The Ins and Outs?

[Volupian]

Just got off a very frustrating call with Sky customer service. I've been told by a Sky engeinner that my only option at this point is to go to Sky streaming as the sateliite can't be moved and the signal is being blocked. But the rep kept using the word 'box' for everything , never 'puck'. So am I right in understanding that if I have Sky Q now - main box and two mini-boxes, that I will now need an extra puck for each of the boxes? And an extra power socket for each? He also mentioned something about not being able to watch two tvs at once.  Did he mean that if I didn't get a puck for every mini-box? He also said I needed to pay a £42 one-off for the extra streaming boxes which seems to be taking the proverbial as I was basically told that I needed to switch to streaming. (and that no one could waive that charge)

He was also rather rude as I was telling him I wanted to cancel my braodband as Sky prices are so high compared to other providers and he said 'You're not thinking it through. If you cancel your broadband and go with someone else that will save you £20 a month, you'll lose the savings you get from Sky for having both the TV and broadband together.'  Well, he hadn't told me that I'd be losing a discount for having both to begin with and he didn't tell me what that amount be.  Very patronising and a bit bullying frankly. He might as well said 'We're going to stick it to you no matter which way you go so don't even try to leave.' 

[Mark39]

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@Volupian wrote:

So am I right in understanding that if I have Sky Q now - main box and two mini-boxes, that I will now need an extra puck for each of the boxes? And an extra power socket for each?

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Not quite. You'll need a Sky Stream Puck to replace each of your existing Sky Q boxes - main and minis.

You won't therefore need any extra power sockets.

[Angel_Aka]

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@Volupian wrote:

Just got off a very frustrating call with Sky customer service. I've been told by a Sky engeinner that my only option at this point is to go to Sky streaming as the sateliite can't be moved and the signal is being blocked. But the rep kept using the word 'box' for everything , never 'puck'. So am I right in understanding that if I have Sky Q now - main box and two mini-boxes, that I will now need an extra puck for each of the boxes? And an extra power socket for each? He also mentioned something about not being able to watch two tvs at once.  Did he mean that if I didn't get a puck for every mini-box? He also said I needed to pay a £42 one-off for the extra streaming boxes which seems to be taking the proverbial as I was basically told that I needed to switch to streaming. (and that no one could waive that charge)

He was also rather rude as I was telling him I wanted to cancel my braodband as Sky prices are so high compared to other providers and he said 'You're not thinking it through. If you cancel your broadband and go with someone else that will save you £20 a month, you'll lose the savings you get from Sky for having both the TV and broadband together.'  Well, he hadn't told me that I'd be losing a discount for having both to begin with and he didn't tell me what that amount be.  Very patronising and a bit bullying frankly. He might as well said 'We're going to stick it to you no matter which way you go so don't even try to leave.' 

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Before you agree to anything related to Sky Stream you need to make sure that whatever broadband you have is of sufficient speed and quality in every room you wish to have a Stream puck, otherwise it's pointless having the service. 

You need to be willing to troubleshoot your home network in order to get a fast and stable enough connection to each puck. Sky Stream is self-install - there is no engineer support. 

Each puck will need a minimum of 25Mbps for HD streaming and 30Mbps for UHD streaming, but preferably a LOT more to have any chance of stability. You can absolutely stream on multiple pucks at the same time (up to 6), each watching something different, but ONLY IF YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT BANDWIDTH REACHING EACH PUCK. 

Sadly, many Sky customer service reps are not familiar with how Sky Stream actually works in the real world, you therefore need to do your own research to work out if it is the right service for you, rather than relying on a sales pitch. 

[Volupian]

Well that is excellent news. And what happens to everything I have saved or bought while with Sky Q? Is it in a cloud somewhere anyway or am I going to lose things I've downloaded? Would you know?

[Volupian]

And the speeds I need to check are what I get over WiFi? Is this entirely dependent on the in-house signal from router and booster?

[Angel_Aka]

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@Volupian wrote:

Well that is excellent news. And what happens to everything I have saved or bought while with Sky Q? Is it in a cloud somewhere anyway or am I going to lose things I've downloaded? Would you know?

