Honest / up-to-date Sky Stream review

[TimmyBGood]

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@Turribeach wrote:

1.     It is not possible to watch something I recorded on my Sky box on the go (ie out and about my mobile phone) with the Sky Q app. 

Live 'place-shifting' was never going to be an option: Slingbox, the only service which ever offered such a thing, is now deceased.  The Go app offers mobile playback of content previously transferred to a device.
 

5.     Talking about ads I think paying for a subscription service which gives ads all the time makes me sick. There are no product ads on Apple TV, Netflix and Prime Video. It seems Sky is stuck in the past.

Netflix and Prime Video now have adverts: 'the past' appears to be catching up...
 
7.     UHD content being treated second rate #1: Lack UHD dedicated channels makes finding UHD content cumbersome. This is premium content that seems to be treated like second rate content! 

A UHD channel requires a channel owner to have enough content to fill it.

8.     UHD content being treated second rate #2: Certain Sky Q "basic features" don't work properly when watching UHD content. For instance going to the previous channel feature does not work when watching UHD content. It will all be a lot better if there were proper UHD channels...

As above.

10.  UHD content being treated second rate #4: UHD Content often doesn't have subtitles which is available for the same content in SD or HD.

That's finally been resolved, but took Sky an embarrassingly long time to do so.
 
15.  Constantly rising prices but constantly diminishing football content (La Liga, Champions League, Europa League, Italian League, etc, etc). I don't want to have to call for a better deal. I am (or was) a loyal customer and I should be rewarded for that not penalised with higher prices.
 

Or everyone involved in top tier football could be less greedy.

*pause for laughter*

 18.  Lack of Sky super fast broadband (over 100mb!) which makes it impossible for serious internet users to buy into Sky's triple play bundles

FTTC cannot carry speed in excess of 80Mbs.  Sky Broadband offers 100, 150, 300, 500 and 900Mbs on the national Openreach optical network, and now 2.5Gbs and 5Gbs over CityFibre infrastructure.
 
21.  Occasionally with very bad weather I will not be able to watch Sky. This doesn't happen with Virgin or BT Sports channels on BT, which come via the internet connection

Yes, fundamental physics (an inherently extremely weak signal transmitted from geosynchronous orbit being absorbed by large volumes of atmospheric water or scattered by ice) is a thing, and will remain so until satellite broadcasting to the UK ends around the turn of the decade.

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[Turribeach]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Turribeach wrote:

1.     It is not possible to watch something I recorded on my Sky box on the go (ie out and about my mobile phone) with the Sky Q app. 

That's correct: live 'place-shifting' was never going to be an option.  Slingbox, the only service which ever offered such a thing, is now deceased.  The Go app offers playback of content transferred to a mobile device.

Virgin Media's Tivo  allows local streaming this paired with a overlay network like Tailscale makes it possible to do this. Not for long of course as Tivo is going away...

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Turribeach wrote:

7.     UHD content being treated second rate #1: Lack UHD dedicated channels makes finding UHD content cumbersome. This is premium content that seems to be treated like second rate content! 

A UHD channel requires a channel owner to have enough content to fill it.

Got fixed in the end. It wasn't rocket science. Just have an UHD channel and use it when there is UHD content. Pure lazyness for premium content.

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Turribeach wrote:

5.     Talking about ads I think paying for a subscription service which gives ads all the time makes me sick. There are no product ads on Apple TV, Netflix and Prime Video. It seems Sky is stuck in the past.

Netflix and Prime Video now have adverts: 'the past' appears to be catching up...

 As long as there is a price tier without ads I am fine with it. You can see whether the extra cost of no ads is worth it and make a decision. There is no option in Sky content to have no ads.

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Turribeach wrote:

15.  Constantly rising prices but constantly diminishing football content (La Liga, Champions League, Europa League, Italian League, etc, etc). I don't want to have to call for a better deal. I am (or was) a loyal customer and I should be rewarded for that not penalised with higher prices. I seriously hope Sky and all the others doing this get penalised as part of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ongoing investigation about Consumer loyalty 'rip off': https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45664985
 

Or everyone involved in top tier football could be less greedy.

Prices go up even for non-football plans. But after reading this article on why nerly 70% of people don't switch it's clear to me that's why we have this model. People are lazy and they will always be. And because of this everyone else pays for that as there is too much money to gain for ripping people off.

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Turribeach wrote:

18.  Lack of Sky super fast broadband (over 100mb!) which makes it impossible for serious internet users to buy into Sky's triple play bundles

FTTC cannot carry speed over 80Mbs.  Sky Broadband offers 100, 150, 500 and 900Mbs on Openreach fibre, and now 2.5Gbs and 5Gbs over CityFibre.

Technically correct but actually incorrect based on reality. FTTC's limit is indeed 80Mb (subject to distanct) but with the G.fast addition it can get to 330Mb. I happen to live 20mts from my BT cabinet was G.fast enabled so my estimated speed test was 280-300mbs yet Sky wouldn't sell me that package because of their slowness to introduce faster speeds. Same happened with the FTTP plans and it's still happening now. Max broadband speed on my house on Sky: 900mb. EE and Vodafone: 1.6Gbps. New technology, new speeds, same incompetence...

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Turribeach wrote:

 
21.  Occasionally with very bad weather I will not be able to watch Sky. This doesn't happen with Virgin or BT Sports channels on BT, which come via the internet connection

Yes, fundamental physics (the absorption of what's inherently an extremely weak signal transmitted from geosynchronous orbit by large volumes of atmospheric water or its scattering by ice) is a thing, and will remain so until satellite broadcasting to the UK ends around the turn of the decade.

