Sky Box Upgrade Options

[wolfie138]

Getting sick of trying to navigate their site, so looking for opinions etc.

I've still got the old Pace digibox, been going strong for about 20 years but seems to be giving up the ghost now - has a tendency to switch off when i change channels. :-/ Verry intermittent at the mo but i'm guessing it'll only get worse.
i guess the only option now is Sky Q, been trying to look at whether it would be cheaper to bin my subscription and start a new one after a couple weeks, or just go for the upgrade - box costs about £200 though, from what i can see on the site ~ if i want the terrpin version that can record 6 shows; not sure i'd need that or if the normal one would suffice.
do they still whinge about wanting the box connected to the phone line for new customers? i've not been connected in about 18 years, dropped that **** as soon as i could because of cabling issues.

TIA

 

[Mr.Cookie]

Gumtree sky box I picked one up for 20 quid gave sky the box number and it was paired up

 

[MissChief]

Getting sick of trying to navigate their site, so looking for opinions etc.

I've still got the old Pace digibox, been going strong for about 20 years but seems to be giving up the ghost now - has a tendency to switch off when i change channels. :-/ Verry intermittent at the mo but i'm guessing it'll only get worse.
i guess the only option now is Sky Q, been trying to look at whether it would be cheaper to bin my subscription and start a new one after a couple weeks, or just go for the upgrade - box costs about £200 though, from what i can see on the site ~ if i want the terrpin version that can record 6 shows; not sure i'd need that or if the normal one would suffice.
do they still whinge about wanting the box connected to the phone line for new customers? i've not been connected in about 18 years, dropped that **** as soon as i could because of cabling issues.

TIA

If you’ve been with Sky all this time you can use the VIP upgrade option. I’m not sure of the price atm but I think it’s around £40 and you need to take Multiscreen.

broadband connection suffices now.

 

[lucid]

Getting sick of trying to navigate their site, so looking for opinions etc.

I've still got the old Pace digibox, been going strong for about 20 years but seems to be giving up the ghost now - has a tendency to switch off when i change channels. :-/ Verry intermittent at the mo but i'm guessing it'll only get worse.
i guess the only option now is Sky Q, been trying to look at whether it would be cheaper to bin my subscription and start a new one after a couple weeks, or just go for the upgrade - box costs about £200 though, from what i can see on the site ~ if i want the terrpin version that can record 6 shows; not sure i'd need that or if the normal one would suffice.
do they still whinge about wanting the box connected to the phone line for new customers? i've not been connected in about 18 years, dropped that **** as soon as i could because of cabling issues.

TIA

If you go via the Sky helpline then they're really going to push you to change to Sky Q. IMO it's a good system with all the enhanced recording features, but not quite the upgrade over a +HD box that you might imagine.

The biggest disappointment for me is how little 4K UHD content there is on normal channels. There's plenty for download/box sets and if you take the best of the premium sports channels. On top of that the two biggest advantages of a UHD picture are missing. There's no content with Wide Colour Gamut (10-bit colour), and the box doesn't do High Dynamic Range (HDR). All you're really getting then is some better resolution in a rather restricted set of circumstances, and ATMOS audio, but again that's limited to certain programming combinations.

The other kick in the balls is that the mini-boxes don't do UHD 4K at all.

Sky will say that the Q box can output UHD for live content. But they won't be so quick to reveal that it's just upscaling 1080i, and that's not the same thing.

It's each to their own, but when I weighed up the pros and cons of changing from a +HD system to Q I just couldn't justify the outlay and monthly subs over what I was already paying. I have a 4K Firestick and Prime account anyway, so if I want a fix of UHD with HDR and WCG then I can have it through that. The stick also supports UHD content from Youtube which the Q box doesn't do.


@Mr.Cookie 's suggestion of a used +HD box is a good one. I'm seeing lots of these come up on the Facebook selling groups. Prices are as low as £5. Don't be tempted to pick up any Q hardware for sale used though. The contract terms for Q are different. Ownership never passes to the end user. The gear is on permanent rental, so the users have no right to sell it.

Regarding phone lines: There's no requirement for that. The Q box will need to connect to your broadband either wirelessly or via an Ethernet cable, but there's no landline connection any more.

 

[james.miller]

There's no content with Wide Colour Gamut (10-bit colour), and the box doesn't do High Dynamic Range (HDR).

The new 1Tb UHD boxes are HDR capable, so it's happening. Slowly

 

[lucid]

The new 1Tb UHD boxes are HDR capable, so it's happening. Slowly

That's good to know.

Just had a look on the Sky forums. Apparently, the 2nd gen 2TB boxes have been HDR capable for 18 months. So why isn't anyone talking about the difference that HDR makes? Is the content not available, or is the feature disabled?

 

[MissChief]

That's good to know.

Just had a look on the Sky forums. Apparently, the 2nd gen 2TB boxes have been HDR capable for 18 months. So why isn't anyone talking about the difference that HDR makes? Is the content not available, or is the feature disabled?

A bit of both.

 

[wolfie138]

thanks for the feedback so far. am i right in thinking i'd need a new dish as well, though? i'm sure i saw somewhere that the HD stuff needs a different dish than the normal poke Pace thing i have?

 

[MissChief]

thanks for the feedback so far. am i right in thinking i'd need a new dish as well, though? i'm sure i saw somewhere that the HD stuff needs a different dish than the normal poke Pace thing i have?

If you upgrade to Q the Engineer will swap the dish if required. Chances are it will need a whole new dish rather than just an LNB change as your box is so old.

 

[TheVoice]

If you've had the same box for 20 years, surely Sky will replace it for free or at least very minimal cost? I thought they replaced the non-Sky+HD boxes ages ago.

 

[wolfie138]

Dunno about the replacement, nobody ever got in contact w/ me about it.
I thought Sky+ had gone now, and Q was the only thing they were offering?

didn't even know about the VIP so i'll have a look at that, not interested in multiscreen/multiroom, so I don't want to do that if it's going to involve unneeded extra costs.

 

[MissChief]

Dunno about the replacement, nobody ever got in contact w/ me about it.
I thought Sky+ had gone now, and Q was the only thing they were offering?

didn't even know about the VIP so i'll have a look at that, not interested in multiscreen/multiroom, so I don't want to do that if it's going to involve unneeded extra costs.

Q is the standard fit. +HD will only be fitted in flats that can’t have Sky Q. If it’s a new install with no restrictions they won’t even fit +HD if you ask for it.

 

[wolfie138]

thanks, MissChief

 

[wolfie138]

so, so far every time I try to do something w/ the app I just get "page failed to load" and the Cancel and Try Again button both do the same thing - reload the page to the same error. marvellous.