Sky Stream - my worst decision in decades

[DC110770]

I'm adding to this thread because last week for no reason the remote decided to stop working. I had no idea why and for hours, rebooting the sky puck, internet, tv, router, changing the batteries etc. it still wouldn't work. 

luckily it was in warranty so another remote was delivered free of charge. That wouldn't work so I spent best part of half a day going over everything, on, off, plugs out, plugs in. For no apparent reasons it then decided to start working!  

The internet was always working during this period so I have no idea what the issue was??

I've said this before but I had Sky Q for years and years and it worked. No lag, the skipping of adverts worked, sky stream seems to have a hissy fit doing that! Either starts the programs past the start of the next section or takes ages to get to it! 

No remote issues, no taking ages for the home stream to come up! 

I have cat 6 wired connections and still it's poor. 

My fire stick works flawlessly so yes, I am saying Sky Stream is a poor product. 

rant over (for now!)

[GodDarn]

This is the worst product I have ever purchased.

i accept that a few tech glitches would be acceptable but when the fundamental purpose of a product is so flawed, Sky should really acknowledge this, recall it and only release it again when it is ready for market.

i only have sky for live sport. Tennis and F1 predominantly.

i am sick to the back teeth of watching a live match or race, pausing it to go to do something and then returning to find the pause has released itself and there is no option to rewind.

i also am sick of pressing the Watch From Start button on F1 races when I have chosen to start the race a few minutes late only to find a technical fault with the recording. 

the search function is hit and miss, the rewind function is poor and jittery and I have lost count of how many times a day the puck freezes.

Before I get set up by the baying technology experts who tell me my WiFi is poor or my fibre is weak, I am a geek with a full UniFi mesh Network set up with a rock solid fibre cable connection and a steady 900mbs on low latency. It is not the connectivity, it is a not fit for purpose product that has been pushed on a trusting audience of loyal 20yr+ customers who are then treated like idiots when they complain.

i am going back to Box and Dish at outrageous expense as Sky Stream is so bad. 

I strongly suggest anyone considering the switch demand a parallel deployment through their trial period. I cannot believe anyone will not junk the Sky Stream "puck" and stick with a product that actually works even on a basic level.

Sky, you need to sort the Sky Stream out quickly or accept that the days of a physical box or puck are numbered and you should be streaming all you content through an App. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@GodDarn wrote:

 I have lost count of how many times a day the puck freezes.

Stream has been around for more than three years now: it's not going to be recalled.  What you are describing isn't a typical experience, and personally, based on long experience of the interesting and creative things Ubiquiti apparently feel compelled to do to network standards, that's where I'd look.

[Bluegiraffe]

Yeah - I have to say I certainly have't had the drama many seem to have on Sky strea. I was an early adopter but after getting used to  no longer recording anything it's been really good actually.

The UI is not bad - things are where I expect them to be and I can find things relatively easily - I don't have UHD (not worth the money) and no Dolby Atmos (ditto) - so a quick list for me

Annoyances:

- Reminders would be nice

- Return to last viewed channel

- Stuttering 24p in Netflix, Prime is horrendous - I use my TV Apps as they don't have the same issue - reported this to Sky and they did actually follow up twice (but I suspect the hardware is not up it, so this won't ever get fixed.

- Lately some channels (seemingly randomly) has horrendous audio sync.... (but that's a new issue)

- Add skipping should be better  - maybe a 30 sec skip option rathr than using >>

- I know Sky has no control over the last one - the ITV App is abysmal - seriously, someone needs to be demoted at ITV.

Apart from that:

- hardware has been good, recently changed remote batteries for the first time
- Image quality is pretty good - certainly better than satelite
- I don't miss having the big old Sky box

So, generally happy

Regards

Bluegiraffe

[Scott134]

I would also love to get out of my contract.  I should have done it before the 31 days but I am an eternal optimist and assumed I would figure it out.

The BT UHD box I replaced was an old fashioned hard disk recorder that never missed a beat.  The sky puck just does not work.  It needs restarting at least once a week, especially if you try and watch anything on Paramount.  

The adverts were so rediculiois.  We tried watching box sets and series but they would be at least a 3rd of viewing time.  You end up having to buy the advert skip feature (not something needed in the BT), which is a total con but even that does not work.  They just pause it on the advert after you fast forward or it just hangs and you have to go out and back in the program.

The interface is a car crash of poor design but I have found my way round it.  I actually like how it tries to integrate all the various free to air and paid streaming services but instead of focusing on letting you find what you want, it seems focused on finding ways to upsell you

Today's fun is they are missing chunks every 30 seconds out of all of todays recordings.  The start of the F1.  The goals in the football.  It is not a streaming issue.  Yesterdays are fine.

