Sky Stream Query

[tippunmon]

Sorry for such a basic question, but assuming I sign up as a completely new user for Sky Stream, with Ultimate TV and Sky Sports packages, will I get HD channels, where appropriate? This basic question doesn't seem to be obviously answered on Sky website, maybe it is buried somewehere along with a Full Channel List  for Ultimate TV as I couldn't easily find that either 

[SKY1992bf]

@tippunmon  All channels on stream are hd as standard 

the tv channel list is below 

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/tv-channel-list-sky-glass 

[tippunmon]

Potential new subscriber considering Sky Stream with Ultimate TV and Sky Sports. Notice there is an optional UHD channel for various channels. I must be doing something wrong (possibly wrong tv setup) as whenever I've attempted HDR, or similar before the picture quality has been very poor (for example on BBC Freeview Wimbledon, press green button for experimental hdr/whatever). I have a 3 year old 4k Sony Smart tv with Freeview Play etc etc etc. On BBC HD and other HD channels accesed through Freesat or Freeview I get a lovely sharp, clear picture with good detail. If I switched to the "better picture" option on Freeview the picture becomes muddy and lacking in detail. I should mention I live about three miles away from the main mast and have a good quality engineer installed digital aerial , so transmission strength is not an issue.

Wondering whether investing in UHD would be a waste of time?

Please be aware I have no problems with 4k content on the likes of YouTube.

[tippunmon]

Thanks for that. I did find that page myself, but you see there lies the problem. You know about the HD channels, but as  a potential new user I didn't and find this page does not explicitly state "BBC 1 HD" etcetera, so it became necessary for me to ask. Thanks for your help.

[GD1]

@tippunmon   I have merged your post to this existing thread, you don't need to ceate multiple threads when you could simply ask the questions in your original thread.

[tippunmon]

Thanks. I was used to help forums which only permit one question per topic, so submitted accordingly. Thanks for your help.

[BenJoBanjo]

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@tippunmon wrote:

Potential new subscriber considering Sky Stream with Ultimate TV and Sky Sports. Notice there is an optional UHD channel for various channels. I must be doing something wrong (possibly wrong tv setup) as whenever I've attempted HDR, or similar before the picture quality has been very poor (for example on BBC Freeview Wimbledon, press green button for experimental hdr/whatever). I have a 3 year old 4k Sony Smart tv with Freeview Play etc etc etc. On BBC HD and other HD channels accesed through Freesat or Freeview I get a lovely sharp, clear picture with good detail. If I switched to the "better picture" option on Freeview the picture becomes muddy and lacking in detail. I should mention I live about three miles away from the main mast and have a good quality engineer installed digital aerial , so transmission strength is not an issue.

Wondering whether investing in UHD would be a waste of time?

Please be aware I have no problems with 4k content on the likes of YouTube.

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You can only get UHD HDR content from the BBC if you stream it via the iPlayer app, not via Freeview. 

Freeview only broadcasts in HD - there is no HDR. 

If you watched Wimbledon via one of the UHD HDR streams on the iPlayer app then you will have received it with the HLG format of HDR. This is the same HDR format which Sky use for all their UHD HDR live sport, and for all their on demand UHD HDR content. 

The thing to note about HLG is that it requires your TV to have quite a high peak brightness in order for it to look good. If your TV can't go very bright then it can make HLG HDR look dark and a bit muddy. 

Try playing something on the iPlayer app on your TV in UHD HDR and check the picture settings on your TV. Try tweaking the brightness and contrast if you can and see if you can get it to look any better. If you can't then your TV may not be best suited for HDR. 

[tippunmon]

Thanks. You are correct I believe some picture adjustment would be needed. I do have my own preferred settings on the Sony, but it would be a shame to have to have different picture settings for different resolutions. Unless I can store different profiles - now there's a thought to investigate.

[BenJoBanjo]

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@tippunmon wrote:

Thanks. You are correct I believe some picture adjustment would be needed. I do have my own preferred settings on the Sony, but it would be a shame to have to have different picture settings for different resolutions. Unless I can store different profiles - now there's a thought to investigate.

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Many TVs will automatically store settings for each source and format and will automatically switch to the appropriate setting when it detects the relevant format. So you could have one set of settings for regular SDR HD viewing and another for HLG HDR UHD viewing. If your TV handles different HDR formats then you could also have slightly different settings for HDR10 and Dolby Vision if your TV is capable. My Panasonic TV for example stores them for each format so I've only had to tweak the settings once for each format, and now it switches automatically. 

[Nigelb1972]

@tippunmon Sky use HLG for HDR on their content so you'll need to check your TV to see if it's compatible...

HDR10 and Dolby Vision are used by Disney+, Netflix etc but you need to have the relevant subscription for the individual apps as having the Stream UHD bolt on won't add UHD HDR to these apps...

[CPR17]

Just got my Stream and Sky Glass Air Tv after 20+ years of Sky+,SkyHD and Sky Q and while there are certainly more HD channels on Stream,not every channel is HD,the music channels for one are all SD.I know the content is to be expected but all the graphics and onscreen logos are definitely SD.

[Hunter2660]

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@CPR17 wrote:

Just got my Stream and Sky Glass Air Tv after 20+ years of Sky+,SkyHD and Sky Q and while there are certainly more HD channels on Stream,not every channel is HD,the music channels for one are all SD.I know the content is to be expected but all the graphics and onscreen logos are definitely SD.

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Yes there are still SD channels on Stream, but they are far better quality than the equivalents on Freeview and Satellite.

[tippunmon]

At the moment I'm leaning towards either keeping my Virgin Media broadband with some haggling about price and speed and adding Sky Stream with Sky Sports or otherwise giving notice to VM and going all in with Sky broadband, Ultimate TV, Sky Sports. Have to see how I get on with my end of contract haggling - wish me luck!

[CPR17]

Yes I agree but "the answer" on this thread says that all channels are HD and that's not true

[tippunmon]

What annoys me about this (I'm on the spectrum) is that I would expect all the HD channels to be clearly identified as such, so that a prospect could make an informed decision.