Sky stream is absolutely awful. I’m done

[JoelBaker]

I've had Sky for decades. Sky+ and Sky Q were amazing products. 
We renovated our house and chose not to install a satellite dish, to try to go all modern and go full streaming. 

We've had Sky Stream for 18 months. 
It's absolutely awful. My wife shouts at me every day, blaming me for getting rid of Q. 

Live TV is a joke. BBC news sends me alerts with results before football matches and Olympics events finish. 

'Watch from start' just takes you to the app (iPlayer, More 4, etc) and normally is a mission to get working, fast forwarding etc. 

Tonight was the final straw as watching bake off 'from start' resorted to sign language mode. Why?!? **bleep**? We ended up watching it via the Apple TV 4K via the Channel 4 app. What am I paying sky for??

Lip sync has been an issue from day 1. Why do I have to muck around with settings when it's clearly a problem with sky stream. 

All I have with Sky Stream is a box that runs *other people's apps*.  And it does the integration really badly. 

I never vent nor moan. But after 20 years of happy Sky advocacy, I'm fed up, have stopped watching TV because it is so annoying. And I'm just really sad that the product has ended up like this. 

So do I persevere as this is the best there is these days? Downgrade / swap / upgrade to Sky Q? Is that even available as it doesn't appear to be easily accessible on the Sky website these days. 
Go all in on Apple TV and give up any notion of broadcast tv?

Virgin?!?

[Neil+Essex]

Sky Q is still available, I had Sky stream too but got rid of it due to pixelation issues so I rang up sky and told them I wanted to migrate back to Q. And they let me.

As you currently have Stream the only way to go back to Q is over the phone 

[Exiled-in-HH]

You can access the PSB broadcast channels via the PSB's apps🤔

Sky's broadcast channels can be accessed via NOWTV😉

[Mister_Dalek]

@JoelBaker 

My experience was similar. We gave Stream a year but it was a constant state of one step forward, two steps back. Picture quality was great but reliability and stability just weren't good enough. 
We've been without Sky since the beginning of the year and now use two Apple TV 4K boxes for 95% of our viewing. They've made watching TV a pleasurable experience once again. 
The NOW app works well for any Sky content and our main TV has an aerial & USB flash drive attached so we can record & skip ads on any free to air TV if necessary. 
Sky Stream would need to improve a LOT before I'd ever consider returning to Sky. 

[Exiled-in-HH]

You can also use the TV Launcher app to make a mini EPG for broadcast channels on the Apple TV boxes😉

[Mister_Dalek]

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@Exiled-in-HH wrote:

You can also use the TV Launcher app to make a mini EPG for broadcast channels on the Apple TV boxes😉

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Indeed, I've been using that for months, along with another called 'What's On' which is still in beta and lacks an EPG but has a nicer UI and is a bit quicker for switching to live channel streams. 

TBH we barely watch any live TV any more. I just find what I want to watch on various websites/social media then search for them on the Apple TV app on my phone, add them to my Up Next list on there and watch on the Apple TV box whenever we like. 

Last night Bake Off was the first time in months that we recorded a show from Freeview HD onto the USB drive. We watched Only Murders In The Building on Disney+, starting at about 7.45pm, then started watching Bake Off whilst it was still recording the end (just like in old Sky Q days!) and were able to quickly skip the ad breaks with 4 quick clicks of a button the TV remote to jump 1 minute at a time. We had nearly caught up to real-time by the time we'd done that, so finished it just after 9.30pm.  

[TimmyBGood]

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@JoelBaker wrote: 

So do I persevere as this is the best there is these days? Downgrade / swap / upgrade to Sky Q? Is that even available as it doesn't appear to be easily accessible on the Sky website these days. 

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Q is still available as a product (though for how much longer is unknown given the limited remaining lifespan of the satellites at 28.2E)

You won't see it listed on the Sky website if you are logged in as a Stream user though: try a Private browser tab.

[Mister_Dalek]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@JoelBaker wrote: 

So do I persevere as this is the best there is these days? Downgrade / swap / upgrade to Sky Q? Is that even available as it doesn't appear to be easily accessible on the Sky website these days. 

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Q is still available as a product (though for how much longer is unknown given the limited remaining lifespan of the satellites at 28.2E)

You won't see it listed on the Sky website if you are logged in as a Stream user though: try a Private browser tab.

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Even as a former Stream user you won't see it listed. I've just tried logging in with my old ID and it's as if Q doesn't exist on the Sky homepage.

Interestingly I've had a couple of calls from Sky since I left, the first offering half price Stream which I refused and the second offering me Q at half price which I also turned down, so they will still try and win you back with offers on the time limited satellite service...

[Gincap]

Apple TV with TV launcher and Now TV UHD works out much cheaper to run, is seamless across Apple products, picture quality is outstanding even with 1080p output as it upscales and you have all the apps available. 

[JW6]

Me too.After last weeks debacle with no TV for 36 hours now this subscription malarkey,im cancelling.

[Gincap]

The subscription issue has been happening since day 1 and will undoubtedly happen again as the same software is in place with bandaid updates to try and keep it in order. 

Comcast are quietly trashing the Sky brand which is such a shame as Sky was the pioneer in delivering multi channel content for the UK, from the white dish days through to Q there were hiccups yes but nothing like the constant issues of Glass and stream. 

Morale can't be great nobody is happy to keep fire fighting just to keep the service running, constantly battling to just hold it together stifles development and innovation. Even the faithful must be slightly disillusioned of late. 

We need Sky to be amongst the leaders in driving forward new technologies and developments in delivering innovation only by doing so will the customer benefit. 

As Sky moved SD to HD and Q we can only hope that Strem will soon become Stream 2 with improved hardware and a major software overhaul. 

Bandaids are effective in the short term but if you don't change them everything becomes infected. 

[Decareys]

Same here. pixilating and freezing all week.

[Oz1970]

I'm on sky stream. Too many issues. I was with BT before. Interface isn't as good but at least it was reliable. 

Will not be renewing sky stream when my contract is over.

Absolutely shocking product and what's with the boot up time? Have we gone back to the 1950s where tv takes ages to warm up before you can use it?

[Stephen+Mourton]

Just putting another view to balance things out a bit.  I am relatively new to Stream and am just not having all the problems that are mentioned.  That being said there are quite a few things regarding functionality that need improving but from what I have read it is much better than when it was launched so I am hoping that as each software update is released things will improve.  

[Dazzasky]

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@Stephen+Mourton wrote:

Just putting another view to balance things out a bit.  I am relatively new to Stream and am just not having all the problems that are mentioned.  That being said there are quite a few things regarding functionality that need improving but from what I have read it is much better than when it was launched so I am hoping that as each software update is released things will improve.  

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Another one here, I don't have any of the problems either and love Sky Stream.