Sky Stream has arrived in Ireland

Eir TV on the Apple TV 4K box is the best of the streaming services. Eir is the only service that has unrestricted recording for BBC and other UK channels. Proper recording of BBC is vital, because BBC dont licence iPlayer outside UK. Other channels generally allow use of their catch-up players on the streaming pucks. RTE don't allow any of the streaming services to do recording, forcing viewers to use their iPlayer, which isn't licensed to keep recordings of all programmes.

Recording will never again be as straightforward or universal as on the legacy hard-disk boxes, but most users prefer the convenience of the streaming services, because traditional TV co-exists as another app on the desktop, alongside Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and the channel players. The TV providers are rapidly retiring the legacy hard-disk boxes because they have better control of advertising on streaming, and because they need to move to fibre and shutdown legacy copper cable (VM) and Satellite (Sky, & Freesat).

Sky "Catchup" is not remotely equivalent to BBC iPlayer. If you live in UK, you can download the BBC iPlayer app for a wide variety of hardware platforms, including Apple TV, Android/Chromecast, IOS, Freesat boxes, Sky Glass/Stream and most Smart TVs. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/supported-devices

i-Player is a fully functional app that keeps track of your favourite programmes, and which episodes you have watched, so you can seamlessly switch from one platform to another and pick up watching where you left off - just like Netflix, Amazon Prime, All4 etc. RTE Player is a poor imitation, but it works reasonably well for locally produced content in Ireland.

If you live in Ireland, BBC iPlayer is not available from the key App stores. It also requires UK householder credentials to register, and the streams are geo-blocked from Irish IP addresses. I really do not see how you can claim that BBC iPlayer is "licenced" for use in Ireland, given these restrictions? Whatever licencing Sky have for putting BBC content on their catch-up is nothing equivalent to the rich experience from BBC iPlayer working across different platforms. All4 have their App working in Ireland across multiple platforms, but BBC probably don't want to licence iPlayer here because it is paid for by UK TV licence holders (no advertising), and they would object to subsidising it's use outside of UK? The Sky catchup for BBC is also extremely patchy (you have admitted this), and it is also very unlikely that the BBC would want their iPlayer brand associated with such a poor service.

The lack of availability of BBC iPlayer in Ireland means that users require a robust alternative solution for recording BBC channels. This was traditionally available on the legacy hard-drive boxes from the main providers, but these are all being retired. There are huge problems with the recording features on most of the new streaming platforms, and most users don't realize this until they have signed a 12 month contract. Most friends that I know who have opted for streaming services such as Sky Glass/Stream have found this to be the biggest problem with the services. I believe we have a duty to make people aware of this limitation, and not to delude them that services here are equivalent to the UK?

We got stream about 3 months having never had any tv subscription. Never used recording or iplayer etc so the lack of it doesn’t bother me.

The live sport buffers a bit and the Internet dropped off last week forcing me to go to the office for a day. Other than that, it’s great.

Is there anyway to try out Sky Stream while keeping Sky Q?

Why are pucks such a nightmare to set up ? After getting a 4th one for house and every one has had a different issue when setting up and has taken multiple attempts . This one issue is won't connect to wi fi or router with ethernet cable . They work great when set up but always a glitch during the set up 🤬

Issues with Stream and Glass today. Mine needed a full restore, had to reconnect to wifi, pair remote control and reactivate the puck via the sky website.

Is Sky Stream getting more and more buggy? I've had more 'waiting for your programme to load' delays over recent weeks, sometimes having to reboot the puck. On Friday lunchtime, I couldn't get anything to play, and had to switch to my phone instead.

There's one specific bug that I'm fairly sure wasn't there originally. If you use 'watch from start' to jump back in time, and then the programme that you're watching finishes up for the live broadcast, you can use fast-forward and rewind as normal, but if you give a voice command for 'forward 20 minutes' for example, it just screws up, and switches back to the live broadcast, which is a different show by then.

And then there's some sh1tty content management practices going on, like this;

Wouldn't really encourage me to renew for another twelve months…

I had no problems myself with Sky Stream apart from that widespread issue recently that required a reset of the box.

Its been fine for us recently. A few small hiccups.

No major glitches. We have had Eir TV and Vodafone TV before this and sky stream is streets ahead of anything else in our experience

Unlike yourself I had decided to cancel and made that clear from the outset. Nonetheless the agent held me for 35 minutes, putting me on hold, speaking to a supervisor and coming back with various offers to stay. The final offer before he proceeded with the cancellation was 12 months TV and 12 months ad skipping at half price. I didn't have broadband or any extra channels so it would have been a good deal. Maybe take the approach of cancelling from the start and see what happens? You can always change your mind before the 31 days notice expires.

Is there a general problem with Sky Stream today? Two pucks not working here. I tried a factory reset on one, which worked for five minutes and gave up.

I can't login to my Sky account on their website.

Nope not true, at least in my case. Rang up asked cost as coming out of contract, started at €95 came down to €80..told them I was leaving and that was it no more offers so feck em. They don't do the offers like they used too when a customer leaving. Might go back next year, well see 😉