[Technology] Sky TV

[Greenbag50]

Ok, got a sky plus box multi room sat dish on side of house.
When the weather is bad, WSW airflow, don’t get a signal and is pixilated on any Sky channel.
Today, no wind, but still no signal.
All of sudden, on sky home page, lo and behold pushing Sky glass….
It used to be Pride! Lol
This has to be sky pushing customers to higher glass prices and wanting to phase out of the dish.
Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Wozza]

They're pushing Glass/Internet-based TV to everyone.

So they can serve you personalised ads, presumably. And charge you a subscription to skip them.

 

[METALMICKY]

They're pushing Glass/Internet-based TV to everyone.

So they can serve you personalised ads, presumably. And charge you a subscription to skip them.

What's driving it is that the Sky's current contract with SES for satellite capacity extends to 2029. So despite Sky Q working well for a lot of us they are trying to run the service down hence you will now struggle to negotiate a good deal unless you move to Stream or Sky Glass.

 

[Greenbag50]

It’s the intonation they are deliberately degrading the dish signal (not proven, allegedly) to push you into getting Glass that I don’t like

 

[Superphil]

It’s the intonation they are deliberately degrading the dish signal (not proven, allegedly) to push you into getting Glass that I don’t like

You don’t have to buy Glass though do you? You can just go for the Sky Stream option through your existing telly.

 

[METALMICKY]

You don’t have to buy Glass though do you? You can just go for the Sky Stream option through your existing telly.

Yes, but it's still not good as Sky Q

 

[dazzer6666]

Yes, but it's still not good as Sky Q

….which in turn is miles behind Virgin

 

[Official Old Man]

If you've Sky + box it really is time to upgrade to Sky Q. Call them, I got a UHD 1tb box free.

 

[METALMICKY]

….which in turn is miles behind Virgin

But Virgin isn't available everywhere

 

[METALMICKY]

If you've Sky + box it really is time to upgrade to Sky Q. Call them, I got a UHD 1tb box free.

They gave it to you for free for a very simple season.........................it's not yours to keep! If you leave Sky you get sent a box a box to return it and if you don't you will be billed.

 

[dazzer6666]

But Virgin isn't available everywhere

Yep…..hence I was with Sky for 20 years.

 

[lawros left foot]

I decided to bin off Sky in April. Don’t watch a great deal of telly now, and what we do watch is mainly BBC or Netflix. Watch BBC on IPlayer so we can watch on demand and pause etc, which to be honest, was what we did on Sky. If I miss the football too much when the season starts, I may get Now TV sports package.

I’ve also cancelled all streaming services, except Netflix, but , if there’s anything we really want to watch ( Slow Horses,) we’ll just get them for a month and binge watch.

Sky wanted £93 for the last contract package we had, I did phone them and went through the usual negotiations but they would only come down to £72, so, decided to go without and see how we got on.
To be brutally honest, we haven’t missed it at all( so far)

 

[Official Old Man]

They gave it to you for free for a very simple season.........................it's not yours to keep! If you leave Sky you get sent a box a box to return it and if you don't you will be billed.

But what is the use of a SkyQ box if not to watch and record Sky?
If you cancel you have no way of recording anything on the SkyQ box so you'd need to buy another Freeview recorder anyway.
In the same way the Sky+ box doesn't record without payment.

 

[METALMICKY]

But what is the use of a SkyQ box if not to watch and record Sky?
If you cancel you have no way of recording anything on the SkyQ box so you'd need to buy another Freeview recorder anyway.
In the same way the Sky+ box doesn't record without payment.

Sorry I think maybe my comment was confusing. I was just highlighting the fact that you seemed to think Sky have given you the Sky Q box for free. They haven't and it remains their property unlike the the old Sky+ boxes.

Q box can be used to watch and record free-to-air channels even without a paid subscription. You can access free channels, pause, rewind, and record live TV, as well as utilize catch-up services like BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub. While you won't have access to premium Sky channels or on-demand content without a subscription, you can still enjoy a basic level of TV viewing and recording functionality. However, you still have to pay Sky £15 it's called Sky Essentials and that fee is effectively rental of the Q box.

 

[GJN1]

I decided to bin off Sky in April. Don’t watch a great deal of telly now, and what we do watch is mainly BBC or Netflix. Watch BBC on IPlayer so we can watch on demand and pause etc, which to be honest, was what we did on Sky. If I miss the football too much when the season starts, I may get Now TV sports package.

