Sky stream standby mode

[HA05GER]

I've found this problem and it's stupid. I've recently made a portable stream setup with a portable screen and a powerbank to run it all. I can then move the device between kitchen and garden. Anyway when plugging into my power bank under use the puck draws anything between 1 and 3w. Look at it this way these modern smoke alarms that are hardwired draw a similar amount constantly but that's fine. I get that over 100s of thousands of devices it adds up but bigger fish to fry. My AC unit will draw 16 days of that pucks usage in one hour. Don't get me started on the energy a smart meter draws 😂. I get having the feature as standard but allow people to turn it off if they want to. 

[mfactor111]

Yes really anoying , I often have mine on in the background when cooking or pottering around my flat, had music playing yesterday when taking a shower , suddenly there was silence, its not to much to ask for a simple on/off toggle.

[kendoe47]

It's determined by inactivity I don't deem watching live TV as inactivity. I am all for saving energy, but my TV can turn this function off and every other form of watching TV as the facility to turn it off.

You can watch Sky Go without this problem on any good tablet. 

This is just another nail in the coffin for the puck, combine this with the lypsyc, freezing and delay in starting a program problems. Its not a very good advertisement in my opinion for a premium service. Roll on end of contract.

[Fothergill1]

@kendoe47  I also find it incredibly annoying but as explained in my post 15 above the puck has no way of knowing if you are watching the live TV broadcast or you have left it on and gone shopping etc.  That is the reason it asks you to pickup the remote from time to time and turns off when you don't do so.

LIke you my TV has power & energy savings options to turn it off after a certain amount of time.  It has a number of options with the range of 4, 6, 8 hours or having it Off altogether (which is my selection).

[mfactor111]

The trouble is Sky seems to think that people are glued to their screen every minute it is on, some of us have it on for background noise or music, mine is just on when I am home and pottering around, often on sky news on mute and listening to music thru another device , its 2025 and they can't sort it out ...

[kendoe47]

Hi, When i pick up the remote nothing happens, I  physically have to push a button.

[Fothergill1]

---

@kendoe47 wrote:

Hi, When i pick up the remote nothing happens, I  physically have to push a button.

---

@kendoe47 I find if the message doesn't change when I pick up the remote a quick flick of the wrist (or pressing a button) sorts it out.

[Fothergill1]

---

@mfactor111 wrote:

The trouble is Sky seems to think that people are glued to their screen every minute it is on, some of us have it on for background noise or music, mine is just on when I am home and pottering around, often on sky news on mute and listening to music thru another device , its 2025 and they can't sort it out ...

---

@mfactor111 We live in an apartment so tend to leave the TV on when we go out to distract the dogs so they don't notice outside noises and start barking.  It seems to work as out neighbours say unless they saw us taking the dogs out for walks they wouldn't even know we had any. If we think we are going to be out for more than a couple of hours we turn the Sky puck off and just have the TV on as this has the auto shutdown turned off.

BTW there is nothing for Sky to sort out as the puck is designed to do exactly as it does (annoyingly).

[mfactor111]

I disagree , it needs to be able change time or on/off and a simple softwhere update would do it... after all we are paying for it 

[Fothergill1]

Hi @mfactor111  You may well be right but I don't know for sure as I can't be asked to read it all but if they did I wonder if they may be in breach of this legislation.  Although we are no longer in the EU the pucks are widely used in other EU countries and Sky need to be compliant with their legislation as well.

Subscribers (including me) have been complaining about this "feature" since the launch of the streaming platform.  I suspect if they could change it they would have already done so.

[MarkGoldsmith]

---

@Fothergill1 wrote:

Hi @mfactor111  You may well be right but I don't know for sure as I can't be asked to read it all but if they did I wonder if they may be in breach of this legislation.  Although we are no longer in the EU the pucks are widely used in other EU countries and Sky need to be compliant with their legislation as well.

Subscribers (including me) have been complaining about this "feature" since the launch of the streaming platform.  I suspect if they could change it they would have already done so.

---

Indeed as @Fothergill1 mentions these devices are used in other territories with their own regulations. 

They are Comcast devices that are used in the various territories which Comcast provide TV services and as such it would appear that Comcast have decided to go down a global based design of the product rather than have the added complication of having to localise software updates with features for different regions. 

[Dred0]

This stupid feature is sooo annoying. And the lack of customizable settings on this 1980s piece of junk is hilarious. I mean just look at the out-of-app subtitle options: Practically zero.
WOULD YOU LIKE SMALLER SUBTITLES???SORRY! NO CAN DO!!

And I'm paying more than 100 quid per month for this half-baked Raspberry Pi chipset. 

When are Sky going to wake up?  

[HA05GER]

100 notes a month jesus. Ours is like £42 with three pucks . To be fair my dad's is I think about £160 but that includes phone and glass and internet plus every package. I just couldn't handle that kind of price.

[ShurikenOne]

Just wanted to add my 2p to this, not that's it worth anything! 😅

I understand the need for power saving and how small changes across large device fleets can make a meaningful difference but I don't consider paused live TV to be idle. The home screen, yes, even a paused recording, yes - but paused live TV is different as you have no simple means to return to that point. I appreciate I can add to playlist or watch from start or whatever, but then I might as well just not pause it. If you're pausing it, it's possible that you've paused to talk about the programme, but it's also possible you've paused it to go and unload the washing machine or deal with a child etc. The 10 minute timeout seems incredibly short.

Interestingly, despite what others are saying, something about this has changed recently because when we first got Sky Stream (a few months ago) we lamented then that the pause only lasted 20 or 30 minutes rather than the hour it did on Sky Q, so I know that this has changed recently as we're now seeing the device turn off instead of the pause unpausing itself.

It's yet another reduction of features and service demonstrated by the Sky Stream service versus their old Sky Q service. I've no issue with Sky wanting to reduce costs (by removing their reliance on satellites), if we can get this service over the internet now - great, but the reduction of pause time, the removal of actual recordings, the compression load time at the start of every advert/programme, the inability to fast forward through adverts (the real driver for Stream in my opinion) all contribute to a worse service. So many paid-for extras and add-ons and on top of all that: apps not playing the programme Sky is saying is next! I.e. you click on "Continue S3 E5" in Sky, it loads the app and the app starts at the series starting page rather than episode 5 of series 3.

Sky had an opportunity to captalise on their market position by making a streaming "hub" style device, which seems to be what they've attempted, but instead they've created what feels like the worst possible product, just barely scraping together enough features to be usable.

I cannot wait for our contract to finish.

[JennyMeTicklerTin]

This is a new problem (approx 3 weeks) with pausing live TV. It used to pause for approx 25 mins then restart. Now, after only 10 mins, the TV goes into standby mode and you lose the place where you instigated the pause.

There must have been a software update. Here is what I have:

Sky OS: 1.3

Build Version: QS037.045.00P

Remote Control firmware version: 5103.4.8

UI Version: 3.2.4

I am going to raise a Sky complaint. Suggest you do so too. It's VERY annoying.