Introduction
I moved into my home with my spouse and a 2 month previous child in 2016 and, on our first day in our new abode, the person from Sky got here and screwed a satellite tv for pc dish to the again wall and ran coaxial cables to numerous rooms in the home.
Though that was practically eight years in the past now, it nonetheless felt like a fairly outdated technique to get the visuals showing on our TVs.
Netflix was clearly already a factor again then, and streaming units like Hearth TV, Nvidiaâs Android TV Defend and the Apple TV all existed.
I had the web velocity to deal with a streaming-only service. Itâs not the 1Gig velocity Iâve bought these days, nevertheless it was a fibre connection (albeit fibre solely so far as the Openreach cupboard outdoors) that also gave me a dependable 60-65Mbps; so greater than able to dealing with a few 4K streams.
However again then it simply wasnât an choice. Sky did have its Now TV containers out within the wild, however that pick-and-mix method wasnât what I needed.
I needed the complete vary of sports activities, films and leisure channels years of Sky viewing had made me accustomed to. Principally, all of it, on a regular basis, which simply wasn’t on supply.
Nevertheless, with the highway paved by the launch of Sky Glass on the finish of 2021, Sky is now lastly providing a streaming-only service for purchasers; one which boasts conventional linear TV channels, but additionally gives multi-room entry and, crucially, permits customers to make use of their current televisions.
In actual fact, Sky Stream truly now takes satisfaction of place above Sky Q when looking for TV packages direct with the broadcaster.
Itâs clear Sky desires folks to ditch the dish (the 1,000 job cuts that simply occurred helps that idea) and go all in for a streaming setup.
So thatâs what I did, considerably reluctantly, again in November of final yr.
Learn on for my full assessment of dwelling in a Sky Stream family.
Setup and tools
I feel itâs greatest, earlier than we go any additional, to elucidate what I had earlier than and what I’ve now bought for my Sky setup.
Within the eight years we had Sky Q in the home we had the principle, 2TB, Q field in the lounge with further mini containers in the main bedroom and in my backyard workplace. We additionally had broadband by way of Sky too.
I stated that I âreluctantlyâ made the change to Sky Stream however I truly started the method just a few months prior after we swapped from Sky broadband to Virgin Media.
Sky depends on Openreach to get its Full Fibre (900Mbps) broadband to households and my road wasn’t due for the FTTP improve till 2025. So I jumped ship to Virgin’s Gig1 service.
I might additionally stopped counting on the Sky Q mesh system previously few years as I might began reviewing and dwelling with varied entire home Wi-Fi mesh setups reminiscent of Netgear’s Orbi and Amazon’s Eero.
However whereas my home Wi-Fi considerations had been now alleviated, the system was nonetheless working ‘high-quality’, our planner was full and, crucially – as I am an enormous sports activities fan – I had by no means, ever skilled lag, buffering or a drop-out when watching The Huge Sport.
I cherished the concept of Stream, however the thought of counting on an web connection for my reside sport terrified me; even with that web connection being as quick as is feasible within the UK, with a top-of-the-range mesh Wi-Fi system working the present.
However the guys at Sky talked me into it and my new tools landed on my doorstep, together with a field to ship again all my previous Sky {hardware}.
It is vital to return all of your previous Sky containers when making the soar; you simply lease this tools from Sky, you do not personal it and you’ll get charged for it in the event you do not ship it again.
It is not a problem although as Sky present all of the containers and pre-paid Royal Mail labels you may want and you do not even must go to the Submit Workplace, you may have all of it collected freed from cost.
You will not have the ability to ship again the dish although. Sky will recycle it in the event you do get it down and ship it again to them however I would not suggest making an attempt this and not using a professional. I’ve truly left my dish up as it might be helpful for Freesat providers sooner or later.
If you’re pondering of constructing the soar to Stream from Q, then you definitely get 30 days from the second you activate the primary Stream puck (or Glass TV) to resolve if it is for you, which is a lot lengthy sufficient to verify all of it works because it ought to in your family.
My Sky Stream system now includes of a 55-inch Glass TV for the bed room and pucks in the lounge, backyard workplace and one for my Sylvox Out of doors TV (the Sky Stream puck will not be stored outdoors, for apparent causes.)
