Apple TV?

[Fothergill1]

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@Bill051 wrote:

@Fothergill1  @KildareP 

I don't know anything about AppleTV. Am i right in thinking some of our Sky Stream channels are unavailble for it?

---

@Bill051 An excellent explanation of the Apple TV from @Jones_The_Cat but I would just like to add that there is an excellent App called "TV launcher" which for a one off cost of only£44.99 provides pretty good EPG.

I subscribe to Sky Stream so do not also subscribe to the "Now TV" App but this covers a lot of the Sky programming.  See the following link https:/wwwwnowtvv.com 

[Floydianslip]

@Fothergill1 Typo there mate, TV Launcher is £4.99👍

[Fothergill1]

@Floydianslip Yes, confirmed £4.99 (the option to edit my post has now timed out 😫)

cc @Bill051 

[Jones_The_Cat]

TV Launcher is good but doesn't work in the same way as Sky Stream's live channel streams. 
TV Launcher's EPG links to live streams within individual apps, so clicking on BBC1 opens the iPlayer app and runs the live stream from there. 
On Sky Stream, clicking on BBC1 in the EPG opens a live stream directly, no additional app opens. All live channel streams come direct from Sky's servers, not from third party apps. This allows for old school style channel hopping. 
Whether or not this is useful depends on how you watch TV. Personally, I rarely use the EPG now so have no real need for Sky Stream, hence why I cancelled it. 
Everything else I want from a TV service I get from the Apple TV 4K box.