Puck - Flashing White Light

[ScoobyDrewUK]

Hi

I probably know the answer to this but thought I'd ask anyway. 

My Stream Puck won't turn on (no lights at all)

On reboot the puck light goes white (solid) and then flashes and then displays no light. 

No signal to the tv at all 

TV and HDMI cable tested fine 

This has been the case for 2 days, so any signs it could be a firmware update (which I have been it could be) are definitely out the window. 

Have followed Skys steps, and ridiculously after a few questions, ive been asked to check the software version. I mean, come on 

These pucks are so flakey. Once a week they error in some fashion. Wish I could go back to Sky Q. 

Any further advice before I call tomorrow and get told to switch it off and back on again?

Thanks in advance for your support. 

[Chrisee]

@ScoobyDrewUK I havec3 pucks and they all work properly and therexare literally millions of the units working for customers so why yoyrs are misbehaving is not in any way normal.

Sky's recommended recovery process is to switch off the power to the puck and hokd down the power button on the bottom of tge puck as you switch the power back on and kepp it held in untilthe kight flashescyellow and red. This forces the unit to load a new operating system which does take a few minutes after this the hub sgould operate normally. If it doesnt then it is likely to be faulty.

[ScoobyDrewUK]

Thanks for your response

That was actually part of the diagnostics on the sky help page which I have been through, and it es the lights flash as you have mentioned, but then go out again and then nothing 

The stream boxes, just don't have the operating power to run the OS that's on them. They're clunky, slow, delays in response, crash to home page, randomly switch off etc etc.   the feeling is very mutual, for a lot of people. 
Like sky's routers, they are under developed, under powered,  and more beta testing should have been completed, before the rushed roll out.....

Thanks anyway for getting back to me.

[GD1]

@ScoobyDrewUK  The stream puck do have enough processing power, as already advised there are 1000s of puck in use all without any problems.

Also as advised it may be a faulty puck.

Any crashing, slow loads and clunkiness can be a result of poor/slow WiFi which can happen even if you have the fastest speeds available to your router.

Like a lot of people I disagree with your diagnosis as I and many, many, many others have no issues with the stream pucks.

Have you spoken to Sky about the issues?

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@GD1 wrote:

@ScoobyDrewUK  The stream puck do have enough processing power, as already advised there are 1000s of puck in use all without any problems.

Also as advised it may be a faulty puck.

Any crashing, slow loads and clunkiness can be a result of poor/slow WiFi which can happen even if you have the fastest speeds available to your router.

Like a lot of people I disagree with your diagnosis as I and many, many, many others have no issues with the stream pucks.

Have you spoken to Sky about the issues?

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Completely agree with this. What a lot of people fail to understand is that not much is actually run direcly from the puck, with the puck connecting remotely to Sky servers and most of the operations actually performed on the remote servers. As a result local processing power on the puck is less important and the key thing is a strong, stable connection to the internet.

[ScoobyDrewUK]

You need to understand that the puck still needs to do the ground work. You can't put a mini engine in a Porsche and expect it to go fast.

I've had constant conversations with Sky and, credit where it's due, they are pleasant and do there best, but they are trying to fix an unfixable product, so respect to the front liners.  Problems  got so bad that I now am making. a record of everytime something happens, which is currently more than once a week 

I have 2 pucks and they are both slow, even after change out.

Sky have rolled the puck out with 4gb ram, and that's just not enough. Full list of issues include:

1.   Apps unable to open and asked to try again

2.  Apps taking an age to open, screen open goes blank whilst this happens

3.  OS is slow and clunky - Clicking options is slow to respond, pointing to hardware maxing out. (I put a tester on the box and on idle the ram is running at 87%, that's just to "stay afloat" Move around the menu and it maxes out. Now wonder it struggles to open anything. 
4.  Poor OS layout. -  got someone of a slightly older age to review and got lost finding the planner screen. This shoud be single click. Think to get the full list it's 4 clicks. 
5.  Channel listings or "Planner" as us oldies would remember it (sky advisor didn't have a clue what I was talking about when I spoke to them) take an age to load channel name and program information. 
6.  Randomly during watching live, streamed or app shows, returns to main menu (biggestest issue by far)

7.  Remotes are still chomping through batteries, have tried 2 or 3 brands, and tried rechargeables. Replacing monthly.

8. Regular problems with picture and audio not syncing up. Sometimes up to 2-3 seconds difference. Usually caused by rewinding a show, but not always

9. Server recordings have failed.  For example an F1 race I “recorded” or made available to watch, had not recorded correctly at the Sky server end, and when watching every 10 seconds would skip forward 3 seconds - BRILLIANT.  No solution by Sky at all on that one. Marked as a known issue.

I mean I could go on.

I have a 1Gbps P2P monitored circuit. Since 21/09/24 has run at 99.989%. Failover 5g, at 200mbps.

Jitter, ping, upload and download monitored.

[AndrewF_UK]

That really does point to a device issue, have you enquired about a replacement?

They're not the fastest device in the world, but it shouldn't be having these issues you've talked about (with the exception of the sound sync issue which is on-going).

As a side-note, I'm interested in how you tested the RAM. If it's replicatable perhaps others could share theirs as a comparison.

[Mark39]

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@AndrewF_UK wrote:

That really does point to a device issue, have you enquired about a replacement?

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I agree - either that or a broadband connection issue. I don't have any of the issues reported by @ScoobyDrewUK  

[Hunter2660]

Same here. With regard to the apps being slow, I tried that and found no discernable difference opening Netflix between the Stream box and a Firestick. Although the app was slightly faster opening on my Smart TV, but that's really splitting hairs.

[Ellie_TV]

Would anyone be willing to post an unedited video of the speed at which the apps open and streams start on their puck?

It does seem to vary wildly between customers.

I'm convinced that a lot of the variance is caused server-side. Some customers must be connected to busier servers and therefore receive slower connections.

I've experienced it myself - I find the Stream puck can be perfectly fine on some days, then on others is as sluggish as a bored teenager. It lacks consistency. It's part of the reason I'm now seriously considering cancelling the whole service. 

I've been very dilligent in making sure the apps are properly exited when closing them, I fully reboot the puck every few days and do regular speed tests, I've even had the puck swapped, but nothing seems to make it behave in a consistent manner.

I've been using some alternative streaming devices over the past few weeks and they have consistently given me better performance. Apps open quicker, streams start faster and have less buffering, often starting at full resolution with no sign of any adaptive resolution switching, and no lip sync issues whatsoever.  

I'm beginning to feel that I can achieve a better quality of service from these other devices, and at a lower cost.

I'm going to wait and see if anything changes following the Gen 2 Glass announcement next month. If it doesn't then I'm off.