It is vital to notice that each one the pucks are the identical and are all created equal. Not like Sky Q mini containers, that are inferior to the principle field, all of the pucks are able to 4K, Dolby Atmos and all the opposite bells and whistles that I am going to speak about extra in a bit.
When you have a combination and match Glass and puck setup like me, you need to arrange the Glass first, however in the event you’re puck solely it does not matter what puck or what room you select to activate your service on. The primary one simply will get the system up and working, it does not turn into a major machine.
When it comes to {hardware} and the design of Stream puck itâs not precisely a reinvention of the wheel in comparison with different streaming units; it appears to be like like a barely squashed Apple TV.
The excellent news is, in comparison with the older conventional Sky satellite tv for pc tools, it is a lot smaller, a lot simpler to put in and, crucially, a lot quieter. There is no whirring fan always inflicting a hum and hardly any warmth generated.
For my previous Sky Q major field, inside an AV cabinet, I had to make use of USB cooler followers to cease it overheating. There’s none of that wanted with Stream.
On the again youâll discover an enter for the ability lead, a HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet socket and an area for a coaxial aerial cable. The latter is redundant within the UK, there is not any plans at current to allow broadcast TV by way of the Sky Stream puck.
I will not go into an excessive amount of element on Sky Glass right here as this can be a assessment of Sky’s streaming system as an entire.
Sky tells us that youâll want 10Mbps at the least to make use of Stream, however 30Mbps is advisable if youâre taking a look at streaming in 4K. Ethernet is clearly extra dependable however is capped at 100Mbps, which is a lot however it’s possible you’ll discover your Wi-Fi is way quicker if the router on an entry level is close by.
When you’re able to go, simply plug in your first machine and observe the on-screen directions. The step-by-step UI will allow you to get the proper settings on your TV and also will pair your Sky distant through Bluetooth in order that it does not depend on line-of-sight IR.
Navigating the UI
When you’re all setup you may be introduced with the Sky Stream homepage and revised UI; Sky calls the brand new onscreen visuals ‘Leisure OS.’ Itâs mainly a large aggregation of all of the native and third-party content material on supply, very like youâd discover on a Hearth TV.
Up high, and sometimes introduced as a much bigger visible takeover, is the Prime Picks the place you may see sure films and reveals highlighted, together with high-profile sporting occasions which might be taking place reside.
Beneath that could be a rail of tabs you may entry to dig deeper – Playlist, TV Reveals, Motion pictures, Sport, Youngsters, Audio, Information and extra.
Playlist primarily replaces your planner and you may even have 5 totally different profiles arrange right here, in order totally different members of the family can have their very own areas.
It is simple so as to add stuff to the Playlist, with a purple plus button on the distant permitting you to ‘bookmark’ reveals and films from no matter display you’re on. The entire content material in your Playlist is introduced in chronological order, not the stuff most lately watched and no indication of something that you’re half-way by way of and so forth.
Iâve discovered that, in contrast to the trusty previous Planner, we donât actually use Playlist in any respect; it is a lot simpler to simply seek for reveals we need to watch – the voice search on Sky Stream is nice – after which use the Proceed Watching row, which seems a few rows beneath the Playlist.
Proceed Watching is not good although, it is hit or miss relying on what service you’re utilizing. Stuff from Sky direct just about at all times picks up from the place you left off, and Netflix and the BBC iPlayer content material is fairly dependable too.
However I’ve had it playback reveals from Disney+ a few episodes behind the place I left off on my iPad and Amazon Prime stuff is in all places.
It will possibly additionally turn into a whole mess fairly rapidly as there is not any approach of cleansing up what’s proven there – so even in the event you by chance begin streaming one thing for just a few seconds, it seems within the row.
Beneath the Playlist row is the TV information and reside TV – extra on that in a bit – after which beneath that there is curated content material reminiscent of Sky Cinema premiers, the weekly high 10, Sky Retailer content material, themed rows reminiscent of Oscar Season and extra.
Navigation is quick and easy, similar to a current Apple TV or an Amazon Hearth Stick and far, a lot slicker than utilizing the native apps on my ageing Sony Bravia.
Nevertheless, some components of the UI are simply plain daft. For instance, you get TV reveals and films promoted to you from providers that you do not even subscribe to.
Thereâs additionally not full HDMI-CEC, so that you canât use your TVs distant management to navigate it, as you may with the likes of Apple TV; however you need to use your Sky distant to show your TV on/off and regulate the amount.
