Go for Sky Essentials/Stream?

[Bettyb66]

Hi,

Can anyone give me advice on Sky Essential/Stream.

I recently cancelled my sky due to cost, but I was offered Sky Essentials and I see this is available over Sky Stream puck device. I have read a few reviews re Sky Stream but most seem negative regarding screen errors and problems, can anyone convince me otherwise.

[Carnoch04]

I have had Sky Stream since it launched and apart from a dodgy remote (which fixed itself after a couple of days) I have had no problems. What you will see on here is mostly complaints because people who are happy with the product don't tend to post on forums. I would thoroughly recommend Sky Stream. 

[Ellie_TV]

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@Bettyb66 wrote:

Hi,

Can anyone give me advice on Sky Essential/Stream.

I recently cancelled my sky due to cost, but I was offered Sky Essentials and I see this is available over Sky Stream puck device. I have read a few reviews re Sky Stream but most seem negative regarding screen errors and problems, can anyone convince me otherwise.

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If you had Sky Q before then Sky Stream is a very different type of service. 

Sky Q relies entirely on a satellite dish and cabling, maintained by Sky, in order to function. 

Sky Stream relies entirely on a fast and stable broadband connection, paid for and maintained by you, in order to function. 

You can get a Sky Q Essentials package for about £15 per month which gives you all the free to air channels via a Q box and the ability to record them. 

TV Essentials via a Stream puck gives you more channels and the ability to stream content on demand rather than recording it. 

Both systems have their merits but Sky Stream absolutely requires that you have fast and stable broadband in place. Minimum recommended speed is 25Mbps for HD streaming and 30Mbps for UHD. 

I liked both systems but have recently cancelled Stream due to the inconsistent lip sync errors which have been going on for quite some time.  

[marsh12]

i have sky  stream  for 3 years and i havent had any major problems and  i highly recommend Sky stream,only problem i have is when wifi goes down then it knocks tv out ,but that is very rare

[AndrewF_UK]

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@Bettyb66 wrote:

I have read a few reviews re Sky Stream but most seem negative regarding screen errors and problems, can anyone convince me otherwise.

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The problem is that people tend only to post about things that they're having problems with whilst the majority quietly enjoy it.

As an experiment, pop over to the Q forum and you'll see a bunch of problems posted there for that product. You'll see similar complaints and problems there too, and also won't really see posts praising it for working well because that's not really worth commenting on.

To be fair though, there are some problems with Stream. At the moment lip sync is a real bug and is being worked on but not yet fixed, although there are easy workarounds. And if your internet and home connection lacks performance you might get a pixelated or jumpy image. 

But for most of us, it works fine. I prefer it to Q by quite some margin. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Bettyb66 wrote:

I recently cancelled my sky due to cost, but I was offered Sky Essentials and I see this is available over Sky Stream puck device. 

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Be very careful: 'Sky TV Essentials' on a Q box is absolutely not the same as 'Sky Essential TV' on a Stream puck.

TV Essentials - Free To Air satellite channels plus recording & playback on a Q box with no bundled apps, for £15 pcm (but frequently discounted to £10 or even £5)

Essential TV - a subset of subscription channels (including Sky Atlantic) with bundled Netflix Standard with Adverts and Discovery Basic, on a Stream puck or Glass television, for £15 pcm (plus Glass finance payment where applicable)