Firestick image quality vs Sky Q

kernow3011

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Hi, a question from a newbie here so apologies for any silly questions.

I've been a Sky q user for 3 years and only decided to leave last month as the price became silly, and decided to try a firestick.

I first bought a Lite model and whilst it worked fine I was very disappointed with the image quality so took it back and bought the 4k Max hd.

Its now all set up and Apps added, including now tv which is of course pretty much Sky anyway, but I am still incredibly disappointed with the image quality.

Some shows look ok, but in the majority of case in comparison to the picture I used to get from Sky hd it is very flat and lifeless.

I still have the Sky q box as not yet sent it back so can access freeview programmes, so I did a like for like comparison against a mainstream bbc show, which was East enders.

On the sky stream the colours were bright and punchy, the detail was immense, you could see individual strands of hair on a persons head but when switching to the same programme through the firestick it was just, well, flat and lifeless. No punch, no brightness, and nowhere near as sharp. And of course all of these tests were done on same tv, at same time, so was a true like for like comparison.

I've seen a few youtube clips about changing some of the settings and tried those but nothing made much change at all.

I'm tempted to just pack it up and take this back but reaching out just in case someone can assist, but to date I'm less than impressed when compared to sky q - am I just expecting too much?

I had read online that a good stream hd programme through a Fire stick should be BETTER than sky, but I am finding totally the opposite. If sky is 10/10 I would rate the fire stick as about 6 - help please??
 
I would not rate bbc/now tv as quality far from it AppleTV+ Disney Amazon all produce excellent content. Move from sky q many years ago , mainly
Because bad audio and lack of atmos . Bbc/now should be good as long as the Wi-Fi/internet is good.
 
Hi thanks for your reply.
I only mentioned BBC as it was the one easy source for me to do a like for like comparison with, but I also tried HBO through Now TV and some through amazon prime and again the firestick image was always just flat.
No buffering or pixelating, and the wifi stream is more than enough so I dont think its that, it play absolutely fine, just a flat lifeless picture and that my disappointment.
 
Have you paid for the Now Boost? If not you will only be getting 720p
 
Hi thanks for your reply.
I only mentioned BBC as it was the one easy source for me to do a like for like comparison with, but I also tried HBO through Now TV and some through amazon prime and again the firestick image was always just flat.
No buffering or pixelating, and the wifi stream is more than enough so I dont think its that, it play absolutely fine, just a flat lifeless picture and that my disappointment.
You need to make sure the picture settings are the same for both HDMI inputs (Sky box and Firestick) - it's possible they are different. Make sure the Firestick is correctly set up too - it has more video output options than any Sky box.
Sky Stream pucks currently offer the best stream quality for Sky programming (up to UHD with HLG HDR & Atmos) followed by Q boxes (which need a satellite dish obvs) then NOW TV (up to 1080P SDR with 5.1 audio)
NOW streams do tend to be more compressed overall but some content can look OK.
I personally now get all the stuff I used to watch on Sky via other methods - mainly direct subscriptions to Peacock USA and HBO Max with a VPN - and the quality is much better and at the correct frame rate.
I have a Firestick 4K Max and find the image quality to be excellent on both my Samsung and Panasonic TVs. It's bright and punchy with certainly no sign of any flatness.
 
I left sky q and got a fire cube 2nd gen. I'm hd only. I always found sky q to be overly sharp and after a few weeks got used to the cube pq. Disney + is my only sub at the moment and the pq is as good as I have ever seen. Not so for the terrestrial apps. They are poor to say the least. I loaded kodi and the iplayer add on and even though its only 720p it better than the native app by miles. There are no addons for itv etc. All4 has the best pq in my opinion and hoping itv x will be an improvement. Give it time you need to get used to the pq after sky.
 
I left sky q and got a fire cube 2nd gen. I'm hd only. I always found sky q to be overly sharp and after a few weeks got used to the cube pq. Disney + is my only sub at the moment and the pq is as good as I have ever seen. Not so for the terrestrial apps. They are poor to say the least. I loaded kodi and the iplayer add on and even though its only 720p it better than the native app by miles. There are no addons for itv etc. All4 has the best pq in my opinion and hoping itv x will be an improvement. Give it time you need to get used to the pq after sky.
The iPlayer app on the 2nd gen FireTV Cube will output 1080P and UHD with HDR (for some content). ITVX streams in 1080P as does All4.
 

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