Sky Stream connection problems

[antonypg]

Regardless of the technology used, I think the Sky Puck is just underpowered, has very poor WIFI, and possibly a lot of software/hardware faults. I have zero problems with all of my other WIFI devices in my home. I have 1 Gigabit broadband from Virgin with near 100% reliability, my Apple TVs stream everything fine, my iPads, laptops, printers, Ring cameras etc. all work perfectly. My Virgin TV box used to be virtually fault free.

On the Sky Stream pucks we have to power them off then on once or twice a day. I managed to get the WIFI reliable by changing lots of settings including giving them a fixed IP, fixing to 2.4GHz etc.

The real complaint is that we daren't use the pause function or the fast forward/rewind. If we do then we have a chance of a fixed white screen. Switching back to the main menu then restarting playback normally gives us no sound.

My Roku stick and even my old Now TV box never had these problems, and they were very cheap to buy.

I would actually pay more for an improved Sky Stream puck which had more power and reliability. Maybe Sky could approach Apple and ask for a Sky badged Apple TV.

[BenJoBanjo]

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@antonypg wrote:

I would actually pay more for an improved Sky Stream puck which had more power and reliability. Maybe Sky could approach Apple and ask for a Sky badged Apple TV.

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That's not going to happen.

Sky Stream runs on SkyOS, and is part of Comcast's global streaming platform. It cannot function as an app on Apple's tvOS.  

If you'd rather switch to Apple's hardware, I have personally had a perfectly good experience running Sky's NOW app on the Apple TV 4K box. It's been much more reliable for me than Stream ever was. 

Sky are good enough to offer the option of getting their content via SkyOS on their own hardware, or via the NOW app on various streaming devices. I personally think it's a good way of offering choice. I have no interest in SkyOS or Sky's hardware - but I am interested in some of the content Sky offer. The NOW app allows me to get it easily and cheaply.  

[antonypg]

Maybe an Apple TV is the way to go, just use the Channels app and all of the individual players. If they launched the Freely app that would be a great addition.

I would consider a Roku but I find their menu system just looks ugly and old fashioned. Roku are actually adding the Freely player which would be worth trying.

I remember when Now used to sell their pucks, which were really cheap and worked very well. Maybe they should have added live TV streaming as well.