Ditch Sky Q for Now TV...

[teeveedee]

Having suffered innumerable issues with Sky Q since getting it a few months ago, out of curiosity tried a quick test of the Now TV app on my Amazon 4K Firestick this morning. I signed up for the free 7 day trials of Entertainment and Movies with Boost to get 1080P & 5.1 sound and flicked through a few different shows and movies to compare with how they look on Sky Q. After less than half an hour I'm left thinking wow, this is what the Sky Q experience should be like.
For a 1080P image, upscaled to 2160P on my TV - it looks phenomenal. Comparing Joker for example to the UHD HDR version on Q, there's barely a difference. Granted I'm sure I'd notice it if my TV was a 65incher or above, but it's not. Game of Thrones looks pin sharp, with seemingly much less compression, particularly on dark scenes, than when I last watched a recording of it on Sky. Oh, and no sound drop outs of course!
Even the interface on the Now TV app was simple, slick and more responsive than Sky Q's shiny animated nonsensical UI.
If Sky allowed 4K HDR Atmos streaming on Now TV it would be an absolute no-brainer for me - Q would be binned in a heartbeat. (Or rather boxed up and sent back to Sky seeing as they own their cruddy hardware.)

 

[johnny777]

Just out of interest, what issues have you encountered? Q can be very unstable if there is any network latency. A big win is to hard wire your main box via Ethernet.......did mine via powerline after all sorts of issues. Rock solid afterwards.

 

[teeveedee]

Just out of interest, what issues have you encountered? Q can be very unstable if there is any network latency. A big win is to hard wire your main box via Ethernet.......did mine via powerline after all sorts of issues. Rock solid afterwards.

Noisy hard drive, noisy fan, sluggish UI, overly compressed HD picture quality, sluggish & repeatedly crashing and/or buffering apps, HDMI handshake issues, and the blasted audio drop-outs!
I already have both frequencies of WiFi turned off and the box hard-wired to my router. The broadband is not the problem, it's the box itself.
The only part of the Sky service that has worked well for me is the ability to swap the box via courier in less than 24 hours. Just a shame none of the replacements fix any of the problems.

 

[johnny777]

Noisy hard drive, noisy fan, sluggish UI, overly compressed HD picture quality, sluggish & repeatedly crashing and/or buffering apps, HDMI handshake issues, and the blasted audio drop-outs!
I already have both frequencies of WiFi turned off and the box hard-wired to my router. The broadband is not the problem, it's the box itself.
The only part of the Sky service that has worked well for me is the ability to swap the box via courier in less than 24 hours. Just a shame none of the replacements fix any of the problems.

Sorry to hear. Do you have a V3 box? I recently swapped my V1 due to a HDD issue and was sent a V3........fortunate as I wanted to swap over for HDR. Very noisy fans when you first power up but other than that, it’s spot on. Would notice any issues as have a 65” Panny OLED. Only very minor issue is that I’ve noticed the dreaded audio dropout issue, but only a couple of times. Am monitoring this.

 

[teeveedee]

Yep, I've had V2's and V3 boxes - all of them with issues, the audio drop-outs being the most unforgivable.
Yes, the fan goes mad on first power-up but what I don't understand is why it still needs to run when the box is in standby, even if it is slower and quieter - it's still noticeable in a quiet room. Maddening.

 

[cuke2u]

I feel so lucky then that I've never had those issues with my SkyQ boxes and I'd state the V3 I have is just about perfect.. It is known though the the pq of the apps are a tad lower than the ones within a smart tv or firestick. However I still find the UHD F1 broadcasts sublime. I would not think the content of now tv anywhere near as broad as Sky's though..

 

[teeveedee]

Not being a sports fan, I've never subscribed to any of Sky's Sports channels but I can see the appeal if you are a fan. I think my tastes and viewing habits have outgrown Sky's offering. Scanning through Now TV - every drama, documentary and movie I've watched in the past few months on Sky Q is available on there. I use the Firestick much more often now too to watch Netflix, Prime, Apple TV and Disney+ in 4K Dolby Vision, and the picture quality is just so much better than Sky.
I could easily cope with a 1080P 5.1 stream for the odd Sky Atlantic drama every now and again and live without the audio drop-outs and ability to record the hundreds of channels I never watch that I currently pay £30 odd quid a month for.

