New to Stream, from Q...A few questions....Playlists, TV source buttons & Remotes!!

[Stu221]

Help.... 4 questions I'm hoping ppl can help with....

1) - I tend to watch either BBC or ITV News at 10. I’ve added both to my Playlist, but when I try to watch them after they’ve aired, all I get (if I’m lucky) is last night’s news (i.e. 24 hours old) – not the most recent one I actually want to watch. Then I get a list of about seven upcoming showings that will be aired tomorrow, the next night etc....… (none of which I can watch of course!) Completely useless – I want to watch tonight’s news, not go digging.

Both shows are readily available on iPlayer and ITVX, but that means spending five minutes launching the apps and searching manually.

Even Freeview Play, by contrast, lets you scroll "left" on the EPG, select a programme from an hour or two ago, and watch it via the link to the app – and that’s free.

So… can someone explain what I'm doing wrong coz isn't that the actual purpose of the Playlist feature?

2) - Can someone tell me how to get the TV Source button to work on the remote? Is it a sequence of a few buttons? At the moment, I’m having to dig out the TV’s own remote to switch inputs. I haven't used two remotes since Sky HD boxes arrived 20 years ago?

3) - Another issue: my remote’s channel up/down buttons seem to have a mind of their own. One minute the up button changes to the next channel, then the next time I press it, it goes down. Am I going mad, or is this a known bug?

4) - And one more thing – is there any way to get the channel preview (up/down) to show what’s on the channel, like it did on Sky Q? It currently just shows a picture. That was useful and I miss it.

[mikealanr]

Hi @Stu221 

See: https://www.sky.com/help/articles/your-playlist-and-tv-guide-sky-glass

1) News programmes can be added to your Playlist. Sky News, Sky Sports News and CNBC News can all be added. However, some news programmes can only be watched live while they're broadcasting due to licensing restrictions

2) there is no TV source functionality on the stream remote

3) yes this changes between channels and when there is an upgrade your subscription message on screen. Hopefully it will get fixed in a software update but has been like this for years!

4) No this is not supported presently due to broadband delivery and bandwidth.

Hope this helps.

MikeAlanR

[Stu221]

Thanks mikealanr

Sky Stream Delay with Live Content

Regarding point 1, this delay with live (or near-live) content showing up on Sky Stream seems to be a recurring issue for me too. I had the exact same problem last night with the BGT semi-final! It's especially frustrating when you know the show is available (like on ITVX), but it just doesn't appear in Sky’s system in real time.

Is there an "update" or "refresh" button that forces the system to check for newly available content? That would be a really useful feature. As it stands, it clearly relies on metadata feeds from the apps (like ITVX), and these don’t always get picked up promptly. So we're stuck waiting for Sky to process and index the data — however long that takes.

In practice, I’m finding the interface often lags behind, and it’s quicker to just go straight to the native app (like ITVX or iPlayer - that are FREE) if you want to watch something that’s just aired.

You get back from the pub with some mates to catch up on something that’s just finished — and find you can’t. Honestly, I’m starting to think about cancelling and going back to Sky Q with manual recordings. Sorry, but this just doesn’t feel ready yet.

Thanks again,
Stu

[mikealanr]

Hi @Stu221 

It depends on how you watch TV I guess I don't watch much live TV now days and watch ondemand / box sets more. I much prefer it than Q I had nothing but issues with disconnecting mini boxes etc.

There isn't a refresh button, but it's not as simple as that anyway. Presumably the box polls for updates periodically, but it all depends if the meta data is pushed by the broadcaster to Sky or pulled by Sky from the broadcaster. 

In reference to not feeling ready it's a mature product. It's been around since 2022 as a standalone product and 2021 when launched with Glass. So it's more of a fact of how the product operates.

If you give any a call within your first 31 days they will reinstate your Q service.

MikeAlanR

[TimmyBGood]

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@Stu221 wrote:

Sorry, but this just doesn’t feel ready yet.

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As @mikealanr indicates, Stream has been around for three and a half years.  Perhaps worth noting that it's not intended to be Sky Q minus the dish though: there's a fundamentally different design paradigm involved which informs the whole platform.

[Stu221]

Thanks all - While I understand it's a new way of viewing content, I'm finding the change from traditional recordings to the playlist system quite frustrating. With Sky Q, I felt more in control of what I was saving and watching, whereas with Stream, the reliance on apps and on-demand availability (sometimes being delayed by over 12 hours) makes it feel less reliable and harder to manage.

I get that Sky Stream is designed around a next-gen and different model, but I do miss the simplicity and certainty of recording programmes directly. I hope there might be improvements in future to make the playlist feature feel more like a true personal library. I will give it another week and see hwo i get on....

Thanks.