Soldato
You could still install the sky go app on the ps4 though? I thought you could login to that with your skyid as long as your under the 4 device limit?
Sky Q opinions?
- Thread starter easyrider
- Start date
If you have multi screen I think
Don
You can, but the Sky Go app is a lot more limited compared to Sky Q. Just seems like an odd omission given the push for multi-room/fluid viewing etc.
They want to sell mini boxes ?
I rang sky and lol Ed at the install charge...I needed sky installed at the weekend and they said it’s £15 , I said people work and I need to be there...I have a complex network system...they wavered it instantly.
Btw...I don’t want my minis on WiFi...I don’t want Q on WiFi I want them all on cat 6 cable
Don
They will likely want to install it on WiFi as that's what their "procedure" states. Let them do it, then as soon as they've gone plug in your Ethernet cables and iirc you have to factory reset the miniboxes to select ethernet.
You can then turn off WiFi on the main box (which also helps reduce the audio glitching that I and others have experienced)
you mean it's £15 extra, or £15 total , but all now waived ? that's dam good
Soldato
No it's a slight side track until it's full IP based, with remote recording to "The Cloud" so no need for a box, just an app on your Smart device etc. that can then be used any where you are with an internet connection. Imagine it like YouTube but with the contents of Sky etc.
The worst thing about sky Q is it uses only a single spared HDD 
My living room sky box HDD is always full of kid cartoons films/Disney films and soaps etc
So my Skybox HDD in the bedroom has all my movies on it..
My living room sky box HDD is always full of kid cartoons films/Disney films and soaps etc
So my Skybox HDD in the bedroom has all my movies on it..
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can mini box hardware actually support 4k hevc decode and hdmi2.0(ie hdr too) output. ?
... but this largely becomes redundant if you have the broadband bandwidth/infrastructure, as netflix apparently have, especially in the usa, to provide an on demand 4k service, netflix has its offline service trials(a reality?) too;
Inbuilt smart capability in the tv or a roku style stick will replace the mini giving 4k.
the benefit of satellite delivery too, becomes negated, if you have the BB speed.
The skq Q interface oriented towards making recordings, redundant, if you can provide on demand, and provide a tv timeline/channel guide to access that content in the traditional way.
You'd have to take one apart and identify the chipset but more than likely they won't as it'd be wasteful. It's not cost prohibitive to have a x265 decoder, they could release a 4K revision tomorrow if they wished.
Soldato
The worst thing about sky Q is it uses only a single spared HDD
My living room sky box HDD is always full of kid cartoons films/Disney films and soaps etc
So my Skybox HDD in the bedroom has all my movies on it..
Another downside of not owning the box. You can't try and put a 4tb hard drive in it. Sky would probably know about it as apparently a heckofalot of data is passed back to Sky from the box.
Associate
I have had sky for many many years even back in the day when it was free. coming from the sky hd box the sky q silver is leaps and bounds a massive upgrade. i can honestly say i have only had a few problems which was easily solved.
I look at the sky mini boxes as an bonus feature , i do not have 4k in any other room bar my main living room. so for me it is ideal. the ease at which you can record several programs at once is brilliant. the menu system i find fluid and nice and speedy. the only thing i do not like is when they changed the colour of it. The ability to watch something say in your living room you pause it, then go say to the bedroom kitchen ect just un pause it and carry on where you left off.anything you have recorded you can watch on any of the mini boxes (bar 4k content).you can watch different programs in each area you have a minibox also, which i find handy.
As many people have said the only problem is the cost but again this is down to what you feel the service is worth to you yes i find it is a lot of money per month,but then we all want bargains and as cheap as possible, in everything in our life/cars/houses phones ect ect. There are some deals to be had, some get better deals than others, there is no fluidity in how the offers are handled. Sometimes i feel they neglect there old customers over trying to get new customers but again this is us as humans trying to get the cheapest we possibly can.
Is there really a viable alternative i personally would have to say no the netflixes amazons ect ect your not guanteed to find the latest and greatest tv series your want to watch. freeview is in my humble opinion not as good as people makes out. with netflix coming to sky will improve things a bit but having said that, what happens if your say watching something on netflix a tv series exclusive and sky and netflix fall out, it has happend in the past with some of the sky channels already.
You do not have to have the full tier in what they offer you its all personal choice. you can build a package of what you like then perhaps do as some do add get netflix amazon subs speraltey.
Most of all the main thing is down to you what do you most enjoy watching, old tv programs, new tv programs. films both new and old ? you have a 4k tv so you want 4k content, the list goes on, that i feel is what you should think about first. then look at what each option offers you.
Just my 2$
I look at the sky mini boxes as an bonus feature , i do not have 4k in any other room bar my main living room. so for me it is ideal. the ease at which you can record several programs at once is brilliant. the menu system i find fluid and nice and speedy. the only thing i do not like is when they changed the colour of it. The ability to watch something say in your living room you pause it, then go say to the bedroom kitchen ect just un pause it and carry on where you left off.anything you have recorded you can watch on any of the mini boxes (bar 4k content).you can watch different programs in each area you have a minibox also, which i find handy.
As many people have said the only problem is the cost but again this is down to what you feel the service is worth to you yes i find it is a lot of money per month,but then we all want bargains and as cheap as possible, in everything in our life/cars/houses phones ect ect. There are some deals to be had, some get better deals than others, there is no fluidity in how the offers are handled. Sometimes i feel they neglect there old customers over trying to get new customers but again this is us as humans trying to get the cheapest we possibly can.
