Sky Stream Requirements revealed

[AnneiS]

We have Sky Broadband Superfast. We cannot get fibre broadband as it is not available to our postcode yet.

We consistently get a broadband speed of in excess of 60 Mb/s and frequently as high as 75Mb/s.

We have had two pucs for just short of 12 months now. We are just about to swap back to Sky Q. Here's why.

After numerous issues with streaming over the last year, including new routers, new pucks and two Wi-Fi booster, we are reverting to Sky Q.

During my last chat with a Sky representative, she revealed the following:

"Sky stream requires a minimum of 30 Mb/s.

Other devices like laptops, mobile phones, printers, smart home etc etc all require bandwidth. Mobile phones are often in continuous connection to the internet."

"Consequently Sky Superfast Broadband is not sufficient to run two pucs !! The Sky router will select a puc to stream to and the other puc will loose it's connection."

"Poor latency will adversely affect streaming."

Naturally none of the above was revealed to us when we signed up to Sky Stream.

So, if you are having frequent issues with Sky Stream, it may be time to revert back to Sky Q or upgrade to Fibre broadband if available.

[Mark39]

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@AnneiS wrote:

Naturally none of the above was revealed to us when we signed up to Sky Stream.

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Sky don't hide it, but as with anything new you buy, it's up to you to do the research.

From Sky's website: "Recommended minimum broadband speed of 25Mbps. Or 30Mbps if you add an extra Sky Stream puck or to watch in UHD."

https://www.sky.com/help/home/sky-tv/sky-tv-stream/buying-sky-stream/sky-stream-faqs/articles/sky-st...

My broadband bandwidth is around 60Mbps, and works fine with a Glass tv and a Puck.

[TimmyBGood]

@AnneiS 

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/sky-new-speed-rules-glass-stream/ 

[Exiled-in-HH]

If a Puck requires 25 Mbps why don't additional Pucks require an additional 25 Mbps each?

[AnneiS]

I don't know, but is it possible that Sky Glass TV's have more memory for buffering, than the Pucs? Also I have been told, by a Sky engineer, that the Sky SR 213 router are not as good as other routers, particularly BT routers.

[martswain]

A Sky puck will use around 8 Mb/s when streaming HD.

However, that bandwidth needs to available and stable all the time.

Over WiFi, that may not always be available, especially if using boosters.

I have 33 Mb/s FTTC and can happily use Stream via ethernet, have two laptops showing Sky Go and another IPTV stream on my smartphone, all in HD, with absolutely no buffering on any of the four devices.

I was sold Stream when the recommended speed was only 10 !

[AnneiS]

Martswain. Are you on Sky Broadband Superfast or with another ISP?

[martswain]

@AnneiS my broadband is with TalkTalk, their Fibre 35 product which is FTTC with the last part of the connection over the phone line.

It is very stable and I never get disconnections.

My puck is connected to the router with an ethernet cable.

[Jporch316]

Boosters are no where near as efficient as a mesh system or powerline adapters .....

[AnneiS]

We have postponed our switch back to Sky Q and here's why:

After close on 12 months of sporadic streaming issues with one of our Sky pucs, (that has been changed twice), we have had a stable connection now for a full week !!

Both our pucs are connected via ethernet cable to the SR213 router. Lounge puc is on eth port 1 and kitchen puc has always been on eth port 2. Even when we switched these round it has always been the kitchen puc that had the problem. The Sky engineer tested the ethernet cabling and it was good with no issues.

So, last week I decided to give Sky Stream one last chance and plugged the kitchen puc into eth port 4, (labelled WAN). 

No problems now for a week. 

I would be really interested to know why this has worked.?

[Jporch316]

Would suggest there's a problem with that port on your router or there's pre existing configuration present on that port 

does your wifi not reach both devices ?