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True but I don't decide what's the delivery mechanism of my TV content, that's up to the provider. Never had those issues with BT TV or VM. 

[TimmyBGood]

@Turribeach 

Sky was the pioneering satellite television provider: physics was always going to be a factor.  Might as well blame Virgin Media for only covering half the country because they chose to dig trenches for coaxial cable...

[Turribeach]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

@Turribeach 

Sky was the pioneering satellite television provider: physics was always going to be a factor.  Might as well blame Virgin Media for only covering half the country because they chose to dig trenches for coaxial cable...

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The fact they innovated and were the first doesn't mean they continued to do so. IPTV has been a reality for over a decade now and yet Sky only just started to take it seriously. They should have had an IPTV solution in parallel for years not only allowing a fall back in case of storms (for those with capable internet connections) but also developing their IPTV solution and have it ready to compete against the leaders along with being able to see Sky to those who couldn't and wouldn't have a dish. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Turribeach wrote:

IPTV has been a reality for over a decade now and yet Sky only just started to take it seriously. They should have had an IPTV solution in parallel for years 

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https://www.skygroup.sky/article/award-winning-sky-q-to-launch-without-a-satellite-dish-bringing-sky... 

Released seven years ago in Italy and Austria, but UK launch was ultimately derailed by the Disney-Fox bidding war, Murdoch High Court case, Ofcom/Competition Commission/Government inquiries and eventual acquisition of Sky Group by the Comcast Corporation: we can only assume someone very high up at Comcast chose to cancel the product line rollout.

Glass/Stream (an entirely different platform to Q based on Comcast server-side technology) arrived in autumn 2021, almost exactly three years after the takeover was completed.

Oh, and that pandemic thing happened too ; )

[reylee]

No issues whatsoever with connectivity to the pucks all off wifi not Ethernet. User interface is fine, I wish it was easier just to go straight to TV content, but tht iis being picky.

I would say that there are some issues though. One is that if something is recording live, its not always easy to see from the playlist. For instance, I like F1, but often miss the start. I took me ages to find the recording (under Other) when wanting to start it, and I find that forward and rewind a  little glitchy when using.

The main thing I miss is; I used to watch recordings from my SkyQ box via mySky Go on my laptop (i dont have a TV in my office) and that functionality is compeltely gone. Its usually fine, but some live events are not an option to watch in full, only highlights and it nags me a bit.

other than that is its very good. hope it helps.

[Mcqueen2]

Don't do it. We got it two months ago and I can't tell you how much I regret it. Sky Q is a much better service. We've had two pucks fail on us and countless hours spent resetting them and on the phone to Sky. It's an absolute disaster of a product. It should never have been launched 

[Yakuzah]

I've now left Sky. I spent thirty minutes with customer support and two hours with tech support. They looked at all the issues I was experiencing. 

they run remote diagnosis and could see all the system hangs and reboots. 

i told them the hardware is substandard poorly made and cheap. Their software is **bleep**. The actual hardware is terrible. It's like a cheap android streaming box from ten years ago. Processor is terrible and underpowered. There is not enough cache memory so every time you use the menu it has to fetch everything across the internet   

storage is minuscule and the native apps like Netflix etc are so slow it's ridiculous, especially when you rely on these apps to watch catch up TV. BBC iPlayer and 5 are the worst. 

i have totally cut the cord now and im not regretting it. 

i only watch sport and managed to get a deal with now tv saving myself over £100 a month and no headaches

[Mark39]

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@Yakuzah wrote:

I've now left Sky. I spent thirty minutes with customer support and two hours with tech support. They looked at all the issues I was experiencing. 

they run remote diagnosis and could see all the system hangs and reboots. 

i told them the hardware is substandard poorly made and cheap. Their software is **bleep**. The actual hardware is terrible. It's like a cheap android streaming box from ten years ago. Processor is terrible and underpowered. There is not enough cache memory so every time you use the menu it has to fetch everything across the internet   

storage is minuscule and the native apps like Netflix etc are so slow it's ridiculous, especially when you rely on these apps to watch catch up TV. BBC iPlayer and 5 are the wors

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I don't have any such problems myself. Both my Glass and Puck perform reliably, suggesting that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with either.

[Yakuzah]

As part of my diagnosis I was released from a two year contract with no financial penalty because they could not help me. 

The tech support also agreed that the pucks are under specced 

so whilst your lucky there is a lot of people out there having issues with this setup

[Mark39]

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@Yakuzah wrote:

As part of my diagnosis I was released from a two year contract with no financial penalty because they could not help me. 

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Yes, that's normal. Where there's evidence of ongoing problems Sky are generally relaxed about releasing you from contract.

It's easier for Sky advisers to agree with you rather than waste time getting into a pointless debate.

[ShaunFielding]

We have had a sky puck.for 6 months now a and if I knew now what I knew then I would not get it 

Frustrating and buggy. Keeps crashing and needing  turning off.  Becomes unresponsive and just generally annoying. 

If virginmedia were not so greedy I would have stayed with them after 9 years or no problems whatsoever with their set top box.

I am shocked such shoddy tech is being used by a major media company 

5/10

[glynners]

Exactly my issue with the service. 

Had it on a deal for 18month which made it 'fairly' cheap but so very frustrating to use & the extras you have to pay for are laughable 

Once it reverted to full price i couldn't leave fast enough 

Been gone for a year now & doesn't sound like much has improved