Is there really a viable alternative i personally would have to say no the netflixes amazons ect ect your not guanteed to find the latest and greatest tv series your want to watch. freeview is in my humble opinion not as good as people makes out. with netflix coming to sky will improve things a bit but having said that, what happens if your say watching something on netflix a tv series exclusive and sky and netflix fall out, it has happend in the past with some of the sky channels already.
You do not have to have the full tier in what they offer you its all personal choice. you can build a package of what you like then perhaps do as some do add get netflix amazon subs speraltey.
Most of all the main thing is down to you what do you most enjoy watching, old tv programs, new tv programs. films both new and old ? you have a 4k tv so you want 4k content, the list goes on, that i feel is what you should think about first. then look at what each option offers you.
Just my 2$
Here's my views:
+Interface is generally OK and fairly slick, even my young son has kinda figured out how to use it
+Gives 4k viewing albeit limited selection
+Has made viewing across TV / downloads etc a bit more seamless, so it's more of a consistent approach (on the flipside it can be annoying if you start accidentally downloading an on demand programme instead of scheduling it to record)
-The WiFi mesh is majorly flaky and can cause quite a lot of drop outs for wifi devices
-Had to have a box replaced because it kept doing this weird thing where all the interface was still working but the actual TV output was a bluescreen, only resolved by switching the power off and on again
-I've not yet found a way to quickly delete a recording, on my old box all I had to do was highlight a show / stack of shows and press like the yellow button to Delete / Delete all, with Sky Q unless I've missed something you have to press select and then choose delete from the sub menu, a right faff
-Getting sky Q stops the old multiscreen from working, which is annoying when you have wiring already setup for it, as the mini boxes aren't a proper replacement as they rely on WiFi
-Generic problem of having to replace existing boxes and losing all the recordings (I had a Sky HD 2TB box which is now useless).
-Channel IDs are still kinda annoying / confusing, e.g. BBC1 is on 101 and BBC1 HD on 115, yet BBC2 HD is on 102 - why not put BBC1 HD on 101?
-Sky Q Go device management is still annoying, sometimes you get very little to go on about what devices are connected (not necessarily Sky Qs fault but it's like you've got "Android Device 1" and "Android Device 2" and you have to try and figure out which one is an older device you want to replace rather than your current phone etc, in the past I've deleted the wrong device by accident and then not been able to re-activate it due to activation limits.
+Interface is generally OK and fairly slick, even my young son has kinda figured out how to use it
+Gives 4k viewing albeit limited selection
+Has made viewing across TV / downloads etc a bit more seamless, so it's more of a consistent approach (on the flipside it can be annoying if you start accidentally downloading an on demand programme instead of scheduling it to record)
-The WiFi mesh is majorly flaky and can cause quite a lot of drop outs for wifi devices
-Had to have a box replaced because it kept doing this weird thing where all the interface was still working but the actual TV output was a bluescreen, only resolved by switching the power off and on again
-I've not yet found a way to quickly delete a recording, on my old box all I had to do was highlight a show / stack of shows and press like the yellow button to Delete / Delete all, with Sky Q unless I've missed something you have to press select and then choose delete from the sub menu, a right faff
-Getting sky Q stops the old multiscreen from working, which is annoying when you have wiring already setup for it, as the mini boxes aren't a proper replacement as they rely on WiFi
-Generic problem of having to replace existing boxes and losing all the recordings (I had a Sky HD 2TB box which is now useless).
-Channel IDs are still kinda annoying / confusing, e.g. BBC1 is on 101 and BBC1 HD on 115, yet BBC2 HD is on 102 - why not put BBC1 HD on 101?
-Sky Q Go device management is still annoying, sometimes you get very little to go on about what devices are connected (not necessarily Sky Qs fault but it's like you've got "Android Device 1" and "Android Device 2" and you have to try and figure out which one is an older device you want to replace rather than your current phone etc, in the past I've deleted the wrong device by accident and then not been able to re-activate it due to activation limits.
Don
Just in the process of trying out Plex/Enby/and anything else I can to try and find a viable alternative.
Just finished trying Plex and it's a non-contender for me, as other than the web-app, none of the other apps (mobile/PS4/Roku) offer a traditional EPG. Although other than that the TV side of things works ok with an old dual tuner dvbt card I had lying around. Movies and music side is fine though.
Will try emby over the weekend as definitely has the EPG on Roku, and on the web app that works on PS4 (plex's doesn't)
Just finished trying Plex and it's a non-contender for me, as other than the web-app, none of the other apps (mobile/PS4/Roku) offer a traditional EPG. Although other than that the TV side of things works ok with an old dual tuner dvbt card I had lying around. Movies and music side is fine though.
Will try emby over the weekend as definitely has the EPG on Roku, and on the web app that works on PS4 (plex's doesn't)
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Soldato
Plex development for the DVR has been pretty rubbish up until lately, grid view EPG is being rolled out over most devices bit by bit. I have a 4 tuner HDhomerun and had some issues at first but now it's working very well. My dad is even watching live tv off it via a firetv stick while he's in spain
Freeview play on my dads LG Oled seemed decent and he has all the apps in one place
Netflix, prime on demand etc
Goes to look at some freeview play boxes online and they offer Netflix
I hate having multiple devices to access content
Oh and they are £229 each
Netflix, prime on demand etc
Goes to look at some freeview play boxes online and they offer Netflix
I hate having multiple devices to access content
Oh and they are £229 each
Don
Freeview play on my dads LG Oled seemed decent and he has all the apps in one place
Netflix, prime on demand etc
Goes to look at some freeview play boxes online and they offer Netflix
I hate having multiple devices to access content
Oh and they are £229 each
None of the Freeview boxes offer nowtv though
Roku at least offers nowtv/Amazon/netflix as well as all the catch-up apps. Just need a nice live TV front end (which hopefully emby will be)