Sky Stream pic pixelating and freezing.

[GF_UK]

One for a theory here : I seem to have spotted a trend but not sure if I am imagining it.

For those with live TV pictures - do you watch anything on ITVX ?
I power bounce my puck every day via a smart switch at about 6 AM - it will be fine without issue all day, however on an evening I seem to have pixilation issues and "image smearing". However this only seems to occur AFTER my wife has done her ITVX catch up (soaps etc). A reboot solves it. 

The reason for thinking this may be related, if she is out for the evening and therefore doesnt have an ITVX session then it doesnt occur.

So I am wondering if this is realted to some memory leak or storage issue associated with the ITVX App ? 

Also its painful for ad skipping still in said app.

[AndrewF_UK]

Interesting! That sounds like ITVX isn't closing and has a memory leak or similar. You could be on to something there 🙂

[KevDon]

We do watch a bit of "the chase" most days. Definitely more often than the puck screws up though. I'm usually watching prime or netflix when it does turn to mush. That ITVX app is **bleep** though, everytime there's an add break in a show it's 50/50 wether the add loads or we're sat staring at a blank screen until I go out of the show and back in then maybe the add will load. 

[Cpgs23]

I'm fairly certain t is an overheating issue.

Regardless of what we have been watching if the box is turned on without a restart for a prolonged period the buffering / pixelation / freezing kicks in eventually.

The only way I have found to resolve it (even a reboot doesn't always fix the issue) is to turn the device off long enough for it to cool down.

I have ordered a cheap cooling plate from Amazon and will see if that helps when it comes.

[Fromelad]

Don't think Sky have a proper fix for this issue. I spoke to customer service a while ago and they talked me through resetting my network settings and this does fix it for a while as does rebooting the stream box but then issues return. I mostly see it watching live tv especially ITV1

Having to reset the network settings or rebooting the stream box each time is so frustrating and annoying. Do not have the same problem when using my Apple TV to stream the same channel or app. 

[DeliveryMan]

Yes the ITV app is terrible. We had to reboot the puck earlier because it just froze and wouldnt load.

[Fromelad]

It happens to me watching ITV via the TV guide but also agree the ITVX is terrible on the sky stream box. I get a black screen when advertisements should be showing and it often crashes 

[KevDon]

Same here with the ads not loading. ITVX app is junk. 

[GF_UK]

In ITVX try 0000 777 to clear the cache - it helped for me - for now anyway.

Just need to do it from main ITVX app menu. (Not Sky Menu).

[Ed.B.]

I was just watching the golf on ITVX and the stream was perfect. Switched to live BBC1 for match of the day and it's unwatchable - smearing like a Preston M Smith painting. 

And I don't want to bounce the box because 'watch from start' isn't available - although I suppose I could go to the iplayer which probably wouldn't be smearing 😂

[Cpgs23]

After trying a stick on magnet semiconductor from Amazon for £3 where the issues unfortunately persisted. I have now bought a USB cooling fan and having no issues at all, the puck is not overheating and the images holding strong and no irritating 'working to load you programme ' (or whatever the message is)

[Cpgs23]

Further to this... Although sticking a fan underneath the puck has resolved the issues with pixelation and freezing (as per this thread). The device is still pretty poor for the monthly charge! I regularly need to unplug the device before use to enable it it load. Then there is the real annoyance of it not connecting to WiFi when loading and the repeated resetting of network settings... I do wish a Sky Q box was still an option 😞

[Fromelad]

Not sure what is going on but in last few days my puck has needed a daily reboot it had seemed to be working fine for a while but now pretty poor again! Come on Sky fix this!!! 

p.s if possible can you post a link the usb fan?

[Cpgs23]

It is overkill, but was available on a sale at the time https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laptop-Cooling-15-6-17-Control-Function-Blue/dp/B08SJ4YD89

The noise is frustrating, but needs must at the moment 🤷‍♂️

[Ajac]

We started with this issue from mid October before that no issues,when we spoke to sky they kept saying they were awre of this and had sent a fix  update. Before it has started it was only affecting a few customers and after more. They said they were trying to send an update to fix it. Fast forward to December 2024 same problem only when we rang they said it wasn't customer wide did everything they said, they said it could be your internet,. Got that checked only for it to go down completely due to an open reach enginner doing something to our Internet they ended up sending a other openteach enginner out Christmas eve. She found the card at exchange need rebooting. Over this period the wifi was working through a dongle mo problems with sky stream. Got fixed Christmas day, Everything fine till it started happening again told sky I had everything checked and they were adamant it was not thier fault new puck sent out exchanged at door. Seemed fine till it happened again.  We later had an issue with Infa structure on open reach end at exchange but we had enough with how EE back up dingle worked so changed providers.  We moved puck, everything is fine but it does happen  rarely  as much as use to we unplug reboot and it's fine.  Sky will not recognise the issue even though we have told them time and again it's a wider problem they say we have had no complaints ,we tell them look at the forum  it's not us. The worst of it is we had for a few years no issues then thi started last October it's an update they just will not accept its an issue at thier end. The only way to fix it is to completely reboot the puck by unplugging it. That fixes it. It's not as common for us now . It's once ever now and again. Until sky accept its thier problem they will not do anything. It is a bug on an update they said we sent a patch in November. 2024. They appear not to monitor this ,they not aware it's still a problem and until they do there will be no fix.   Sky need to accept its a firmware issue and send an update to fix it. If they hadn't sent a firmware update back end of September 2024 we would have had no issues. It's not  puck it's a firmware issue. It needs an update to fix it, yet if you ring they say it's your puck only.