Question Sky Q - what's the verdict?

Markee

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Hi all,

I currently have Sky HD and am looking for an upgrade to Sky Q.

I heard there were lots of teething troubles when it first came out.

How are things now? Have the issues been sorted? What issues are still at large?

Thanks in advance for feedback.
 
Hi. I've had it for almost a year and never had any problem with it.
 
Like any new technology their will always be teething problems.But sky Q is the most advanced technology for pay TV services in the UK and it's getting better all the time...if you do go down the Q route then for optimum performance I would recommend a wired connection too get the best out of the service along with a decent broadband provider that can handle decent speeds.
 
Had almost no issues with mine. Mini box has lost connection once (after a power cut), main box frozen once only too.

Extremely happy with with it. Mini boxes are a hugely appealing for us and work brilliantly. Not tried to rectify yet as not much need, but I have BT Sports and you cannot watch the channels (or recordings) on the mini. Think this can be sorted however. One Mini box is two stories up and works perfectly fine with no boosting or anything like that.

The software has some user interactions that I just don't like and the remote is not as intuitive as the old one when using in the dark.

Deleting stuff has too many steps to do so.

No one button press to get you to the program guide

The onscreen banner is a pain. One button to bring up, but another button to make it disappear.

No start time option to watch a recording at a certain time.


There's quite a few things like this that annoy, but the actual running of the system is fine, overall I love it.
 
On balance, personally I find it an improvement over Sky HD. Some of the HD functionality is missing, but you get other toys to play with instead.

Took a bit of getting used to the new screens, menus and navigation and did considering reverting to Sky HD during the first couple of weeks, but I wouldn't go back now. Being able to record up to 6 programmes at the same time saves a lot planner juggling.

I initially liked the new touch remote, but now use the regular remote as it's easier to operate by touch.

The Sky Mini Boxes and the ability to stream or download(*) recorded programs to your smartphone / tablet is very nice as it all syncs back to the main box.

(*) especially on a long train journey as you don't need to worry about losing your data connection or using all your data allowance.

The on demand services are good, but I do have the Sky Q Router with 40MB Sky Fibre Broadband so I'm not sure how seamlessly things would work with a different ISP.
 
Great when it works, but I still have to reboot boxes every few days and lose the planner on one or multiple boxes daily.

It's still not there yet.
 
Thanks for everyone's feedback. Sounds like it's still very much a work in progress...
 
Thanks for everyone's feedback. Sounds like it's still very much a work in progress...
Of course it's still a work in progress however my personal view is in our house it's generally been far more stable with the last few updates again personal opinion but I'd never go back to Sky+HD.
 
Sounds like it's still very much a work in progress...
I can't work out how the above posts lead you to that statement!
 
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I've had Q for 12 months now and would not go back. I pay £56 for the main pack, sports and movies with one mini box. At the beginning I had problems with the sat box but that hasn't happened much recently. I still have trouble reliably streaming tv to either of my iPads. Before I had SKY HD with sports but not movies and had a 1/3 discount paying around £45 (iirc!?). For about £10pm more I have a 2TB box vs 500MB, all the movie channels, can record 6 channels and watch a 7th, can watch tv in two rooms, (great when the missus watches 'Love Island' or 'The Voice'), voice search.

One of the biggest improvements for me is the speed of menus. I still have my SKY hD box and going back to it is a chore. If you can get a good deal its a no brainer.
 
There's a lot more functionality coming in the future too... Much of which simply wouldn't be possible on the Sky+HD boxes...
 
I can't work out how the above posts lead you to that statement!

Suggest you maybe go back and read the above posts again!

Disclaimer: This is all very subjective, one persons "brilliant" could be another persons "PITA".

Like any product launch, the early adopter end user is often used as a beta tester, I don't really see any difference with the Q.

There are lots of positive comments too.
 
Had Q over a year without too many issue. Used to have problems with recovery from Standby but that was sorted with an update some time ago.
My parents still have Sky HD in and to be honest when I use the old HD boxes now it's like going back two decades.
Q is more complex but is a dream to use when you get used to it. And that's before we consider being able to record 6 channels, UHD, Dolby Atmos and the Minis.

I couldn't go back to SkyHD.

Lee
 
Apart from the very occasional need to perform a reboot I find Sky Q excellent and streets ahead of Sky HD which, as logiclee said in the previous post, is like going back in time.

Martin.
 
I would agree with those comments , when I use Sky+HD at family members houses it really does seem dated that said we also have Youview and that's seems the same in comparison to our Sky Q.
 
I quite like my Mums BT box which is YouView. The channel logos are nice though which Sky Q has.

As most here, no way could I go back to Sky HD and Freeview just doesn't cut it for my viewing.
 
I'm scheduled to have Sky Q installed on Wednesday but i've just been reading thread after thread around on the internet about poor picture quality compared with Sky+ HD...

Is this still the case or has it been 'fixed'?

I appreciate that not everyone will have felt that the PQ degraded when moving from Sky+ HD to Sky Q and I don't want to spark any arguments (but it's a forum of opinions so you do the maths) however i would appreciate any accounts of people's personal experiences before i get on the blower and cancel it! :D
 
On my TV the PQ mostly looks the same. Can't vouch for how other people's TV's handle Sky Q.

Thing to remember is that Sky Q gives you the option of 1080p output (as well as 2160p if you have Sky Q 2TB / Silver) rather than just 1080i.

With 1080p (or indeed 2160p) selected, then the Sky Q box will be handling the de-interlacing of the picture rather than your TV (Sky currently broadcast SD and HD content interlaced), so you are likely to see different de-interlacing artefacts. Such differences are likely to be more obvious on low bit-rate or SD programming.
 
but i've just been reading thread after thread around on the internet about poor picture quality compared with Sky+ HD.
Then as you have undoubtedly read, some people seem to think the the Q picture is 'softer' when compared with Sky HD. Others don't. Could be de-interlacing, could be subjective, who knows? But it seems that 'it depends'.:laugh:
 
I have to confess i will probably be none the wiser - currently i have a 26inch Samsung HD ready (!) hooked up to Sky HD as a temporary measure (a fortnight ago we were still on SD sky up until our old pana 28inch CRT tv started to burn out).

The TV we will end up getting in the next month or so is the Panasonic 40inch EX700 but given the fact that i will never have seen this TV hooked up to Sky HD possibly means i won't be that involved with how good or bad the PQ is as i will have nothing to compare it to.

Worst case I can always play about with the settings until i get something I can live with. The 'main' TV is a panasonic plasma in my man cave but i only use that for gaming and the odd blu-ray, i'm not exactly a telly addict.

I'll report back in a month's time with my findings/verdict.
 
You could think about getting a Sky Q Mini for the plasma in your man cave; it connects wirelessly (can be wired using Ethernet) to the main Sky Q box. There is an additional setup cost and £10/month for the multi-room, but you can watch live/recorded stuff from your Sky Q box *cough* in peace *cough* ;)
 
Then as you have undoubtedly read, some people seem to think the the Q picture is 'softer' when compared with Sky HD. Others don't. Could be de-interlacing, could be subjective, who knows? But it seems that 'it depends'.[emoji23]
I thought the people saying that they thought the picture was softer were using 2160p. I am very skeptical that any difference exists between the digital signal sent by the Q or HD box when both are set to 1080i.

I personally use 2160p, can't be doing with changing the resolution for UHD shows
 
Ive just done the jump from HD to Q and liking it so far. the thing I notice is that sky doesnt push the live channels as much. Its more about box sets, films, sports highlights, mostly catch up

It all feels slick can cool, although im still getting used to the navigation

My missus is struggling to use it tho
 

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