I’ve also cancelled all streaming services, except Netflix, but , if there’s anything we really want to watch ( Slow Horses,) we’ll just get them for a month and binge watch.

Sky wanted £93 for the last contract package we had, I did phone them and went through the usual negotiations but they would only come down to £72, so, decided to go without and see how we got on.
To be brutally honest, we haven’t missed it at all( so far)

Very tempted to do the same. Moving house soon which may be the ideal time to do it.

 

[Tony Le Mesmer]

What's driving it is that the Sky's current contract with SES for satellite capacity extends to 2029. So despite Sky Q working well for a lot of us they are trying to run the service down hence you will now struggle to negotiate a good deal unless you move to Stream or Sky Glass.

This is what I'm finding. Said, I'm leaving a few weeks ago and they are not trying to persuade me to stay - like they used to as a customer for xx yrs.

No call out of the blue from the customer retention team either....

 

[Official Old Man]

Q box can be used to watch and record free-to-air channels even without a paid subscription. You can access free channels, pause, rewind, and record live TV, as well as utilize catch-up services like BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub. While you won't have access to premium Sky channels or on-demand content without a subscription, you can still enjoy a basic level of TV viewing and recording functionality. However, you still have to pay Sky £15 it's called Sky Essentials and that fee is effectively rental of the Q box.

£15 is a paid subscription surely. That's £180 a year and you can buy a decent freeview recorder for that. I have two old Sky+ boxes that are of no use to me, in fact the wife may have thrown them out.
BUT and this is a big BUT
With Sky+ multi I had two boxes, paying £15 for the second box 'for the bedroom'. Truth is it was in my daughters house 5 miles away, just don't plug it into the net I said.
SkyQ second box runs off the house internet and has to be on the same network to function. Bummer but my daughter moved to a flat with no dish anyway.

 

[trueblue]

Anyone got Sky Stream? Interested in the catch-up aspect. Our Sky Q contract is up for renewal. I know they're going to push Sky Stream but the recordable box is a dealbreaker, unless their cloud service offers a lot more than can already be obtained via other catch-up services. I can get those anyway through my TV and existing BT fibre broadband without needing to be signed up long term.

So, are things like, for instance, the half hour Premier League highlights of matches available later via Sky Stream without recording? I suspect not but would be handy to know.

Unfortunately, our location means we can't get a Freeview signal unless we slap an aerial on the front of the house.

 

[nail-Z]

Anyone got Sky Stream? Interested in the catch-up aspect. Our Sky Q contract is up for renewal. I know they're going to push Sky Stream but the recordable box is a dealbreaker, unless their cloud service offers a lot more than can already be obtained via other catch-up services. I can get those anyway through my TV and existing BT fibre broadband without needing to be signed up long term.

So, are things like, for instance, the half hour Premier League highlights of matches available later via Sky Stream without recording? I suspect not but would be handy to know.

Unfortunately, our location means we can't get a Freeview signal unless we slap an aerial on the front of the house.

There’s no such thing as recording on Sky glass/stream. It’s all playlists. Where you would normally record it just adds that series to your playlists to find as and when you need it, and then streams on demand.

It’s good in that all apps are integrated - you can ‘resume’ something from Netflix on the sky home page for example. And obviously there’s no issues with running out of storage because you store nothing. My wife hated it but has grown to love it - all the while the internets behaving. You need bullet proof broadband to even consider it.

 

[trueblue]

There’s no such thing as recording on Sky glass/stream. It’s all playlists. Where you would normally record it just adds that series to your playlists to find as and when you need it, and then streams on demand.

It’s good in that all apps are integrated - you can ‘resume’ something from Netflix on the sky home page for example. And obviously there’s no issues with running out of storage because you store nothing. My wife hated it but has grown to love it - all the while the internets behaving. You need bullet proof broadband to even consider it.

Thanks, Bullet proof broadband isn't a problem - sorted on that score. It's whether the playlists can access are not ordinarily on catchup, such as entire football matches or the half hour Premier League highlights which don't seem to be available anywhere online unless you record them.

Having read a few articles now I can see that Sky Stream relies on catch-up (e.g. iPlayer, ITVX, 4) when it's able to. I'd find that annoying I think for things like films, which generally only stay on cacti up services for about a month. They live happily on my box more or less forever, so I can think 'must get round to watching that' for years at a time

Ok, so I could get over that. But it would be seriously annoying not to be able to access football properly at a later date. Looks like Sky and Virgin are both going down this route but it has some disadvantages compared to recording locally.