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Anything purchased on Sky Store will be available to stream via the Sky Store app on the puck. 

Anything recorded on your Sky Q hard drive will be lost. 

[Angel_Aka]

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@Volupian wrote:

And the speeds I need to check are what I get over WiFi? Is this entirely dependent on the in-house signal from router and booster?

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Yes. A good quality mesh WiFi system will function better than a WiFi booster. Using ethernet cables directly to your router are often the best solution for a more stable connection. 

[Lawrence+cope]

@Volupian The alternative would be to ditch Sky and if you have smart tv's use the Now tv app on each or get some Fire Sticks for streaming. This is what I have done and are saving good money with very few streaming issues with a smaller dent on wifi speed😊.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Volupian wrote:

 He also said I needed to pay a £42 one-off for the extra streaming boxes which seems to be taking the proverbial as I was basically told that I needed to switch to streaming. (and that no one could waive that charge)

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There's an up-front, non-returnable fee payable for each puck: your no longer being able to receive a satellite signal isn't a factor in that.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Volupian wrote:

And the speeds I need to check are what I get over WiFi? 

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Pucks can also connect by ethernet cable to the router (including over Powerline networking) : whether that's viable is down to individual household circumstances 

[CoffeeDrinker]

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@Volupian wrote:

Just got off a very frustrating call with Sky customer service. I've been told by a Sky engeinner that my only option at this point is to go to Sky streaming as the sateliite can't be moved and the signal is being blocked. But the rep kept using the word 'box' for everything , never 'puck'. So am I right in understanding that if I have Sky Q now - main box and two mini-boxes, that I will now need an extra puck for each of the boxes? And an extra power socket for each? He also mentioned something about not being able to watch two tvs at once.  Did he mean that if I didn't get a puck for every mini-box? He also said I needed to pay a £42 one-off for the extra streaming boxes which seems to be taking the proverbial as I was basically told that I needed to switch to streaming. (and that no one could waive that charge)

He was also rather rude as I was telling him I wanted to cancel my braodband as Sky prices are so high compared to other providers and he said 'You're not thinking it through. If you cancel your broadband and go with someone else that will save you £20 a month, you'll lose the savings you get from Sky for having both the TV and broadband together.'  Well, he hadn't told me that I'd be losing a discount for having both to begin with and he didn't tell me what that amount be.  Very patronising and a bit bullying frankly. He might as well said 'We're going to stick it to you no matter which way you go so don't even try to leave.' 

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Sky Q works on the basis that the main Sky Q box is connected to a satellite dish & can record shows/matches/films on its internal hard drive. All of your other Sky Q mini-boxes connected to your other TVs each talk to the Sky Q box, not to Sky directly via the satellite dish.

With Sky Stream each box (also known as a puck) talks directly to Sky, not to each other as there is no 'master' box as such. If you were to go with Sky Stream, it replaces Sky Q - you cannot run the two together. Your Sky Q box is replaces by a puck as is each of your miniboxes. You won't need an additional power point for each as you would unplug and return your Sky Q box and all of your mini boxes.

In your case your Sky Q main box and your two mini-boxes would each be replaced by a Sky Stream puck, so three Sky Stream pucks in total. If you have Sky Q mini-boxes at the moment, you'll also be paying for multiroom (so you can view Sky TV in more than one room). With Sky Stream this is replaced by Whole Home that pretty much does the same thing.

Couple of words of warning: Sky Q and Sky Stream do not have the exact same channels available on them. Make a note of all the channels to watch on SKy Q and be sure that Sky Stream also carries them.

Second is that all of the the Sky Stream pucks must have good internet connectivity, wherever they are used in the premises. Unlike Sky Q main box and mini box, the pucks do not expand the WiFi network when used with a particular Sky broadband router. Personally I wouldn't suggest using Sky Stream with anything less than a WiFi 6 standard router - which is pretty much the default router supplied by any decent broadband provider these days, Sky included.

