@P-Tnov wrote:
Thanks for reply
Some follow up questions if i may.
Im very interetsed in switching over to this, ive done my Maths and i reckon by year 2, ill be saving a few euro (more on that in question 4)
1. Is the Puck a physical object? What exactly is it, how big, is it a plug in device?
Yes. It's a small box about 10cm square and a couple of cm tall. It needs mains power and is connected to your TV via a supplied HDMI cable
2. Because this is a streaming service, is the quality of channels good? Are they all in HD? Are there many streaming problems for people, in general?
Image quality is very good. HD comes as standard. But... and it's a big but.... it is absolutely crucial that you make sure you can provide a fast, and more importantly, stable enough broadband connection in order for the service to work. The pucks are very sensitive to speed fluctuations and interference which will cause disruption to your service. If you don't have a very good, stable network in your home, for every room you wish to have a puck in, then it's pointless considering Stream.
3. I record most of my programmes and watch them whenever, fast forwarding through ads etc. Is the Playlist feature similar to this? I presume its a playlist from the cloud?
The playlist is merely a tag for programme titles you wish to watch later. They will play back via the appropriate channel's app (BBC shows on iPlayer, ITV via ITVX etc) or directly from Sky's servers. Some content will 'cloud record' and playback from a file stored on Sky's server. You can't delete this file though - it's under Sky's control and they can remove it at will when they lose streaming rights to certain content for example.
If you have the ad-skipping pack then you can fast forward through ads on certain apps like ITVX and Channel 4, and also skip them on certain Sky channel content on demand. It can be glitchy and slower than fast forwarding through a recording on a hard drive like you do on Sky Q.
4. It appears to be a 12 month contract at a set price. How easy is it to get recontracted every 12 months at the same price? A quick call to Sky?
Sky don't do 12 month contracts. They are usually 31 day rolling or 2 year contracts. It is not easy to get recontracted at the same price after an initial offer period has elapsed. It's better to cancel, wait for a couple of months and they will usually start sending you offers to return. That's what they did with me anyway.
5. Has anyone ever switched from Q to Stream and regretted it?
Yes, me. I had Q for several years and liked it but wanted rid of the dish. Switched to Sky Stream and found it to be very poor in comparison, even on a trouble free gigabit broadband connection. I had no issue with the picture quality - it was excellent, and I never had buffering issues. My main issue was with the sluggishness of the SkyOS which runs on the pucks and on the Glass TV. It's riddled with advertising, gets sluggish sometimes, and just had too many small issues which made watching TV irritating rather than pleasureable. It's not the experience of everyone though. It depends what you're looking for in a TV service. There are many people who love it. Sadly I didn't. It's worth giving it a go though - Sky will still let you revert back to Sky Q if you don't get on with it.
Thanks in advance
