Should I switch to Sky Q?

[mike2084]

Hi folks,

Just looking into the possibility of upgrading my Sky system, which I've been very happy with for a number of years now.

Currently I'm using a Sky+ HD as the main box and a SkyHD multiroom box in a second room. I'm investigating switching to Sky Q because of the launch of Sky Sports +.

Few things I'd like to find out if anyone has any experience of them:

Can a local independent installer install Sky Q or does it have to be a Sky engineer?

I understand the second box is a mini box connected via broadband (of which I have full fibre), can the connection be over Wi-Fi or does it have to be wired Ethernet? Does the mini box work well off a Wi-Fi connection?

Is the 2TB box easily available? I use manual recording now and then to record parts of programmes so would want the largest storage space if I have to record full programmes only on Sky Q.

Has anyone worked out a way to record from a Sky Q to an external recorder?

How does Other Channels work on Sky Q? Can you watch them on the mini box?

I'm sure some people would advise me to get Sky Stream but I want to hold onto satellite reception as long as I can.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

 

[ozumo]

I'm not a Sky Q user so this is only from what I've read and may not be wholly accurate.

Sky will insist it is installed by one of their 'engineers'. The mini box will work over WiFi, I believe it connects to the main receiver via their own 5GHz network, generally they work well.

You'll have to ask for a 2TB box when ordering to ensure you get one and may incur an extra cost. Manual recording is not available. You can use an HDCP-compatible HDMI capture device to record onto a computer, picture quality can be variable and will use a lot of disk space. On cheaper capture cards everything will be butchered into 30fps. I believe you can add other channels, don't know how they work on the mini box though.

Avoid Stream, it's awful.

BTW I think you can access Sky Sports+ on the Sky Sports app if you have the full Sports package on Sky HD.

 

[7mdish]

But remember that Sky Sport+ is always broadcasted via internet, not by satellite!

 

[mapperuo]

I had it installed a few years ago by Sky and they insisted on putting Wifi Booster boxes inbetween the main box and the mini boxes, I asked why they couldnt use ethernet and they said they weren't allowed, There ended up being 3 boosters between the front of the house and the summer room!

I told them could I just replace all that with ethernet once they left, they said yes but not to bin the boosters as they need returned if I ever leave Sky.


Bottom line I guess, ethernet works great, but don't expect them to use it.

 

[rolfw]

Now they have worked out the bugs in Sky Q it isn't a bad system. One of the main advantages is the ability to initiate recordings from either the main box or the mini and play back on either. Plus they can also throw in Netflix as an addon for cheaper than going direct. As mentioned above, it will all work over Wifi, but if you have a cable network, then you can change it easily to wired on both boxes, have done quite a few.

Regarding recording from the Q box, not heard of anyone doing it well.

 

[mike2084]

Thank you all for the advice, much appreciated. As regards the Sky Sports+ streams I can use the Sky Sports app to watch them currently. I'm thinking more of my father who doesn't use phones or tablets but was pretty ok with using red button functionality on SkyHD. It's a shame you can't cast these streams but I'm sure that's a conscious decision by Sky. I'll consider it for the next few weeks and watch if any more channels add this streaming type functionality that's not available on SkyHD.