Sky Stream - Competitive?

[Gincap]

@WelshPaul 

After dipping my toe into the Glass & Stream experience I too moved from 20 years of Sky loyalty to Apple TV, with the smart TV launcher (that continues to evolve) excellent streaming quality and almost every app you'll ever need it's a no brainer. 

Costs aside that are significantly less as a do it yourself rather than through Sky the system just works with a very effective Up Next rail that's easy to maintain and remove no longer required movies and programs. As they say "All you need"

[Suskha]

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@Gincap wrote:

@WelshPaul 

As they say "All you need"

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But its not though is it ? Looked at Apple TV before but it just doesnt offer the same service.

[Jones_The_Cat]

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@Suskha wrote:

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@Gincap wrote:

@WelshPaul 

As they say "All you need"

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But its not though is it ? Looked at Apple TV before but it just doesnt offer the same service.

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Of course it's not the same service. Sky Stream offers live channel streams via an EPG and is a ring-fenced aggregator of streaming apps running Entertainment OS which Sky have total control over. The user has no means of adding channels or apps - every content decision is made by Sky. 

Apple TV runs Apple's tvOS on much more expensive, faster hardware. It lacks direct access to an EPG and live channel streams (at the moment) but gives the user total control over which apps they want to install. It can track viewing in a similar way to Sky's playlist and offers much more in the way of customisation (frame rate & dynamic range matching, HDR10+, & more voice control options for example.) 

Both systems have their merits, but a lot depends on how you watch TV. If you still like to channel hop the main FTA channels & enjoy sport in UHD then Stream is probably the better option, but Apple TV is better at most other things when it comes to the third party streaming apps, but then you'd hope it would be as it's a much more expensive bit of hardware. 

[Gincap]

@Jones_The_Cat 

Apple TV now has an epg admittedly through a £4.99 app called TV Launcher but it is an excellent app. 

[Jones_The_Cat]

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@Gincap wrote:

@Jones_The_Cat 

Apple TV now has an epg admittedly through a £4.99 app called TV Launcher but it is an excellent app. 

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Yes, I agree, I've seen it in action - very useful and I'll be using it when our (extremely disappointing) Sky Stream service ends very soon.

It's not quite the same as being able to channel hop up and down on live channel streams but it's certainly a heck of a lot cheaper than paying Sky every month!

It'll be interesting to see if the new Freely service becomes an app in the same vein as Pluto TV or Rakuten TV, both of which have an EPG and channel streams you can click up and down on. They work extremely well on Apple TV. If Freely gets all the FTA channels in that kind of scenario then it'll be ideal. 

[Gincap]

@Jones_The_Cat 

Personally I very rarely watch live TV, the news aside almost everything else I watch on catch up.  True no channel hopping but is that a bad thing 😬

TV launcher is great for creating a playlist and with direct links to Apple TV apps now to open programs etc from your playlist it's just so slick. 

It's always a personal choice but Apple and Adam who created TV launcher have created a very user friendly high spec product.