Sky Stream has arrived in Ireland

Dingaan

Is anyone experiencing audio sync issues? I have a Sonos Beam connected via arc. It's very noticeable. Fire cube works perfectly for comparison.

lertsnim

Cant say I've noticed any issues with audio. I only use the television speakers.

ozmo

Considering sky stream - offer is 50 per month for combined [TV+500Mb Internet] (+10 for Cinema maybe) - have a few questions - be grateful if anyone who has system can answer….

1. What is the hardware for SKY broadband like (not the tv puck) - Sales guy said would be using Virgin Media Fiber network. Want to know if I would need rewire the house as its currently VirginMedia via coax from road, through the walls to the VM box in center of house and from there to personal network switches. A link to a photo of the internet box they supply would be great to see if it has ethernet ports as we prefer ethernet for our devices when possible over wifi.
2. Can we 'record' and timeshift BBC now? Some posts here seem say different things. Not my thing - but a requirement from family here is to watch bbc strictly, jungle, celeberity ice etc. type shows etc. later that night after they air. Would that be possible with stream?
3. If we "Record" I understand its just a link to the on demand - can we fast forward etc easily - past adverts even?
4. After 12 months and we loose the paid for "Fast Forward adverts" feature - does this we have watch adds in recordings also then? We cannot manually skip forward past the adverts??

Thanks!

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122020759#Comment_122020759

1. They fit two wall mounted junction boxes for the fibre connection. For us, they ran a cable from the junction box outside, drilled a hole in the door frame, and mounted the boxes in the hall. I'll check if it has Ethernet port, but location of the router may be the bigger issue.

2 - No recording. Ability to Watch from Start or stream on demand is limited for much of BBC content.

3) Yes, you can skip ads. With RTE and C4, you can start fast forwarding and it stops automatically. With Sky and VM, you have to watch to see when the ads finish and press play.

4 - they will probably charge extra for the ability to skip ads after 12 months.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122020759#Comment_122020759

What is the hardware for SKY broadband like (not the tv puck) - Sales guy said would be using Virgin Media Fiber network. Want to know if I would need rewire the house as its currently VirginMedia via coax from road, through the walls to the VM box in center of house and from there to personal network switches. A link to a photo of the internet box they supply would be great to see if it has ethernet ports as we prefer ethernet for our devices when possible over wifi.

Sky broadband is usually SIRO. If your sales guy is right then no change is required. If SIRO is needed the install guy will take care of it. The modem/router is pretty good

Can we 'record' and timeshift BBC now? Some posts here seem say different things. Not my thing - but a requirement from family here is to watch bbc strictly, jungle, celeberity ice etc. type shows etc. later that night after they air. Would that be possible with stream?

If we "Record" I understand its just a link to the on demand - can we fast forward etc easily - past adverts even?

No, there is no recording facility on Sky Stream, see posts above for what recording has been replaced with

After 12 months and we loose the paid for "Fast Forward adverts" feature - does this we have watch adds in recordings also then? We cannot manually skip forward past the adverts??

Again, there is no recording facility. The "fast forward adverts" is for the on-demand/catchup content and costs €6 a month to skip the ads after 12 months

Red Silurian

We have Sky Q on the OH's account but decided to give stream a go in tandem because it looks like it might be the future. 2 weeks and we had enough. Glad we didn't get rid of Q. Maybe it suits some people but it was not for us

The interface was sluggish. Linking things to watch later were hit and miss. in fact the BBC content seemed to be severely lacking when searching the catch up stuff, beyond paradise for example wasn't there at all. RTE and TV3 stuff couldn't skip adds despite supposedly being a feature. No ITV for the Munster match last weekend or regional BBC's available

If this is the future of pay-tv I might not be partaking

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122020759#Comment_122020759

Eir is the only streaming provider that has unrestricted recording working properly for BBC and UK channels. Sky, Vodafone, and VM all have restrictions. BBC don't have ad's (except their own trailers), but you can fast-forward normally through the recordings on Eir. RTE don't allow any of the streaming providers to do cloud recording, forcing the use of RTE player or catch-up for playback. All the TV providers are trying to force customers away from their legacy hard-drive boxes to streaming, so you will likely have to move at some stage - but if you want proper recording, you might want to stick with your legacy box on coax cable or move to Eir. Sky are using the retirement of satellite and VM are using the retirement of copper coax cable to encourage customers to move to streaming.

JDxtra

RTE and Virgin crave the ad revenue on their players unfortantely.

RTE Player - "Playing ad 1 of 4". Skip forward 20 minutes. "Playing ad 1 of 6". Give me a break. Ahhhh.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022002#Comment_122022002

I don't need cloud recording, regular recording works fine. Perhaps a stream recorder box will be next in line, wasn't there sky before sky+ for example? Think stream+ might be the next step

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024218#Comment_122024218

In that case, you might be better staying with the legacy hard-drive box (Sky-Q) for now. At some stage, Sky will probably force you off it, as they prepare to shut down the satellites and move everything to streaming over Broadband. Although the satellites are not scheduled to be switched off for 5 years, Sky seem to be getting quite aggressive in pushing customers to Stream. They have also made their installation team redundant, anticipating no future need to install new dishes. They probably get much better revenue from the adverts on streaming, and can charge a premium to remove ads. This may cause them to accelerate the migration to streaming ahead of the satellite shut-down. The Sky Streaming boxes use cloud recording - they don't have disk drives in them. As you observed, they have horrendous recording issues, and they are also completely under-powered for the job. Eir uses the Apple TV 4K which is a much better box, but even Eir is restricted by RTE's policy of not allowing cloud recording.

icdg

They haven’t pushed any existing customers to Stream and have done nothing to do so.