What is so annoying is that NowTV is just fine, from the same company.  I have used if for years and I never had a problem.  They should have got that team to work on this but I bet they outsourced this or had it developed to a cost somewhere where developers are poorly paid.

Can't believe this has been out for 3 years

[Gincap]

Now for Sky viewing is actually the way forward, just renewed 6 months Entertainment £4.99 Cinema £4.99 UHD Boost AD free £2.00. Per month 😊

[Mister_Dalek]

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@Gincap wrote:

Now for Sky viewing is actually the way forward, just renewed 6 months Entertainment £4.99 Cinema £4.99 UHD Boost AD free £2.00. Per month 😊

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Good deal on Ultra Boost, well done - that's the cheapest I've seen it. 

[Gincap]

@Mister_Dalek 

It came out at £9 initially I got it at £2 as I already had standard boost, received an initial offer at £6 but continued with the cancel process and got £2 again over 6 months. 

This another bonus with now all deals etc done through the app no need to call Sky. 

I'm a Now fan as their app on Apple TV is also very good. 

I don't bother with niche channels. 

[Beestrob1]

I couldn't agree more...!! I have had SkyQ with 3x mini boxes in my property for 3 years now, Sky know I have not had a single day in that time where my services has not been interrupted. I pay more than £140 per month for the service, not once has there been so much as free movie (which wouldn't play all the way through anyway) by means of compensation. 
The behaviour from Sky is quite frankly DISGUSTING, they know they can't resolve my issue and should actually give me a complete refund and part company forever more! 
My advice, explore every other TV streaming service before committing to anything from Sky. 

[AndyPSM]

The Sky Stream UI is the most counterintuitive, clunky, irritating, enjoyment interrupting pile of nonsense - I decided this weekend to try and spend some time to get used to it properly rather than just getting annoyed every time I use it - there is no point. I'm out as soon as renewal comes up. Who signed off on this? Did they underspec the pucks and are now unable to resolve the issues? I love sport, but I'll have to find it elsewhere next year. You have about 6 months Sky!! 

[Bluegiraffe]

Hey Andy

As someone who works with  UI and software dev daily, I always say if you want something improved, give some suggestions and provide  use cases that are a problem, that makes it easier to improve things.

I haven't found it too bad, there are some missing features, reminders being one, and the way you set up favorites are a bit hidden.

Wha don't you like?

Bluegiraffe

[AndyPSM]

Hi there - Well, I find it lags horribly sometimes before you even get into the UI to be honest, but actually use wise I find navigating to watching live sport events from the current live point is sometimes straight forward, and other times it starts playing from the start of the programme without ever offering an option to watch live.

Also, there are a great many options that are entirely irrelevant to me, and there is no way to customise the options to tailor it to my tastes, to cut down on (slooowwly) clicking through.  If I head down the list of menu options looking for TV guide, by the time I realise it is up the top and I'm already passed it, I have a long trek back up the menus again. 

All of it would be less irritating if there wasn't significant lag at random times when I'm trying to get to the option I want. For another example, if I want to watch one of the sky + games in league one (which I often do), I have to start the stream for the main one, wait for it to start, press the option button, wait for a laggy menu pop up up (which can take 15 seconds to fully load sometimes) then get to the match I want after about a minute of messing around. Again, a specific use case for me, but this is streaming content, not satellite channels, so there is no need for the extra (laggy) steps to access the game I want to watch. Sky + matches should just be listed on their own row (if you select that you are interested in that sort of thing perhaps). 

Finally, perhaps I have a dud box, but Sky Q (why did I leave it!) booted up and was ready in seconds. Sky Stream takes a ridiculous amount of time. I think the pucks are under specced hardware wise, and that will ultimately be an issue until they quietly resolve it by issuing better hardware over time. 

Bit of a long reply but wanted to try and offer a flavour of what my frustration is about. 

🙂

[oj01]

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@AndyPSM wrote:

 I want to watch one of the sky + games in league one (which I often do), I have to start the stream for the main one, wait for it to start, press the option button, wait for a laggy menu pop up up (which can take 15 seconds to fully load sometimes) then get to the match I want after about a minute of messing around. Again, a specific use case for me, but this is streaming content, not satellite channels, so there is no need for the extra (laggy) steps to access the game I want to watch. Sky + matches should just be listed on their own row

🙂

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@AndyPSM 

I don't have Stream but surely there's direct access to the Sky Sports App, which would list the available games, without having to go to the live channel first?

[AndyPSM]

If there is I haven't found it. Of course, there's a chance there is an element of PEBKAC here on my part, so if I'm being an idiot I'm more than happy for anyone to say how they access the games via the puck efficiently.

(PEBKAC - one of my favourite IT related acronyms - "problem exists between keyboard, and chair")