*** Sky Q Thread ***
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Only the main Q box has a hard drive. Mini boxes are just slave devices.
2Tb main boxes are hard to come by now as they haven’t been manufactured for several years but you can try to request one (for additional charge).
Just pick up used ones, unless the price is the same to upgrade.
You can no longer pair Sky+ HD boxes to Sky viewing cards so if a box dies you have no choice but to quit or move to Sky Q or Stream.
Soldato
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Well, the Sky Q was fitted. My word is a huge pile of **** isn't it?
From what I hear Sky Glass is awful and Sky Stream's hardware is barely fit for purpose and you can't just get Sky Stream as an app for other devices.
Are there actually any viable options from Sky these days?
From what I hear Sky Glass is awful and Sky Stream's hardware is barely fit for purpose and you can't just get Sky Stream as an app for other devices.
Are there actually any viable options from Sky these days?
Well Sky Q is nearly 10 years old now, which is ancient in TV technology terms...
Glass and Stream are cheap and nasty but sold at a premium price so best avoided.
If you just want to stream some Sky content then use the NOW TV app on a decent streaming device. It works fine. You'll even get UHD, HDR and Atmos out of it with the Ultra Boost susbcription. That's what we've been using since ditching Q and then Stream nearly 18 months ago. Wouldn't go back to Sky now, even though they keep ringing every few months with a new 'amazing' offer.
Soldato
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Yeah that would've been my choice but this is for my parents.
Still Now TV isn't cheap from what I've seen.
Sky Q's perfect for parents. It's simple and works well.
NOW can be very cheap. I pay £3.99pm for Entertainment plus £4pm for Ultra Boost on a 6 month contract. Even then I barely watch it so won't bother renewing. Cinema can be got for £4pm and Sports for about £20pm on 6 month contracts.
Soldato
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Those are not the prices I see for Now TV...
They don't advertise them that cheap. You need to pay full price for a month then cancel. You'll immediately get an offer to stay and will keep getting better offers emailed to you.
You never need to speak to a human being in a call centre either - NOW can be managed entirely online.
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We currently have pretty much everything with Sky. Internet, Sports, TNT, Netflix, HD, UltraHD and Multiroom. Despite sending us an email when our contract was ending saying we don't need to renew with a new contract they'll still give us a low price they upped it to £175 (internet is £37 a month).
Now we've just had City fibre do all of our street apart from mine and my neighbours house. The plan was to wait until we get that sorted as we only have 80/20 then start moving to streaming. I'm seriously considering mugging it all off now though, will our internet cope with a full streaming setup? I'm conscious of PC and Xbox game updates and my Son's and Stepson's usage also causing issues. Also, i have a nice LG Oled so want to make sure we take advantage of that with 4k and HDR.
I have a 4k Firestick already which I could use for Now TV but would need to buy another one for upstairs which would be 40 quid. So, new subs required for Netflix Premium which is £19 and £30 for TNT HD. In total, roughly £77 for those Entertainment + Ultra Boost and Sky Sports. Add our internet on and it's down to £104 instead of £175. Quite a saving if doable on my internet.
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I signed up to NowTV on a Black Friday deal last year after having cancelled Sky TV at the start of the year. It was a half price 6 month term for Entertainment and Movies plus the HD/ad free boost.
I cancelled it in the last month and was offered half price on the Ent and Movie element for another 6 months but missed tapped the screen, so didn't get the movies but didn't worry about it. My son wanted to watch some films that were on Movies about 6 weeks ago, so I just paid the full £9.99 for the sake of a month but offered 6 months for £3.99 as soon as I cancelled it again.
Very happy with the price, image quality and two devices at a time, as it is mostly my son and myself watching it, with my wife and daughter occasionally watching the odd thing. Amazing how little the TV sits on showing mindless pap after we dumped Q
.
Soldato
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Oh, is NOW TV difficult to use then? I assumed it'd be similar to Netflix/Amazon/Disney.
Given the price of Sky Q though, even if it is simpler, it feels expensive for what you get.
That said, reliability is a plus (as guess who's first line technical support) so if NOW TV doesn't work well then it wouldn't be a good fit, and for that matter I'm not so sure I want it!
I just rang Sky and ended up cancelling, they offered me £142 per month without Sky Cinema. I shall see if my internet is up to the job and if the apps on my TV / firestick are reliable and can always renew if need be.
If you believe all of the reviews, maybe. Thing is, most people who leave reviews only tend to do so if they have negative things to say. Or it's not working because thy've got it at the other side of the house of where the ISP provided garbage router is sat. In a cupboard, facing the wrong way. Using the ISP DNS servers, which are usually quite poor.
I've not really had any issues with my Stream puck. I turn it on, I watch TV, I watch on-demand content, iPlayer UHD (Wimbledon looked spectacular) etc all without issue. I then turn it off. I have it hard wired to my home network.
Soldato
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You are in the minority Chris. I desperately wanted to like that, I tried really hard to convince myself it was good. Sadly NowTV on an Apple TV device is a far better experience for me.
Same here. I still find Sky Q a slick experience and everything else seems slow and clunky. I also had to swap boxes recently with a faulty hard drive but must have had it 10 years ÷.
Im also on Sky essentials so only paying £20 including a mini box which im happy with
I really like it too, I'm not sure how I'm going to get on replacing it with the streaming services but saving £70 a month is pretty significant.
They tried to offer me that and glass last month when I renewed. Said I want local recordings I can store and watch. A relative has Stream I while it work fine, I could not handle being at the mercy of on demand and catchup services.