Sky Playlist not functional

[RickInNotts]

Playlist is hopeless.  I "recorded" a movie yesterday that was on Sky Showcase, sat down less than 24 hours later to watch it, and it's only available to me in Sky Cinema (which I don't subscribe to) for a cost. No option for 'available now', yet it shows under 'on this week' as being available on Sky Showcase next Friday??!!??

Where's the logic in that? A film on a channel I have paid for can be added to my playlist, but I can only watch it the next day on a different channel that I have to pay extra for. Unless I wait another five days to watch it again, live, on the original channel I 'recorded' it from. Which renders the playlist obsolete as i'm watching it live again.

Come back Sky Q all is forgiven.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@RickInNotts wrote:

Playlist is hopeless.  I "recorded" a movie yesterday that was on Sky Showcase, sat down less than 24 hours later to watch it, and it's only available to me in Sky Cinema (which I don't subscribe to) for a cost. No option for 'available now', yet it shows under 'on this week' as being available on Sky Showcase next Friday??!!??

Where's the logic in that? A film on a channel I have paid for can be added to my playlist, but I can only watch it the next day on a different channel that I have to pay extra for. Unless I wait another five days to watch it again, live, on the original channel I 'recorded' it from. Which renders the playlist obsolete as i'm watching it live again.

Come back Sky Q all is forgiven.

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Correct cloud recordings don't get taken from Sky Showcase as that channel is designed to encourage users to sign up to the other premium packs like Sky Cinema. 

On the Sky streaming platform Sky Showcase is essentially just a linear channel that requires live viewing. The idea of that channel is they show sports and films that are typically only available if you subscribe to those packages so if you want to watch "for free" without paying for Sky Cinema you need to watch the film when they are broadcasting it on the channel.

[Steve93]

Does the Playlist work well on the free to view channels, ie bbc, itv, ch4 & ch5?

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Steve93 wrote:

Does the Playlist work well on the free to view channels, ie bbc, itv, ch4 & ch5?

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Yes. It works well on most channels for most shows.

Some shows will be cloud recorded (where Sky have a legal agreement to do so). Somewise it links to the on-demand app, so has most BBc, ITV and C4 content is on their apps it works well. The thing to remember is content is typically only available for a limited period of times on these apps. Usually 30 days although for films BBC sometimes have the rights to put on IPlayer for closer to 90 days.

[Steve93]

@MarkGoldsmith

Thanks, on Apple TV when watching a series the next episode loads after the one I've watched, but The Chase puts any on but never the one that's on that day at 5pm, how does the Playlist perform in that respect?

[RickInNotts]

Maybe, but it's not just Showcase. I've lost count of how many times i've put a film into my playlist that was on Film4, ITV2/3/4, Legend, Great! etc. and yet within a few days when I go to watch it it's only offered on Sky Cinema (at a cost) with no option to watch on alternative/the original channel offered below. Not weeks later, a few days. It's just so random and unreliable, and feels like a massive step back from Sky Q (or for that matter, a good old VHS recorder!).

I'm so sick of it I even regret leaving BT for Sky (and that's saying something as BT were hopeless with reliability/error messages all the time, but at least theri box recorded what I asked for).

And, incredibly, as I'm sat here typing this while watching Moonraker on ITV4 the Stream box has just turned itself off ITV4 and gone onto the main welcome menu !!! It's like it knows I hate it !!!!

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@RickInNotts wrote:

Maybe, but it's not just Showcase. I've lost count of how many times i've put a film into my playlist that was on Film4, ITV2/3/4, Legend, Great! etc. and yet within a few days when I go to watch it it's only offered on Sky Cinema (at a cost) with no option to watch on alternative/the original channel offered below. Not weeks later, a few days. It's just so random and unreliable, and feels like a massive step back from Sky Q (or for that matter, a good old VHS recorder!).

I'm so sick of it I even regret leaving BT for Sky (and that's saying something as BT were hopeless with reliability/error messages all the time, but at least theri box recorded what I asked for).

And, incredibly, as I'm sat here typing this while watching Moonraker on ITV4 the Stream box has just turned itself off ITV4 and gone onto the main welcome menu !!! It's like it knows I hate it !!!!

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So, its possible these films are on ITV X and C4 app for example but the "default" will tend to show Sky Cinema. However the playlist does show the other app the film is available on.

You need to:

1) Go into the films page from the playlist

2) Scroll now to Available Now

3) It will display a couple of new boxes including "Watch Trailer", "Full Synopsis" and if the film is available on multiple on-demand app you will also see a button for "Watch on Channel 4", or "Watch on ITV X" or "Watch on Paramount +" options, depending on the app that film is available on.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Steve93 wrote:

@MarkGoldsmith

Thanks, on Apple TV when watching a series the next episode loads after the one I've watched, but The Chase puts any on but never the one that's on that day at 5pm, how does the Playlist perform in that respect?

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The continue watching rail will show the enxt episode in the series, however it does this based on the way a show is tagged with metadata on the on-demand app. Typically you would expect the Chase to be loading from ITV X, unfortunately ITV X occassionally have some wierd way they label and tag shows within their app which means some shows get classified differently, or some don't have the next epiosde queued in the Continue Watching rail due to this. This seemingly is more of an issue for quiz like types shows on ITV where they mess up the labelling of Series X Episode Y, or sometimes don't even label it that way and it just has an expisode date.

[Steve93]

I've noted on Apple TV ITVX is very fast to load, sometimes it says there's a  problem their end, if I reset the app  it plays ok, on Virgin Stream don't get that issue but it's very slow to load

is ITVX very slow on Sky Stream?

[Fothergill1]

Hi @Steve93 Yes, ITVX is pretty slow on the Sky streaming platform.  I find it takes about 20 seconds from selecting it to the home page appearing whereas my Apple TV takes 5 seconds.