Watching sports on delay with Playlist

[Juanson]

I'm a former Sky +/Q customer looking into the service again, but due to restrictions in my current residence Sky Stream would be my only option.

I did and would really only use the service for sport rather than TV series etc. and I always relied heavily on the former's functionality of being able to record and effectively watch at any time, as due to my life/schedule I frequently found myself watching events delayed-as-live, whether that be 10 minutes behind (before the broadcast is finished), a few hours, or even a few days (e.g. having to be away on a weekend). Plus being able to pause mid-broadcast and being able to finish watching a few hours later, or the next day, picking up where I left off.

I appreciate Stream does not literally have recording as such, but my understanding is that the Playlist functionality is effectively the equivalent functionality - but before committing I thought it worth checking with current users of the service if my understanding is correct and more importantly if there are any unknowns/gotchas I should be aware of, relating to the various scenarios I mention above, especially when comparing to how traditional Sky works. Various googling seems to give conflicting reviews/comments, in some cases a few years out of date.

Any insights would be extremely invaluable and much appreciated 🙂

[lettice · Accepted solution]

For Sky Sports content, except their Tennis coverage ( a rights issue) anything you add to Playlist will cloud record.

Tennis coverage on Sky Sports does offer some On demand full match replays and highlights, but not a full listing.

The cloud recordings for all other Sky Sports content generally sit in your playlist for a week to two weeks and will then changeover to an On Demand version or a highlights version.

The On demand version will not sit there forever, but from your post Ingather you are aware of that.

Playlisting TV series on Sky own channels, will supply their On Demand. The same On demand offerings as you see on Sky Q.

Playlisting of TV series for the five terrestrial channels will use their own On demand via their apps. Sky Stream is pretty seamless working with the apps, and one of the good points of Sky Stream.
One exception is that some C5 content is cloud recorded (that is content generally not available within their app) and plays out as a cloud recording using Sky Stream play options fine.

Some Channels that do not have any On demand/app, like Great TV, Legend, also as above create a cloud recording.

One thing, cloud recordings do not sit there forever and sometimes can be just a few weeks.

But then you are aware of that.

But the playlist by design is great showing anything playlisted offered somewhere else, whether it be next on, via a free or pay app etc.

Watch from Start works seamlessly with all channels (actioned within the programme timeframe) and I've had no issues with it. You can ff and back with that very smoothly.

I playlist Golf, Cricket, PL, EFL, F1, Indycar.

The cloud recordings above have worked fine during my 18 or so months of having Sky Stream.

As for a ten minutes or so behind, that works fine, but once again make sure you playlist the event or series.

There are some things like Teds Notebook that for some odd reason gets dropped into an Other tab, under your Playlist  listing, rather than showing where it should upfront after being made available. No end of mentioning to Sky has changed this to date, it's just expected from us all now and happens every time.

Would suggest getting the ad skipping feature, as not having that can cause some slight repetitive issues/ annoyances when viewing back or coming in late on a live recording.

You can cancel the ad skipping after first month easily in your Mysky and then are offered a two month free offer to use, once again cancelling during that second month, leaving for a day and the offer is offered again in MySky.

Have a read of My good journey that I wrote for this community on my move to Sky Q, link below.

Also, have a read of the Sky Stream FAQ, in the Sky help here;

https://www.sky.com/help/sky-tv/sky-tv-stream/sky-stream-faqs/articles/sky-stream-faqs

[BenJoBanjo]

@Juanson 

If you really only need Sky Sports and want to save some money then it may also be worth considering NOW TV. This is an app-based means of streaming Sky TV and allows you to subscribe to Sky Sports only, without any of the entertainment or free-to-air channels. 

The app can run directly on many smart TVs or can be downloaded to FireTV, Android TV, GoogleTV and Apple's tvOS devices. 

You can get subscriptions to Sky Sports on a 6 month terms often for around £20pm. 

The live sport channel streams all have a re-start option so you can watch from the start if you come in late to an event or programme. They do not cloud record however, and it can take a while for any on demand version to appear so that's its one big downside compared to Sky Stream. 

Sky Stream can work well for time-shifting sport, but for every person who claims to have a flawless experience, there are others who don't, so it's unfortunately not guaranteed to be as reliable as a hard-drive based PVR. Give it a go though - if you have a good enough home broadband network that can deliver the required bandwidth then you'll hopefully have a good experience with it. It takes a bit of getting used to but can work well once you get your head round its foibles. 

[Juanson]

Appreciate such a comprehensive reply, thanks! Sounds like it would largely suit my needs. Recordings disappearing after a couple of weeks (give or take) wouldn't be any issue as I'm never THAT delayed 😅. Understand the need to ensure playlisting ahead of time, as recording on classic Sky is the same deal so figure it's my own fault if I forget. Hadn't considered the ad skipping feature so that is something I will definitely look into , thanks again!

[Juanson]

@BenJoBanjo

Thanks, yeah I did consider NOW - a friend swears by it, but the absence of cloud record would probably be a killer for me as I'm often in the (not-so) sweet spot of watching something post-finish but pre-adding to on demand, hence looking into paying a bit more for Stream.

I do understand that not all experiences will be the same especially with the dependence of speed and reliability of your internet connection, although it sounds like it might be at least worth giving a go weighing everything up. Really appreciate your input!

[BenJoBanjo]

@Juanson 

Yeah, the only way to know if it'll work for you is to try it. Some people love it, some people don't. You have to really try it on your own network to see how it'll function for you. Good luck!