Sky Stream

[FiF]

Article in the DT stating that the Sky Stream is the death knell for the satellite service.

Afraid I'm / we're of the set that like to record broadcasts, and thus if they push more determinedly down this streaming only route would result in ditching Sky.

[Supersam83]

Does anyone know if these Sky Stream pucks connect to each other via the Sky mesh on SkyQ minis or are they connected separately to the home wifi?

[rscott]

Supersam83 said:

Does anyone know if these Sky Stream pucks connect to each other via the Sky mesh on SkyQ minis or are they connected separately to the home wifi?

They just connect like a normal device (no integrated mesh support within them). You can't have Q and Stream on the same account, so they couldn't mesh with Q anyway.

[Supersam83]

Does anyone who has this have any real-world review thoughts and how are you getting on with it?

[hantsxlg]

We swtiched from Sky Q to Stream in January. We used to have the sky q box in one room, with the satellite feed to it, and an LAN cable running back to our main route. Then a sky mini in our kitchen/living room 2, again with lan cables back to router.

I had two goals with moving to stream:

1) 4K, ATMOS picture capabliity on both TVs, not just the one connected directly to main sky q box
2) More stable connection for the 2nd box, as for whatever reason even though trying lan connection, powerline, wifi extenders we could never get the sky mini to remain stable. It would loose connection to the sky q main box very regularity, to the point to basically being un-usable.

We have achieved both these with the sky steam.. though did have to send 1 'puck' back (replacement came within 24 hours) as it didn't work.

The downsides are:
1) We do miss not having actual 'recordings' to play. The playlist functionality and catch up is OK.. but not as good. For example prevsiouly you could have recorded a live sporting event, and started watching that recording at any time, even if the live event was on. (ie get home and start watching the GP from lap 1, which in 'real life' they are on lap 20...). This doesn't seem to work with stream. You have to let the whole event finish before the 'recording' is available to watch
2) Fast-forward/rewind is rubbish... trying to skip ads or intros in 'catch up' viewings is vary variable.. sometimes works somtimes looks like it is working but actually freezes or goes back to minute 0.
3) Pucks do crash occasionally... but quicker reboot time (1 min) compared to skyQ box
4) Pucks keep on 'forgetting' UHD/HDR setting... usually just go into settings and set again, sometimes needs a reboot. This happens once every 5-10 days per puck I'd say.

Ideal world I'd have the Stream pucks, with one of them being a 'master' with actually memory (SDD/HD) for recording things. Basically... I wish sky had let you have a sky q box and just replaced the rubbish sky q mini boxes with stream pucks for your 2nd, 3rd et tv.

I do miss the sky q, but overall steams pucks are a better compromise for the reliable multi-room and UHD/Atmos on all tvs.

[somouk]

I moved from Sky Q to the Sky Glass service and had a lot of issues with it, it drove me so mad as a TV that I put it in the bedroom and bought a new TV. I did add a Sky Stream to that TV and to be honest that has solved a lot of the issues for us.

I’m on 600 Mbps fibre and have it cabled in to my network and have very few issues with buffering or restarting programs like I used to have with the Glass despite them both being on the same cable so I think the stream is better at managing it all.

[Grumps.]

Sky WiFi capability has always been crap so you would have thought they would have it properly sorted by now, but the equipment is still more than likely made with the crappiest cheapest components available to keep their costs down.

[rscott]

Grumps. said:

Sky WiFi capability has always been crap so you would have thought they would have it properly sorted by now, but the equipment is still more than likely made with the crappiest cheapest components available to keep their costs down.

Stream is the Comcast XiOne box, which has wifi6 support. It doesn't have any of the mesh functionality which has caused some Q users problems

[mattybrown]

We have Sky glass/Stream have had it for about 18 months. We took it up whilst in rented and couldn't have a dish. Now in new house with FTTP with BT. 3 pucks and a glass TV in one of the bedrooms.

I now have a Sonos arc/ceiling speaker base set ups. At first it was a bit of a nightmare always resetting the pucks, no sound HDMI issues. I almost gave up with it. It is much much better now. The set up with my Sony TV works better than the Samsung almost seamless with the one remote. The Frame TV isn't quite the sam need two remotes most of the time.

It was the same with Q early adopters end up with issues that eventually work their way out of the system. I don't miss the ability to record we just stream everything but understand why some do.

Everything is hardwired.

Edited by mattybrown on Tuesday 25th April 09:15

[phil-sti]

hantsxlg said:

We swtiched from Sky Q to Stream in January. We used to have the sky q box in one room, with the satellite feed to it, and an LAN cable running back to our main route. Then a sky mini in our kitchen/living room 2, again with lan cables back to router.

I had two goals with moving to stream:

1) 4K, ATMOS picture capabliity on both TVs, not just the one connected directly to main sky q box
2) More stable connection for the 2nd box, as for whatever reason even though trying lan connection, powerline, wifi extenders we could never get the sky mini to remain stable. It would loose connection to the sky q main box very regularity, to the point to basically being un-usable.

We have achieved both these with the sky steam.. though did have to send 1 'puck' back (replacement came within 24 hours) as it didn't work.

The downsides are:
1) We do miss not having actual 'recordings' to play. The playlist functionality and catch up is OK.. but not as good. For example prevsiouly you could have recorded a live sporting event, and started watching that recording at any time, even if the live event was on. (ie get home and start watching the GP from lap 1, which in 'real life' they are on lap 20...). This doesn't seem to work with stream. You have to let the whole event finish before the 'recording' is available to watch
2) Fast-forward/rewind is rubbish... trying to skip ads or intros in 'catch up' viewings is vary variable.. sometimes works somtimes looks like it is working but actually freezes or goes back to minute 0.
3) Pucks do crash occasionally... but quicker reboot time (1 min) compared to skyQ box
4) Pucks keep on 'forgetting' UHD/HDR setting... usually just go into settings and set again, sometimes needs a reboot. This happens once every 5-10 days per puck I'd say.