EDIT: Didn't see the number of replies already addressing the points raised. Note to self, drink more coffee before replying 😊

[Tommy2]

The puck is the Sky "box" that would replace the current Sky Q boxes that you currently have, no extra sockets would be needed. I have Sky stream after previously having Sky + ina previosu property many years ago, its better than I thought it would be and im very pleased that I literally have the entire TV guide taht I can quickly scroll through all over the interent. As others have said you do need good inetrent for Sky stream but Sky shoudl discuss this with you before hand, Sky I belive will not provide broadband to anyone with a speed below a set amount as they previosuly wouldnt supply us copper as it was 4mbps.

[Volupian]

All of these were very helpful thank you.  I was just told that you don't have any recording capabilities with Sky Stream. That did shock me a bit. Surely not everything you want to watch is available on streaming. How much of a deterent is this? 

I have to say though - I'm just about about to leave Sky altogether. I contacted them on July 3 for no signal and I still have no resolution. I have called three different times because they keep telling me there is a probklem on my account with setting up Sky Streaming and they need to send it to technical for them to fix. They told me they'd call me back. They didn't. I called back. Still a problem and they said 36 hours for repair. I called back again today and it's still a problem and NO ONE ever knows what has happened before. So I have to explain it all over and over again. I asked for some money back for loss of service and that sent me down this insane road where I swear I and the other man were having two different conversations which ended with them telling me I had to wait until it's resolved in order to claim the compensation. Oh - and their phone line cut off on me and no one bothered to call me back so I had to call back and start all over. I've just about had it. 

[Angel_Aka]

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@Volupian wrote:

All of these were very helpful thank you.  I was just told that you don't have any recording capabilities with Sky Stream. That did shock me a bit. Surely not everything you want to watch is available on streaming. How much of a deterent is this? 

I have to say though - I'm just about about to leave Sky altogether. I contacted them on July 3 for no signal and I still have no resolution. I have called three different times because they keep telling me there is a probklem on my account with setting up Sky Streaming and they need to send it to technical for them to fix. They told me they'd call me back. They didn't. I called back. Still a problem and they said 36 hours for repair. I called back again today and it's still a problem and NO ONE ever knows what has happened before. So I have to explain it all over and over again. I asked for some money back for loss of service and that sent me down this insane road where I swear I and the other man were having two different conversations which ended with them telling me I had to wait until it's resolved in order to claim the compensation. Oh - and their phone line cut off on me and no one bothered to call me back so I had to call back and start all over. I've just about had it. 

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Correct. Sky Stream does not record. 

It is quite a challenging idea for some people to get their  heads round, but I haven't recorded anything for several years now and don't miss it, or any programmes I want to watch, at all. 

Sky Stream does what it says on the tin - it streams content rather than receives it via satellite. The vast majority of everything that is available on a live channel stream is available to watch on demand, it's just not as simple or convenient perhaps as having a list of recordings on a planner.

It gets complicated with some things like movies which might be shown on Sky One or Sky Atlantic for example, but which can only be watched on demand if you subscribe to Sky Cinema (a paid for add-on). Other more obscure channels, sometimes also don't allow their content to be viewed on demand. It's sort of a 'give it a go and see if it works for you' kind of service. It works for some, and not for others.

Sky Stream's been around for nearly 5 years now and still has its issues, but there are thousands and thousands of people, millions maybe, who love it (or put up with it) otherwise it wouldn't still be being sold. Personally, I hated it and got rid of Sky completely a while ago and have never looked back. I disliked the lack of control the customer had with what they could do with the service - it felt very much like Sky was the ringmaster, and things were done their way or no way. I hated the amount of advertising on the home screen, the reliability issues and the amount of time it seemed to take for anything to get fixed so I left. 

But like I said, that's just me, ask a thousand others and they'll disagree, saying they have a perfectly wonderful time with Sky Stream. It's designed as a simple mass-market product and it delivers on that front for a great many people. 

All you can really do is try it to see if it'll work for you... but it would seem from your reply that even that is proving tricky as Sky can't seem to sort your account issues. 

If you do decide to leave, all Sky content is available via the NOW TV app on most streaming devices and smart TVs.