On that, in the event you simply need to management your TVâs native quantity, you in all probability wonât have a difficulty. Nevertheless, throw a soundbar or AV system into the combo and also you would possibly run into hassle.
I discovered I had a HDMI handshake challenge with my Sonos Arc. An entire energy cycle of every little thing, mixed with turning HDMI management off, bought issues working as they need to however I am unsure the typical (non tech-nerd) consumer would work this out as rapidly.
Every thing on the Sky Stream puck is 1080p Full HD by default, you need to change to 2160p UHD in settings.
Additionally, in the event you do not use a puck usually and it is left powered off or on standby for a protracted whereas the puck will revert again to 1080p – presumably that is due to a scarcity of EDID messages between the puck and the TV, however it’s a bit annoying.
There’s additionally a UHD âsmart swap issueâ whereby the change to 4K is not mirrored within the channel numbers on the TV information. For instance, Sky Sports activities Foremost Occasion does not turn into the UHD model on 401 instantly – though it may be discovered within the 900s.
On my major puck, in use in my lounge, this swap took a few hours and has remained right ever since. Nevertheless, in my backyard workplace, the UHD model of Sky Sports activities Foremost Occasion has by no means hit 401… I presume due to that EDID challenge I discussed
In case you pause a present for a very long time, or simply depart the homescreen on with out navigating then a pleasant screensaver kicks in, promoting varied content material. Then, after one other interval of exercise, the field will go into standby; the settings for this may be modified within the menu down the underside.
In use
I’ve talked about the apps just a few occasions and, whereas Sky Stream hasn’t bought the identical quantity of providers as Google TV, Hearth TV or Apple TV, all the major gamers are current and proper.
Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds, ITV Hub, All4, YouTube, Discovery+, Peacock, Fiit, Paramount Plus, Spotify, Peloton and extra are all on supply.
There’s the rigmarole of signing into all of the related streaming providers for first time use and, annoyingly, sign-ins donât sync throughout units, so you need to check in to every little thing a number of occasions, relying on what number of pucks and Glass TVs that you simply go for. A minimum of the commonest e mail domains are preset for usernames, so it makes the method a bit faster and lots of apps use a fast QR code methodology too.
In the case of reside TV, and this was one in all my main worries being an enormous sports activities viewer, it isn’t truly reside in any respect.
Technically, no TV is reside as that will be not possible. Sky Q customers would have in all probability already observed that their 4K channels are a few seconds behind the HD ones. That is notably noticeable throughout massive soccer matches the place a cheer will be heard on the road a few second earlier than you see the purpose.
Nevertheless, that delay is 2-3 seconds at most… on Sky Stream I clocked a delay of round 33 seconds. That consequence was fairly constant throughout totally different channels, on totally different days. Iâm on 1Gig web remember, so it isn’t a velocity challenge; that is simply how lengthy it takes to buffer and current the stream.
When you get your head round this it is… high-quality. Positive, for World Cup video games I’d revert again to conventional BBC or ITV broadcasts when England are enjoying, however on the entire you just about overlook that half a minute(ish) delay even exists.
And you’ll browse reside TV similar to you would earlier than on Q, albeit with a a lot slicker wanting TV Information, and there is the added bonus of having the ability to restart just about an TV present that is being proven.
Sky’s native content material is fairly instantaneous for this, the likes of the BBC iPlayer and All4 typically have a delay of 15-20 minutes as soon as a reside broadcast has begun earlier than you may stream it from the beginning. This is not Sky’s doing, they depend on the app makers themselves and their particular streaming apps to current content material.
Plenty of the channel numbers are the identical as they had been on Sky Q nevertheless it’s value noting that you simply aren’t actually watching a broadcast, you are watching a stream. So, even on reside TV, you may get popped out to the likes of the iPlayer or ITVX to look at terrestrial TV.
Video and audio high quality
No matter you do watch, the Sky Stream pucks and the Glass TVs will stream within the highest attainable format, relying on what the app makers are providing up and what your TV can deal with.
The pucks themselves are all able to 4K (Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR10, HLG) and Dolby Atmos.
It actually is great high quality if you get a 4K stream singing and dancing in its very best quality and even the common Sky 4K and HD broadcasts are an enormous step up from what’s on supply with Q by way of a dish; though it is value mentioning that there is truly no Dolby Imaginative and prescient for Sky content material but, for that you will must stream from Netflix, Apple TV and the like.