Ideal world I'd have the Stream pucks, with one of them being a 'master' with actually memory (SDD/HD) for recording things. Basically... I wish sky had let you have a sky q box and just replaced the rubbish sky q mini boxes with stream pucks for your 2nd, 3rd et tv.

I do miss the sky q, but overall steams pucks are a better compromise for the reliable multi-room and UHD/Atmos on all tvs.

do you get charged multiroom for having 2 pucks?

[bitchstewie]

Looking at some reviews and going off my Sky+ box behaviour does Stream show you stuff you don't have access to like (say) BT Sport or Sky Cinema on either the homescreens or the live TV guide please?

I'm really struggling to find one box that will do everything and I'm thinking it's worth £30 just to try this for a month to see if it can replace my Sky+ box and a bunch of input switching to various other boxes.

Presume they've "settled down" and are pretty snappy/responsive if you have decent broadband?

I just can't get away from the fact I'm channel hopper rather than wanting to go into an app look at what's there and then go into another app.

[somouk]

My stream has got better and they appear to be using auto scaling of quality to save longer delays in streams when there are blips.

I'm not sure what you mean by showing you things you don't have access to, I've never seen anything from BT Sport for example but there are bits for Sky sports and events happening at the time on subscrition channels in the strips at the top of the menu.

[bitchstewie]

somouk said:

My stream has got better and they appear to be using auto scaling of quality to save longer delays in streams when there are blips.

I'm not sure what you mean by showing you things you don't have access to, I've never seen anything from BT Sport for example but there are bits for Sky sports and events happening at the time on subscrition channels in the strips at the top of the menu.

Thank you

So keep in mind I'm still using an ancient Sky Plus HD box so I don't know the newer Sky interfaces but if you don't have a Sky Sports subscription (for example) do Sky Sports channels still appear in the live TV EPG and does it show you loads of Sky Sports stuff on the home screen and then nag you to pay if you tried to watch it?

I guess in your scenario do the BT sport channels show in the EPG or on the home screen as you don't sound like you pay for BT Sport.

I'm thinking for £40 just try one for a month as I'm not going to sign an 18 month contract without trying one and the YouTube reviews don't seem that thorough.

Seems the closest thing to a "single pane of glass" that lets me watch Sky, channel hop, watch Prime Video and Disney Plus and the usual iPlayer/My5 type stuff that doesn't involve constantly switching remotes and HDMI inputs.

[blingybongy]

bhstewie said:

Thank you

So keep in mind I'm still using an ancient Sky Plus HD box so I don't know the newer Sky interfaces but if you don't have a Sky Sports subscription (for example) do Sky Sports channels still appear in the live TV EPG and does it show you loads of Sky Sports stuff on the home screen and then nag you to pay if you tried to watch it?

I guess in your scenario do the BT sport channels show in the EPG or on the home screen as you don't sound like you pay for BT Sport.

I'm thinking for £40 just try one for a month as I'm not going to sign an 18 month contract without trying one and the YouTube reviews don't seem that thorough.

Seems the closest thing to a "single pane of glass" that lets me watch Sky, channel hop, watch Prime Video and Disney Plus and the usual iPlayer/My5 type stuff that doesn't involve constantly switching remotes and HDMI inputs.

I have a Stream box. I have no interest in sports so don't subscribe to any sport channels.
I have just been all through my home screen and there is no mention of sport at all.

[somouk]

bhstewie said:

Seems the closest thing to a "single pane of glass" that lets me watch Sky, channel hop, watch Prime Video and Disney Plus and the usual iPlayer/My5 type stuff that doesn't involve constantly switching remotes and HDMI inputs.

It is very good at keeping you within its own UI and the UI has got a lot better over time.

I would say to put it on a cable and not use wifi as I found it much more stable but they may have updated that as well over time.

[bitchstewie]

Thanks both

How is "channel hopping" via the remote?

The usual "101" then go to "103" then back to "101" and things you take for granted on a traditional TV or Sky Box?

Basically how often do you find yourself switching inputs to "something else" as it doesn't do what you need?

[blingybongy]

bhstewie said:

Thanks both

How is "channel hopping" via the remote?

The usual "101" then go to "103" then back to "101" and things you take for granted on a traditional TV or Sky Box?

Basically how often do you find yourself switching inputs to "something else" as it doesn't do what you need?

I went from a Sky+ HD box to a stream. Channel hopping is no slower or much different to channel hopping previously.
There is an EPG which is fully customisable to show favourites etc and you can also just click 1 for BBC etc

One tip I picked up with regards connection, I use ethernet, is to go into your settings and turn off WiFi.

[bitchstewie]

blingybongy said:

I went from a Sky+ HD box to a stream. Channel hopping is no slower or much different to channel hopping previously.
There is an EPG which is fully customisable to show favourites etc and you can also just click 1 for BBC etc

One tip I picked up with regards connection, I use ethernet, is to go into your settings and turn off WiFi.

Thank you useful to know.

Is there anything else that leaps to mind that is better or worse than the Sky+ HD box please?

[blingybongy]

bhstewie said:

blingybongy said:

I went from a Sky+ HD box to a stream. Channel hopping is no slower or much different to channel hopping previously.
There is an EPG which is fully customisable to show favourites etc and you can also just click 1 for BBC etc

One tip I picked up with regards connection, I use ethernet, is to go into your settings and turn off WiFi.

Thank you useful to know.

Is there anything else that leaps to mind that is better or worse than the Sky+ HD box please?

It doesn't bother me but you don't record to hard drive

[bitchstewie]

Hard drive is broken anyway so it won't record.