Sky Q

[Joe Cox]

Thoughts? Questions? I can ask Sky right now if you're quick...

http://www.whathifi.com/news/sky-q-promises-to-reimagine-tv-4k-and-fluid-viewing

 

[daveh75]

Yes

According to the fact sheet the Sky Q Silver box can record 4 whilst watching a fifth channel, and simultaneously stream to two tablets and two mini boxes.

That makes 9 by my count, what are the other 3 tuners doing?

Also why SCR/Unicable rather than SAT>IP or even a fibre optic LNB?

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Does that mean a new dish or cables? Will existing customers be offered a bargain?

 

[daveh75]

Also the HDMI spec

It's HDMI 1.4b/HDCP 1.2 compliant according to specs, and they claim it will be updated to support UHD after launch

Is that even possible? I thought 1.4x to 2.0x was an hardware thing, not f/w upgradeable

 

[daveh75]

The specs/fact sheets for anyone that's interested

Sky Q Silver

https://corporate.sky.com/documents/sky-q-2015/fact%20sheet%20sky%20q%20silver.pdf

Sky Q Mini

https://corporate.sky.com/documents/sky-q-2015/fact-sheet-sky-q-mini.pdf

 

[daveh75]

Does that mean a new dish or cables?

No, they're using SCR/Unicable (at least I presume they are given the claim of 12 tuners and only two LNB inputs) so just need to swap out the LNB.

 

[rodders999]

With this announcement do Sky have any plans to offer a supported path to move to the new receivers and take existing recordings with them ? I for one have loads of recordings that I don't want to lose and start again.

 

[chris_bates1974]

...this is SKY, so the UHD content will cost extra.... as will the additional boxes..... as will "standard HD" probably..... as will anything else they think they can get away with charging for.

 

[Joe Cox]

Did I ask your questions? Yes. Did I get any worthwhile answers? No. Moving content to a new box seems highly unlikely I'd say. The three extra tuners aren't doing anything but could perhaps come in useful for 4K. 'More details nearer launch' was the phrase of the day.

 

[jjbomber]

I am struggling to see the point of all this. You can watch online nowon a tablet if you have a Sky subscription. Nothing new there. Sky Go Extra means you can take content with you, so that already exists. They are pushing the fact that you can watch part of a programme in one room and then go to another room to pick up where you left off. Exactly who does that? It just seems a load of gimmicks, when what we want is frame by frame advance to see if the player really was offside.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

What 'we're want is a recognition of long existing customers for some special service. Together with 99% of other companies who wish only to attract new customers. Economics I guess

 

[daveh75]

You can watch online nowon a tablet if you have a Sky subscription. Nothing new there. Sky Go Extra means you can take content with you, so that already exists.

But Sky Go PQ is pish...

They are pushing the fact that you can watch part of a programme in one room and then go to another room to pick up where you left off.Exactly who does that?

We do. All the time!

We will often start watching something in the kitchen whilst doing food prep/cooking then move to the living room when we're done, or if i start watching something late at night i'll finish watching in bed for example.

Having said that i've no interest in Sky Q personally.

It has questionable specs, we're pretty much done with linear broadcast, and it doesn't offer anything i haven't already been doing for years with other kit

 

[kikiso]

Whilst this is a modern box and something I might like to have, Sky have created a problem for themselves in not providing any form of migration. My current box is a 2TB box which is about 50% full with my wife's recordings. There's no way she would allow me to migrate to a new box and lose them. If Sky could provide an official way of moving the disk or copying the material over then an upgrade would be feasible. Whilst I don't have a 4k TV, I do have a 1080P and Blu-ray is the only way I have of using it to its maximum potential, but having tolerated this for many years it's not enough to justify going to Sky Q.

The ability to move around and watch programmes on a variety of platforms is also not important to me, and I don't need all the extra wifi related enhancements, and I already run two boxes and have Sky Go so I'll not get any value from being able to transmit programmes around the house. Recording 4 programmes at one time is also of no value, Sky has shot itself in the foot as most material is now available on demand without having to wait for it to be beamed down.

This only leaves the 4K capability as being something I don't currently have. In the future this may be of use, but today I don't have a 4k TV and it will also be a while before there is much material recorded in 4k, so in my situation, despite having in the past always had the latest boxes from SKY as soon as I could get them, what's the point for me in Sky Q? And this is before knowing the pricing.......

 

[bigboss]

According to Andrew Olson, the Silver box will be HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2:

http://www.insideci.co.uk/news/sky-q-unveiled-this-ain-t-yesterdays-satellite-tv.aspx

Also interesting is this paragraph:

Sky Q is incompatible with existing Sky installations. When the system is launched, early 2016, subscribers will need the LNB swapped on their existing Sky dish. The cable run remains unchanged though. It’s not possible to have a mix of Sky+ and Sky Q hardware sharing the same dish feed.

 

[bigboss]

According to Andrew Olson, the Silver box will be HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2:

http://www.insideci.co.uk/news/sky-q-unveiled-this-ain-t-yesterdays-sate...

Also interesting is this paragraph:

Sky Q is incompatible with existing Sky installations. When the system is launched, early 2016, subscribers will need the LNB swapped on their existing Sky dish. The cable run remains unchanged though. It’s not possible to have a mix of Sky+ and Sky Q hardware sharing the same dish feed.

 

[daveh75]

Looking at the specs again they aren't doing Unicable like I thought.

They appear to have developed wider band LNBs/Tuners than current 'universal' LNBs that operate from 950 - 2150 MHz.

They've extended it from 290-2340 MHz, so no it wont be compatible.

 

[Clare Newsome]

It’s not possible to have a mix of Sky+ and Sky Q hardware sharing the same dish feed.

This needs a lot more explanation re people in apartment blocks with shared dish... And in London, that's a lot of us!

 

[bigboss]

I suppose all the residents in the building will have to decide on 1 dish, or have 2 dishes.

 

[daveh75]

It's not quite that simple in apartment blocks with IRS setups.

 

[zoz1234]

Having just had a bit of a nosey on "My Sky" page at upgrading, I noticed the upfront £99 charge to borrow a sky Q mini box for another room? This being in the sky Q silver package. That's nice of them.......

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Any experiences so far?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Any experiences so far?

Not me. Sky have just managed to reduce the monthly bill by a little as it is. Too expensive.