Sky stream puck pixelating

[Paddy211]

Hi, I've been a Sky customer for 19 years and recently swapped from Sky Q to Sky Stream. Something I'm really regretting. I won't mention how annoyed the wife is. In her words, we've gone backwards. One of the main annoyances is the pixelating we are experiencing. It occurs so much. A reboot solves the issue for a day or 2 and then it returns. It happens on a number of channels, Sky Atlantic, Sky Sports, ITV, BBC to name a few. I have seen many threads which show other users are experiencing the same. 

I also noticed a Sky employee posting last year that they'd deployed a fix. Well it clearly hasn't worked and all threads aren't leading to any form of resolution.

For clarity, I have 2 pucks, one hard wired into the home router. The 2nd on Wifi. The main puck which is hard wired seems to suffer more. There is no Wifi devices around the puck which could cause inteference (I read this could be a cause), I have FTTP and I get around 900Mbps. If I run a test on Netflix, I get around 90Mbps on the hard wired device so bandwidth isn't an issue. Can anyone offer any suggetions as I'm about to return the pucks!

[Addie15]

Hi there, I’ve escalated your post to our Community Messaging team who will invite you to a private chat shortly and help you with this. 

Just look out for the colourful bubble to start the conversation. Please be aware conversations automatically close if there is no response within 48 hours.

Here's more information on how Community Messaging works - https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147
 

[Happy2001]

I have this same problem, can someone contact me from Sky to solve the problem. Thanks

[Addie15]

Hi @Happy2001. I’ve escalated your post to our Community Messaging team who will invite you to a private chat shortly and help you with this. 

Just look out for the colourful bubble to start the conversation. Please be aware conversations automatically close if there is no response within 48 hours.

Here's more information on how Community Messaging works - https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147
 

[tudors63]

hi. i too have been having issues with crackling, pixelation etc. It's become a daily occurance to re-boot the puck. We've had this issue for well over a year now. I did speak to a sky "engineer" a few weeks back who instructed me to reset the device to factory....which solved nothing. He pointed the finger at my wifi internet connection.....but my puck is hardwired into my modem...which is BT fibre...reporting at 1.3Ghz

It's so frustrating. From the way the engineer spoke, he didn't have a clue expect the good old "reboot it"

I have 4 pucks in the house.....1 hardwired, 3 on wifi...they all show the same issue.

This manifests itself on different channels...so not exclusive to Sky channels.....although we do notice, ITVX & BBC are particularly bad

We're growing bored of the daily reboot cycle without any clear fix being offered by Sky.

I have an electronics engineering background and I would suggest the problem may lie in the design of the pucks themselves. Pixelation is sometimes down to lack of processing power in the CPU/Video procoessing. Crackling is more attributed to bad earth circuitry...or potential noise on the power circuits (poor filteriing). Both are typically a cost issue (cheap components) or poor design.

Come on Sky, it's been over a year now, Surely you can fix these issues. I know i'm not alone...the forum is full of people complaining. Perhaps if we all cancelled our subscriptions as not being fit for service something would be done.

[tudors63]

Still no response from sky. Appalling customer service. 
probelm remains. No solution other than to reboot the puck  2-3 times a day. 

[Paddy211]

Hi,

I think I may have resolved the issue. I moved a WiFi enabled router further away (now about 3 meters away) and moved it to the other side of the TV cabinet away from a radiator (I kept hearing this could cause interference bizarrely). Since I've done just those two things, it's been working almost perfectly for weeks. It seems these pucks are super sensitive to outside interference. 

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Paddy211 wrote:

Hi,

I think I may have resolved the issue. I moved a WiFi enabled router further away (now about 3 meters away) and moved it to the other side of the TV cabinet away from a radiator (I kept hearing this could cause interference bizarrely). Since I've done just those two things, it's been working almost perfectly for weeks. It seems these pucks are super sensitive to outside interference. 

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Yeah, if routers are near radiators, it can cause some extra interference in the Wifi network.

Good to hear your issue is sorted.