Sky Stream Sky Sports 4K UHD

[Michael1379]

From a picture quality perspective, how does Sky Stream at 4K UHD compare to Sky Q 4K UHD?  I have a FTTP gigabit internet connection.  Any other relevant considerations I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance.

[BenJoBanjo]

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@Michael1379 wrote:

From a picture quality perspective, how does Sky Stream at 4K UHD compare to Sky Q 4K UHD?  I have a FTTP gigabit internet connection.  Any other relevant considerations I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance.

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Sky Stream's UHD output is slightly sharper than the Sky Q equivalent. It uses slightly more modern video chipsets and has a wider colour gamut. 

Gigabit broadband will be beneficial but there are no guarantees of a smooth experience as there are many variables at play with home broadband connections. Connecting via ethernet can be a good idea but the ethernet port on a Stream puck is capped at 100Mbps, which is more than enough for anything the puck needs to stream. 

Remember also that it does not record. Anything from a BBC channel you add to a playlist will play back from iPlayer so you won't get 5.1 audio from BBC drama series or movies shown on that service. Anything from ITV will playback via ITVX etc. Sky Sports will 'cloud record' when added to a playlist. This will tag a section of the broadcast stream that you can view later on demand. You don't have a planner though - you just add and remove tags from the playlists you create, there is no deleting. 

It takes a bit of getting used to but it can work well for many people. You need to try it to see how well it will work for you. Sky will still revert you back to Q if you don't get on with it. 

[lettice]

@Michael1379 

When I moved from Sky Q to Sky Stream, I did notice an improvement in the UHD/HDR pq on both my pucks attached to different TVs, on the On Sky On demand content and it was especially more noticeable on the Sky Sports UHD/HDR live broadcasts and back some months when  the occasional Eurosport 4k live sports broadcast some events like the Roland Garrod tennis (of course all that Eurosport content has now moved to D+ and TNT).

I'm  just coming up to 18 months of Sky Stream and have no regrets at all moving from Sky Q.

See my signature link below, for my original journey link from Sky Q to Sky Stream.

I will shortly be updating that, as just hit the 18 month anniversary, the update will be with more good vibes 😀

I along with my friends, neighbours and peers all found  the same as I did with the pq uplift. All those have 150Mbps to 500 Mbps broadband speeds from Sky, EE, Vodafone, Virgin and one on a local 900Mbps altnet (with fixed ip, not cg-nat) have all had it for around 10 to 18 months. All having no issues and a good reliable experience. All run including Myself all Sky  Stream boxes and one of the above with Sky Glass TVs on wifi.

Having a good local network broadband reach is key to Sky Stream.
Not just broadband speed to your house and router ( your gigabit connection sounds perfect), but for your local network supply via wifi or ethernet, that can be affected in a busy household.

The Sky local network recommended minimum speed is 25Mbps, or 30Mbps if you add an extra Sky Stream puck or to watch in UHD.

Using the live sync feature in Sky Sports channels does add a few more Mbps per puck.

We would  recommended that you have speeds a little higher than that for Sky Stream to work well, especially at those busy household network usage times.

[Daniel981]

There used to be 903 and 904 as Ultra HD channels, now I struggle to watch Sky Sports in UHD apart from the linear SS ME UHD on 401. On Sky Stream