*** Sky Q Thread ***

Vertigo

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Entai said:
The number of Sky customers that wish to record six shows while watching a seventh is pretty minuscule as well I would suspect, however Sky are going to update the firmware on 2TB boxes soon (ish) to facilitate just that.
Click to expand...

That's marketing to compete with Virgin's V6 box, nothing more. It looks good on paper even if hardly anyone will ever make use of the feature.

One would assume they could just have easily used the spare two tuners in the 2TB box to stream to more minis instead but choose the other of the niche markets to aim their product at.
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There aren't two spare tuners, there's one and I think they've probably already got plans for that.

4 for recording
1 for watching live
1 for live preview
2 for minis
2 for mobile devices
1 for data/updates
 

Entai

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Vertigo1 said:
That's marketing to compete with Virgin's V6 box, nothing more. It looks good on paper even if hardly anyone will ever make use of the feature.



There aren't two spare tuners, there's one and I think they've probably already got plans for that.

4 for recording
1 for watching live
1 for live preview
2 for minis
2 for mobile devices
1 for data/updates
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that all data and updates come through the internet through the connection to your router ?

Certainly if you disconnect your router, you cannot get any on demand stuff, or force an update through the menu system, so obviously that stuff comes through the internet and not an inbuilt tuner.

Also if there is only one spare tuner currently, how will they, purely by a firmware update, be able to upgrade to recording 6 channels while watching a seventh, without dropping another facility ?
 

Entai

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r22snapper said:
Sorry for the no doubt commonly asked question but is it only the 2tb box that will do Sports in 4k?
Click to expand...

Yes it is only the 2TB box that will do UHD anything, movies, sports, TV series etc.

Although it is not quite so easy as just getting a 2TB box.

You will also need to subscribe to Multiscreen (whether you need it or not) to access any UHD content.

You will then also need to subscribe to Sky Sports to access UHD sport content, and/or Sky Cinema to access UHD Movies.
 

Vertigo

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Entai said:
I was under the impression that all data and updates come through the internet through the connection to your router ?

Certainly if you disconnect your router, you cannot get any on demand stuff, or force an update through the menu system, so obviously that stuff comes through the internet and not an inbuilt tuner.
Click to expand...

Whether or not they use the Internet connection for this, the ability to use the satellite downlink will certainly still be there, if only so they can still push things out to boxes even if people disconnect their Internet to try to prevent it.

Also if there is only one spare tuner currently, how will they, purely by a firmware update, be able to upgrade to recording 6 channels while watching a seventh, without dropping another facility ?
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They'll multiplex them so you won't be able to do everything at once any more. I'd imagine some tuners will be reserved, such as the "live TV" one, so that's always available, but after that it'll probably be a "first come, first served" system so, if you're using all your tuners you might find you can't stream to a tablet any more or watch on a mini. I suspect the live preview would be the first thing to "go" in the event of a lack of tuners as that's hardly a necessity.[/quote][/QUOTE]
 

jpaul

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Vertigo1 said:
They'll multiplex them so you won't be able to do everything at once any more. I'd imagine some tuners will be reserved, such as the "live TV" one, so that's always available, but after that it'll probably be a "first come, first served" system so, if you're using all your tuners you might find you can't stream to a tablet any more or watch on a mini. I suspect the live preview would be the first thing to "go" in the event of a lack of tuners as that's hardly a necessity.
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[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

what do you mean multiplex ?
if you have 6 tuners for recording + 1 for live viewing, then if minis or mobile want to access live satellite content they will each be taking up one of those 6 tuners, so they will not be available for recording.
Conversely if you have 6 scheduled satellite records you will not be able to watch different live satellite material on minis/mobile and will need to cancel a recording.

on-demand material (inc 4k movies) being viewed/recorded does not need a tuner, just sufficient cpu power to receieve/store and distriubute it to minis/mobile.

When they bring out their pure OTT(non-sat) Q box in 2018, presumably all the channels will be available live with same quality as satellite, so that could reduce demand for tuners (and increase demand on BB)
 

Vertigo

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jpaul said:
what do you mean multiplex ?
if you have 6 tuners for recording + 1 for live viewing, then if minis or mobile want to access live satellite content they will each be taking up one of those 6 tuners, so they will not be available for recording.
Conversely if you have 6 scheduled satellite records you will not be able to watch different live satellite material on minis/mobile and will need to cancel a recording.
Click to expand...

Erm, that's exactly what I mean by multiplex.

At present each tuner is 'reserved' for a certain function. This has the benefit that there are never any 'clashes' but the downside is that you can't record more than four things at once for example, even if you're not using minis or tablets and so there are several tuners sitting idle. The update will no doubt multiplex the tuners so they can be used for different functions. You're right in that this potentially means you wouldn't be able to watch on minis or tablets if you're recording too many things at once or, conversely, if you're watching on two minis and two tablets, you might not be able to record six channels at once.

Basically it's more efficient that way but can lead to clashes which are annoying. Virgin's Tivos have done this for a while but, as they only have three tuners, they don't even reserve one for live TV, so if you're recording three things at once, you can't watch a fourth channel live, you're restricted to watching one of the channels you're recording or other recorded or on-demand content. That's just annoying which is why I suggested Sky will likely keep one tuner for live TV at all times.

It's all speculation but I wouldn't be surprised if they did something like reserving two tuners for one mini and one tablet stream so they're always available, but made the others potentially available for recording should they be needed, so something like this:

1 dedicated to live TV
4 dedicated to recording
1 dedicated to live preview
1 dedicated to minis
1 dedicated to mobile devices
2 'floating' tuners which can be used for either recording two more channels or streaming to a second mini and second tablet
 

jpaul

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Ok thanks, I had not realised that there are 12 tuners anyway, as you already said, with current configuration of 11 allocated
4 for recording
1 for watching live
1 for live preview
2 for minis
2 for mobile devices
1 for data/updates

There do not seem to be any teardowns of the box on the web, to confirm what is inside,:D
maybe you could claim to sky that your children tried to dismantle it ... but maybe nothing to see, just one large SOC.
The web has some stories of these boxes overheating so maybe they were doing some stress-testing before giving access to 12.

EDIT - afterthought :need some utube pictures of a smoking box or cooking an egg on top,
or like notebookreviews, nice infra red pictures of temperature contours.
 
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Puzzled

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It is crazy how hot they run, can't put anything on top of mine as the combined heat is too much.

Wish they'd made it a bit bigger and put decent cooling in as need to stack my av equipment.
 
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