Poor quality UHD stream/live/on demand

[Rlog95]

Hi all,

Recently took out Sky Stream, with the UHD/Dolby Atmos package. My question is the quality of the streams on occasion...

some content can often drop down to a noticeable SD or HD when watching the likes of Game of Thrones. I'm assuming it's down to network speed, I'm in a new build house using fttp OFNL with See the Light ISP, who are an offshoot of Sky.

I get a solid 180mbps when connected, the router sits directly next to the sky stream

box  and I've tried wirlesss and Ethernet connections and the sky stream box is connected to my 65 inch OLED UHD Philips tv. 
all my settings are set to UHD and very occasionally I do get some incredible picture quality, but more often than not it just lacks that bit of sharpness I'd expect. 

sky sports uhd channel is often very very poor.

there's nothing changed in settings between these two experiences either.

when I watch anything native on my tv ie Netflix in 4k, the picture is noticeably better. 

it seems so few people have this issue so I can't go from other posts. Skys technical support is attrocious and they literally read scripts off the screen or just hang up if they are slightly challenged😂

at a loss and whilst paying over £80 for some decent tv, I don't feel I'm getting it.

any advice would be appreciated.

[Mister_Dalek]

@Rlog95 

When you tried Ethernet did you remember to turn WiFi off on the network settings on the puck? It will often stupidly default to WiFi even when an Ethernet cable is attached. 
Sky Stream needs a constant connection to Sky's servers. Any fluctuation in speed or bandwidth can cause issues like you are experiencing.

Streaming devices with on board app storage tend to have more of a memory buffer to deal with this type of thing. Sky Stream does not. All apps are hosted on the server, therefore you are at the mercy of that server and however busy it is. 
If things don't improve, give Sky a ring & ask for a replacement puck. It could be you have a dodgy one. 

[Rlog95]

Yeah thanks but the WiFi wasn't even connected before trying it so it could have only been running over Ethernet. Are there engineer options so I can be sure it's streaming at 1080 or lower?

[Chrisee]

@Rlog95 the picture quality of streams can vary but in general I find UHD on sports and premium series like Game of Thrones are excellent so something is wrong in your set up. Check that the setting on the puck's picture setting for default streaming format is set to UHD as that should make the puck find a UHD stream if one exists. 

Then go to the settings for your TV and select a picture preset like Movie which turns off functions like motion enhancement, sharpness etc as these can have the opposite effect on UHD streams and can cause the issues you report. Most TVs have separate memory settings for each HDMI input so changes you make should not affect other inputs so you can tweak the settings to suit your teaste and room set up. 

When you call Sky tge agents are not technical experts they