Nevertheless, all of this excellent streaming high quality doesnât come and not using a few âquirksâ.
For instance, Iâve had points with the Apple TVâs app with regards to 4K and, taking a look at Sky’s boards, so have plenty of different folks too.
Typically it streams from Apple TV in HDR, Dolby Imaginative and prescient, and typically not. A reboot usually kinds it when itâs not enjoying ball, however then it goes again to ânormalâ 4K just a few days later.
I donât have this challenge with Netflix or Prime, so I presume itâs a bitrate / reminiscence challenge between the app and the Streamâs RAM.
There’s additionally a 4K Subject with the field going into standby when beginning stream from some apps. The menus and apps all seem high-quality however the second you push play the display goes clean with the TV saying there isn’t any enter detected.
This was a significant drawback for me when utilizing Sky Stream with my Philips Hue Sync Field, which technically helps Dolby Imaginative and prescient passthrough. I’ve since killed the Sync Field from my setup and had no 4K app crashes, however remember this challenge does exist with a spread of TVs too, so possibly examine what your TV is able to, by way of the most recent UHD requirements, earlier than shopping for.
One other bug I discovered is that after the field enters auto sleep, if you push the ability button you get the load up graphic however then simply does an infinite âPlease waitâ and you need to flip the puck on and off once more.
I discovered that turning off HDMI Management and In a single day Energy Saving settings sorted this.
Packages accessible
The Entire Home subscription (£12 month-to-month) technically covers as much as six Stream pucks and three Glass televisions however there is a presently a 4 field restrict and you will have to pay round £35 per field (though you by no means personal them). However it’s good you do not have to pay per display month-to-month.
What you’ll have to pay for, month-to-month, is the vary of channels and apps you need. Stuff like Sky Sports activities and Sky Cinema is an additional premium on high of the common Leisure package deal and, other than Netflix, you may nonetheless need to have separate agreements with the opposite premium streaming providers.
Packages vary massively relying on what you need, as was and nonetheless is the case with Sky Q and all Sky techniques that got here earlier than it.
These costs are always altering and Sky does an enormous vary of bundles that throw in stuff like broadband and cellular contracts into the combo so your greatest wager is to try the most recent offers right here.
Like Sky Q, you may pay additional for 4K and Dolby Atmos (£6 a month) and, this one is a bit cheeky I feel: it is also an additional £5 a month to get ad-skipping thrown in too.
On Netflix, it is simple sufficient to simply merge your current Netflix account to a Sky Leisure package deal, however if you need 4K on Netflix, you may need to pay the additional £8 a month to get to Netflix’s high tier.
Remaining ideas
Sky Stream is the longer term, there is not any doubt about that, and whereas I used to be apprehensive about being considerably of an early adopter, the large points with Glass all appear to be sorted after a few years available in the market and the Stream pucks are fairly strong. They are not good and there are some software program and UI points that want addressing however the high quality of the package deal as an entire is spectacular. I ditched the dish and I urge you to do the identical.
How we take a look at
Once we publish our evaluations, you may relaxation assured that they’re the results of âdwelling withâ long run assessments.
Streaming containers normally reside inside a smart home ecosystem, or a spread of merchandise that â supposedly â all work in concord. Subsequently, itâs not possible to make use of a related machine for per week and ship a verdict.
As a result of weâre testing package all day, on a regular basis, we all know what issues and the way a selected machine compares to alternate options that you may additionally be contemplating.
Our evaluations are complete, goal and truthful and, in fact, we’re by no means paid on to assessment a tool.
Learn our assessment course of to be taught extra.
FAQS
Does Sky Stream assist 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient?
Sure, you may get UHD Dolby Imaginative and prescient by way of apps like Apple TV, Prime and Netflix.
Do you need to have Sky Broadband with Sky Stream?
No, you need to use an broadband ISP you need – however you may want at the very least a 10Mbps velocity, with 25-30Mbps advisable for 4K streaming.
Are you able to improve from Sky Q to Sky Stream?
Switching from Sky Q or Sky+ to Sky Stream is easy. Your present Sky Q service will stay energetic till you activate Sky Stream and you will get a 30 day testing interval to verify it really works for you.