Puck - why is it so bad?

[NLouise59]

I was given a Sky Puck when I signed up with Sky. Had issues from the beginning which are now becoming more frequent and annoying!

When watching live sports or catch up - the sound goes dead and then the screen goes grey. Doesn't come back and I have to restart the whole TV and puck. 

When watching catch up shows on Sky Channels I seem to have the same issue especially if I click 'skip ads'.

Sky is not cheap and I have noticed that the puck seems to get lots of bad press on this forum. My parents and other family members have the old setup and don't have any issues. Any advice please as I can't seem to speak to a human when I call as I just get a text link

[NLouise59]

Meant to say internet is showing as around 36 Mb/s

[lettice]

If you are saying your broadband speed to your router is 36Mbps.

Or is that your speed via the Netflix speed test on the Sky Stream puck.

Afraid, that is what causing your issues.

Sky recommended minimum available broadband speed is 25Mbps.

Or 30Mbps if you add an extra Sky Stream puck or to watch in UHD.

That takes into account to some extent having a little spare for other devices within your household, but for your speeds it will not be good enough for reliability, especially at busy times.

You have not said if you are using wifi or using an ethernet cable or powerline adapters.

You could try moving to using Ethernet or powerline adapters, as wifi is going to be troublesome for your puck with your speeds.

If you do choose to use ethernet, make sure you turn wifi off in the Sky Stream puck settings.

Have you looked into seeing if you can get a faster fibre broadband?

[NLouise59]

The 36mbps was from my Sky app when I check what my speeds are. 

cannot use an Ethernet cable due to having cables all over the room so WiFi is the only option. We have superfast 35 currently

[TimmyBGood]

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@NLouise59 wrote:

We have superfast 35 currently

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Unfortunately that's likely to be marginal for Stream when  other devices are online.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@NLouise59 wrote:

The 36mbps was from my Sky app when I check what my speeds are. 

cannot use an Ethernet cable due to having cables all over the room so WiFi is the only option. We have superfast 35 currently

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Thats your issue then. The 36mpbs per second is essentially the speed going to your router. That speed will almost certainly decrease a bit for devices connected via Wifi, and the more devices you have connected and utilising the internet at the same time the lower the speed each device will be capable of getting as they are sharing the same bandwidth.

Really the only way Stream will likely work with that speed is by connecting the puck via an ethernet cable as least that will ensure its capable of getting between 30-36mbps, however that is likely to drop if you are using any internet devices at the same time so it still may not work correctly all the time.

[HavencroftKev]

@NLouise59 open the Netflix app go into settings and check the speeds your puck is actually recieving. 

Sadly it does sound like it's your internet connection is the problem, but it's difficult to know for sure without knowing the speed your puck is receiving. 

A wired connection will always be best, so if you can rearrange your setup to make this possible it would be advantageous. 

Given to pucks reliance on a stable broadband connection you'd think Sky would install a dedicated app on the puck to test the speeds.

[TimmyBGood]

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@HavencroftKev wrote:

@NLouise59 open the Netflix app go into settings and check the speeds your puck is actually recieving. 

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The puck might well be receiving full speed from the router: the point is on a capped 40Mbs broadband service the router itself almost certainly doesn't have enough bandwidth arriving at the address to cope with Stream plus any other use.

[NLouise59]

Spoke to someone last Sunday - did a full reset and told that I shouldn't have any issues and they'd call back on Thursday (no call).

was told it can't be my internet speed as that should be fine, during the reset I explained that it only happens when watching sky sports or Sky channels. Asked for a new puck but was told to see whether the reset works.

Today is the first day I have watched a Sky programme which when I pressed skip ads I received no sound and then a grey screen. 

why is the puck being given as an option as I see so many complaints on this forum.

[TimmyBGood]

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@NLouise59 wrote:

why is the puck being given as an option as I see so many complaints on this forum.

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Users very rarely post to support forums when they aren't having problems.