*** Sky Q Thread ***

[DiscoFizz]

Nothing Sky does amazes me. I'm going to try out a Humax box and also a Freeview box in the next month or so and I'll just watch the F1 highlights next season. They're a complete ripoff for what they offer considering they used to apparently be market leaders. Unless they offer me a substantial discount I'll be rid of them when my contract ends in January.

100% agree. I'm getting rid of it at the end of my current contract. Already bought a Manhattan T3-R Freeview HD recorder which is a fantastic bit of kit - quieter and faster than the Q box, and the image quality on the HD channels is slightly better than the equivalents on Q.
We just don't watch enough Sky-only content any more to justify the cost. We don't have multiscreen, we don't need to record 6 things at once, we don't watch sports, we don't need any of the cruddy apps. Everyone in the family uses apps on 4K Firestick or the Apple TV 4K box now. Once the Sky contract is up we'll just switch to the occasional Now TV subscription for any Sky content.

 

[jpaul]

Once the Sky contract is up we'll just switch to the occasional Now TV subscription for any Sky content.

similarly ... once a year for the walking dead catchup,
but, if they repeated their ~£3/pm retention offer during covid last year, I might relapse.


olympics 4k - cross-posting, doesn't seem unlikely that eurosport did the same as nbc

in other news the 4k sky material maybe upscaled like NBC's

https://piunikaweb.com/2021/07/26/youtube-tv-olympics-4k-streaming-quality-issues-come-to-light/

An explanation for this could be that NBC is taking the Japanese 1080p HDR broadcast and upscaling to 4K. This technical casualty is likely an effect of Covid, although we can’t be too sure.

 

[Stu]

They will do. I cancelled last month as I wasnt getting a decent renewal deal. Suddenly they then offered me a much better deal so I renewed. But the had already posted the returns packaging for the Q and mini and the router.

When I moved home a few months ago they sent me the newer Q router as well as return packing for the old router. So they will definitely want it back.

I've spoken to Sky a few times while working out my options, and Virgin offered me a better deal. If Sky now come in with a wonder-deal now that I'm disconnected and Virgin is up and running, I'm not sure I'm inclined to go through the hassle of walking back the Virgin package (TV/BB/mobile SIM). Sky need to stop this crap of only offering a decent retention deal after you've got a new alternative service up and running.

 

[ChrisD.]

I've spoken to Sky a few times while working out my options, and Virgin offered me a better deal. If Sky now come in with a wonder-deal now that I'm disconnected and Virgin is up and running, I'm not sure I'm inclined to go through the hassle of walking back the Virgin package (TV/BB/mobile SIM). Sky need to stop this crap of only offering a decent retention deal after you've got a new alternative service up and running.

Virgin is another option available to me. Although I have no interest in their broadband as I have FTTP their TV service for new customers is competitive (and with a bundle I can use the BB as a backup in case my FTTP goes down). Then swing between the two taking new customer deals with cash back.

 

[5punk3monk3y]

similarly ... once a year for the walking dead catchup,

So that will be Disney + then (late August is the new series), Fox is no longer on Sky.

 

[Simmz]

Finally UHD HDR football. Looks much better!

 

[firstborn]

So just did the merry dance with Sky at end of contract and decided to cancel and give virgin a punt as on their cable BB. Anyways, Sky have emailed to say I need to return hardware or be billed for it. No problem with that, however they think I have a 1TB Q box as well as the 2TB box and mini. I don't have the 1TB box as the installer took it away with him after installing the 2TB. Anyone faced this before or am I going to be stitched up and forced to hand over £115 for a missing box?

 

[DiscoFizz]

So just did the merry dance with Sky at end of contract and decided to cancel and give virgin a punt as on their cable BB. Anyways, Sky have emailed to say I need to return hardware or be billed for it. No problem with that, however they think I have a 1TB Q box as well as the 2TB box and mini. I don't have the 1TB box as the installer took it away with him after installing the 2TB. Anyone faced this before or am I going to be stitched up and forced to hand over £115 for a missing box?

The installer clearly didn't log it on the system when he took the 1TB box away. Does it say on your account that you have 2 main boxes plus the mini, because technically that is impossible? Only one main box is permitted on any one account. You'll need to ring Sky and explain all this. Their returns process is shambolic anyway - many people get text messages after returning their equipment saying they are about to be billed £150 as a non-return fee, so keep your proof of postage or take a photo of the returns label so you have a record of the tracking number.

 

[steve5424]

WTF is the latest update all about?

The new layout on the recordings screens horrendous. Who the hell designed that mess and authorised it to be rolled out. I cant get my head around it.

 

[Basher]

WTF is the latest update all about?

The new layout on the recordings screens horrendous. Who the hell designed that mess and authorised it to be rolled out. I cant get my head around it.

Glad it's not just me! Really awkward to use now.

 

[steve5424]

Glad it's not just me! Really awkward to use now.

It's just bizarre. The way they've now set up the options such as delete for each episode is just terrible. I've ended up playing episodes I wanted to delete as it's not easy to see that after deleting it jumps to play on the next ep.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Mine hasn't updated yet, hope i can stop it if it's that messy.

 

[the-evaluator]

Sky do have a bit of a history of mind bloggling UI changes on Q boxes. This one is no exception.

 

[PlacidCasual]

Does SkyQ defrag the hard drive? We’ve had ours a few years and recently it’s become a bit buggy with pausing TV and playback of recordings. Can’t see anything in setup that would force it, if it exists.

 

[MissChief]

Does SkyQ defrag the hard drive? We’ve had ours a few years and recently it’s become a bit buggy with pausing TV and playback of recordings. Can’t see anything in setup that would force it, if it exists.

There's no defrag option as there was on Sky+. Might be worth emptying out the deleted items folder to free up some hard drive space.

 

[PlacidCasual]

@MissChief Thx for the feedback looks like a very heavy prune is about to happen.

 

[EddScott]

We had Sky Q re-installed yesterday and none of the On Demand and Catch Up works.

Been on to technical this morning and after lots of different changes it still won't work. Got an engineer coming Thursday.

Anyone had this issue?

 

[steve5424]

Is your broadband all working fine?

 

[DiscoFizz]

We had Sky Q re-installed yesterday and none of the On Demand and Catch Up works.

Been on to technical this morning and after lots of different changes it still won't work. Got an engineer coming Thursday.

Anyone had this issue?

This is a very well known issue that's been going on for months. Many people have had the same issue. Sky need to re-send the activation signal to your viewing card - it sometimes takes several attempts to get it working though. Keep hassling them and they should eventually fix it.
Yet more abysmal service from Sky.

 

[Yaayuh!]

This is a very well known issue that's been going on for months. Many people have had the same issue. Sky need to re-send the activation signal to your viewing card - it sometimes takes several attempts to get it working though. Keep hassling them and they should eventually fix it.
Yet more abysmal service from Sky.

When we got Sky Q, the installer stayed until it showed as he'd said it sometime has issues. Didn't take long and off he went, all fine.

Sounds like some installers are better than others.