Sky Stream puck freezes when viewing a UHD programme

[Chris+Neal]

I've had Sky Stream for just under a year, and until recently it's been fine. I now have a serious issue with viewing in UHD on a Sky channel. Two examples:

For the last month or so, a live sports event (e.g. Premier League match) when viewed on Sky Sports PL is fine, but if I tune to Sky Sports Main Event (which defaults to UHD), after a random period (ten seconds to ten minutes) of watching the picture stops and no remote control input has any effect. I can't use pause/play, can't change channel, can't return to Home. Nothing. The only way forward is to disconnect the power and start it up again. It will do this every time I tune to Main Event.

I had to change my TV to 1080p HD for it to work reliably.

Earlier today I selected Portrait Artist of the Year (Sky Arts) from my playlist, and got a message saying I needed to set my TV to UHD to view it. I did that and it played fine for about 30 minutes, but then froze again just like Main Event. My broadband is around 45Mbps and the puck is on a wired connection.

Is the puck faulty?

[mikealanr]

Hi @Chris+Neal 

Sky recommend 25 Mbps for HD and 30Mbps for UHD. 45 Mbps isn't leaving a lot of headroom for other traffic on your network. A few things to check:

Ensure that WiFi is switched off in the settings. If on the puck will still try to use WiFi even with a cable connected. Also check the speed that your puck is recieving via the netflix app. 

Open netflix and go to settings > network connection > connection test.

MikeAlanR

[Chris+Neal]

Hi MikeAlanR,

Thanks for the advice. I checked and WiFi was switched on, despite it being configured for Ethernet. I have switched it off and set the TV back to UHD.

The Netflix test report connection speed of 42Mbps. I get your point about the recommended minimum 30Mbps for UHD not leaving much room for other traffic, but I don't see why that would cause the puck to freeze unrecoverably. What you say would make sense if it paused or buffered, while still allowing me to switch to another channel or go Home, but the puck completley crashes.

I have another puck in the bedroom, and if switching the WiFi off doesn't fix the issue I'll try swapping them over to see if it makes a difference.

Chris

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Chris+Neal wrote:

Hi MikeAlanR,

Thanks for the advice. I checked and WiFi was switched on, despite it being configured for Ethernet. I have switched it off and set the TV back to UHD.

The Netflix test report connection speed of 42Mbps. I get your point about the recommended minimum 30Mbps for UHD not leaving much room for other traffic, but I don't see why that would cause the puck to freeze unrecoverably. What you say would make sense if it paused or buffered, while still allowing me to switch to another channel or go Home, but the puck completley crashes.

I have another puck in the bedroom, and if switching the WiFi off doesn't fix the issue I'll try swapping them over to see if it makes a difference.

Chris

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Typically when the WiFi is also enabled the Sky device will continue to use that over the Ethernet. It sounds like the issue may be WiFi dropout causing the crashes. 

I use to suffer the same issue initially when I got stream a year ago and set it up via WiFi. After a week or so I switched over to Ethernet and it solved the issue for me.

[Chris+Neal]

I have disabled the WiFi now and so far so good, although I haven't been able to do much testing. Thanks for the advice 🙂

[Chris+Neal]

Hi @MarkGoldsmith and @mikealanr ,

Thanks for your advice on this so far, but I'm still having issues. WiFi is switched off on the puck, forcing it to use the wired connection. I am still getting a total puck freeze after random periods of watching a UHD channel (usually Sky Sports Main Event). It's happened three times this afternoon. The first time the picture froze and sound stopped, and no response to any remote control input. Had to power off/on. Second time, the picture froze and no sound again, but it recovered after a few seconds (this one could be down to bandwidth). The third time the screen went black, as if I'd switched it off, but the power light remained on.

Any other ideas? Is it worth my waiting on hold for 30 minutes to speak to Sky support?

Chris

[Chris+Neal]

UPDATE

For want of anything better to try, I reconfigured the puck to use WiFi and disconnected the Ethernet cable. I've just watched UHD for 90 minutes without any problems.

Weird...

[Holbrook]

Just spoken with sky today due to pausing issues, so did some remedial work with them. This may work for you..... (please make sure you know your sky account log-in details before doing this)  

unplug box, then while holding power button underneath plug back in. MUST KEEP HOLDING BUTTON until screen on tv starts with setup/re-downloading software. Follow on-screen steps and If you have issues with re-entering your pin. Simply, simply press forgotten pin and then follow the steps.  Hope this helps

[Chris+Neal]

Thanks @Holbrook for the advice. My switch to WiFi seems to have done the trick for me, but if the freezing behaviour returns I will try your suggestion.

Chris