@GeoffM5 @Fromelad @flackypuck
The key difference between a Sky Stream puck and all your other streaming devices is the server-based infrastructure which SkyOS runs on.
Your smart TVs, Roku, Apple, FireTV, etc devices are all running operating systems which run predominantly from the device itself. They have on-board storage where apps are downloaded to and run from. They connect to app-specific servers in order to stream content.
SkyOS on a Sky Stream puck is different. It connects to a Sky/Comcast owned server and maintains that connection continuously, whilst your puck is turned on (and in standby if network standby is turned on). The server is where all the apps are stored and run from, as well as all your account information, playlists, etc are stored.
You have no choice over which server you are hosted on. This is determined when your Stream account activates. It appears that some servers are busier than others and potentially become congested at certain times (such as when many customers are streaming UHD Sport). This congestion could be why some customers experience a better service than others.
There's also the many variables surrounding every individual customer's broadband connection. Be it IP addresses, DNS servers, CGNAT, or whatever, Sky have no control over the intricate differences between such networks.
What seems to be apparent however, is that Sky's server-based infrastructure struggles with some of these intricate differences due to the different way it functions when compared to other streaming devices.
Like you, I found that all my other streaming devices performed better with my particular Gigabit fibre connection. The Stream puck was the only device I found to be regularly having unexplainable issues. No amount of troubleshooting gave me the same sort of reliability that I was getting from other hardware.
To be honest I didn't really suffer many bad issues, just annoying small ones such as 'please wait' every now and again, or a sluggish response to navigation, or random lip sync drift. All of these mounted up though and made me realise that I didn't really want to continue paying for something I didn't think was giving me value. I therefore ditched Sky Stream and switched to using the NOW app on other hardware for Sky content. It works perfectly.
In general, this is why I always recommend people to try Sky Stream for themselves on their own broadband network because it's the only way to discover if it will work for you. It's clear that it works well, even flawlessly some claim, for many customers, but for others it remains problematic. It's just a shame that there's no concrete solution to getting it to work better without trying a multitude of alternative broadband suppliers.
All I can say is that I'm perfectly happy using NOW rather than Sky Stream. It's good that Sky still offer this as an alternative means of getting their content.