 

[Melchizedek]

Interesting you say that you can get 1080p on nowtv boost, didn't think you could,my Samsung smart tv only outputs 780p (7831) via the app

 

[teeveedee]

7831 is the streaming code for 1080P on NowTV. That's what I get on both my Samsung TV and Amazon Firestick app with Boost.

 

[Melchizedek]

7831 is the streaming code for 1080P on NowTV. That's what I get on both my Samsung TV and Amazon Firestick app with Boost.

That’s what comes up when I press the ok button on my remote control, I am under the impression that‘s the streaming speed

 

[teeveedee]

7831 is not the resolution, it's some sort of code which NowTV use to denote the streaming quality. Your Samsung TV would not output 780P as that is not a standard format, 720P is, which is what NowTV used to max out as before Boost was introduced.
7831 denotes a 1080P stream.

 

[Melchizedek]

7831 is not the resolution, it's some sort of code which NowTV use to denote the streaming quality. Your Samsung TV would not output 780P as that is not a standard format, 720P is, which is what NowTV used to max out as before Boost was introduced.
7831 denotes a 1080P stream.

Thanks for the reply, i wasn't aware of that

 

[Not a sky fan]

And recording function ?

must say the idea of a sky app for smart TVs seem a far better concept than what’s envisaged by Q, and would in theory provide a fix for pretty much all Qs issues of audio and picture quality ,as it relies on the tv hardware, along with distribution problems and the stupid restrictions on the number of q boxes per address.

But then sky will no doubt charge per tv? And if not now they will at a later date. It’s sky after all

and it would need to cater for much higher bit rates in the pursuit of uhd 60 FPS nirvana if it’s to progress...?

 

[Faust]

Noisy hard drive, noisy fan, sluggish UI, overly compressed HD picture quality, sluggish & repeatedly crashing and/or buffering apps, HDMI handshake issues, and the blasted audio drop-outs!
I already have both frequencies of WiFi turned off and the box hard-wired to my router. The broadband is not the problem, it's the box itself.
The only part of the Sky service that has worked well for me is the ability to swap the box via courier in less than 24 hours. Just a shame none of the replacements fix any of the problems.

I have to say I don't recognise any of those issues. For me SkyQ is an ultra reliable service.

 

[teeveedee]

I have to say I don't recognise any of those issues. For me SkyQ is an ultra reliable service.

It's always nice to hear of someone for whom Sky Q works correctly - it gives me a glimmer of hope! That's the most frustrating thing about it - the crazy levels of inconsistency of service for so many people. Can I ask if you have the latest HDR capable box and are you outputting Dolby Digital sound via HDMI/optical? It seems that people have fewer problems with the older hardware.

 

[cuke2u]

I have to say I don't recognise any of those issues. For me SkyQ is an ultra reliable service.

Me too, flawless...

 

[Faust]

It's always nice to hear of someone for whom Sky Q works correctly - it gives me a glimmer of hope! That's the most frustrating thing about it - the crazy levels of inconsistency of service for so many people. Can I ask if you have the latest HDR capable box and are you outputting Dolby Digital sound via HDMI/optical? It seems that people have fewer problems with the older hardware.

I use a Sonos Soundbar via optical set to DD, no audio issues whatsoever. I have a Gen 2 HDR cable box, again no issues. Network is rock solid.

 

[teeveedee]

I use a Sonos Soundbar via optical set to DD, no audio issues whatsoever. I have a Gen 2 HDR cable box, again no issues. Network is rock solid.

Good to know. It seems to be the V3 boxes that are worst affected. Mine was awful last night. Started watching a recording of an hour long show in HD and was getting drop-outs every minute or so, sometimes multiple times every few seconds. Made it unwatchable so I gave up after 20 minutes and watched it on iPlayer on my TV instead.
That shows an inability to complete even a very basic function of the box. It was doing nothing else at the time, it has WiFi switched off and is hard-wired to a rock solid 74Mbps fibre connection.

 

[Not a sky fan]

Me too, flawless...

except it simply isn’t though is it. Adjust the lip sync delay? Then tell me if it delays the audio.

or actually, advances the error still further.