Stream has been primarily aimed at new customers.

ozmo

If we are pushed to this it might be time to bring back whatever the modern digital equivalent of vhs tape recorders are… They were perfectly legal to use. I used to have an Aldi yoke that would change the UPC box channel at the correct time (using an infra red led) and record tv - before we got horizon etc.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024475#Comment_122024475

They are completely legal, as long as the recorded material is for personal use only you will not be in trouble for using one. However I can't seem to find one no matter how hard I look. Let me know if you find one

Nigzcurran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122027214#Comment_122027214

You can record any channel you want on a fta box

maik3n

Dare I say, we could resurrect our old VHS or DVD recorders?

Mind you, you might have to purchase an HDMI to scart/composite adapter.

Coming back to Sky Stream itself. Can you get a sky stream box alongside SKY Q or are you only allowed to run the one system in your premises?

Also, does the SKY stream box have any geo-tag/geo-location security measures akin to the phoneline connection on boxes of yesteryear?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024218#Comment_122024218

I suspect they'll go the other direction, of getting access to on demand services sorted. Who needs recording?

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122028464#Comment_122028464

We had stream and q in the one household, we tried it under one account and had the q under another

Not sure about the security measures, are you suggesting there's a potential to bring your q to your holiday home?

maik3n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122028603#Comment_122028603

Thanks for the feedback. Do you mean you had two separate names/addresses on paper for SKY Q and stream respectively?
I have no doubt that the boxes will work in the 1 premises, from a practical standpoint.
I'm just thinking of the paperwork issue and if you need to/can work around it.

In terms of security measures, Yes, I would be interested in possibly bringing a sky stream box to a holiday home and still use it as normal or is there some kind of geo-tag/lock that restricts it to your billing address?

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122029481#Comment_122029481

Thanks for the feedback. Do you mean you had two separate names/addresses on paper for SKY Q and stream respectively?
I have no doubt that the boxes will work in the 1 premises, from a practical standpoint.
I'm just thinking of the paperwork issue and if you need to/can work around it.

No the 2 names were in the same address, we had 2 separate account numbers

In terms of security measures, Yes, I would be interested in possibly bringing a sky stream box to a holiday home and still use it as normal or is there some kind of geo-tag/lock that restricts it to your billing address?

In theory it should work as stream works using any broadband providers connection (you don't need to be with sky broadband to use sky stream, you can be with Vodafone, Eir, Pure or maybe even one of the mobile broadband crowds) and I didn't notice anything specific about geo-location in the menu or the settings. However I would be very slow to give a definite answer as the only real way of knowing is to try it and see does it work

A little off topic, so apologies in advance, but a cheaper option might be to buy an old games console second hand and use Sky Go on that. Does Sky Go work with Apple TV also?

IrishHomer

Yes Sky go works excellent on Apple TV boxes

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122029481#Comment_122029481

I've plugged mine in at another address and it worked without problems. In theory it should work anywhere within the EU as it is a paid streaming subscription.

ozmo

A number of questions asked here and a few others answered in this review- like when Fast Forward will work, when recording wont (we have extra bbc restrictions over their examples). Pretty much was answered above - but good to have it in one page…

https://www.gbnews.com/tech/sky-stream-tv-price-uk-release-things-sky-didnt-tell-you

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122029807#Comment_122029807

Considering this, is it allowable for Virgin Media/Vodafone to restrict their streaming subscription services to their own router? Like should you be able to watch them anywhere in the EU?

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122029807#Comment_122029807

Nope. Brought mine to Centre Parcs, blocked and wouldn't work.

icdg

Just a note about Center Parcs you will (for whatever reason) be allocated a UK IP address when logged on to their guest WiFi and that will affect what you can access. Yes a little bit of Brexit in Longford!!!!

It’s a good question, but I suspect the Portability Regulation is satisfied if you can access the out of home service (Virgin TV Anywhere or the Vodafone equivalent) on the same basis as you can if you were at an ROI address other than your own.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030632#Comment_122030632

That's an interesting fact about centreparks. I wonder would iPlayer work there as a result

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030704#Comment_122030704

Ah ok thank you re Centre Parks.

Luckily bough the fire stick which worked :)

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030704#Comment_122030704

It does, as it happens. It’s an odd set up.
But we’re gone way off topic now.

IrishHomer

I just read Sky are upgrading things soon:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2024/04/18/sky-unveils-huge-range-of-tv-updates-coming-to-entertainment-os/

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122036213#Comment_122036213

Personalising is a good idea. I wish there was a way to give a thumbs down to the shows or people that I can't abide, so they would stop coming up in the recommendations.