Mass Media & Technology

Is the Sky Q box worth it?

(September 2018)

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AE
aerolyto
Hello everyone!

Right now I have a sky+ HD box and I've been hearing a lot about the Sky Q box! I've been thinking about getting my hands on one but I want to know if its worth the money and could it replace the sky+ HD box? If any of you own a Sky Q box I'd love to hear your thoughts on it so I can decide whether to buy one or not.

Thanks in advance Smile ,
Aerolyto
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Hello everyone!

Right now I have a sky+ HD box and I've been hearing a lot about the Sky Q box! I've been thinking about getting my hands on one but I want to know if its worth the money and could it replace the sky+ HD box? If any of you own a Sky Q box I'd love to hear your thoughts on it so I can decide whether to buy one or not.

Thanks in advance Smile ,
Aerolyto


You don't "buy" Sky Q boxes and you don't own them. They are rented from Sky. The Sky+HD boxes were given away and yours as soon as the engineer opened the box.

Note that Ultra HD is only available on the main 2tb box, not the Mini boxes and not the 1Tb either. Also note you lose all your recordings on Sky+ when you switch as the boxes won't play the content with no active subscription.
WH
what
No. It's a relatively new product, and still has a lot of bugs. The UI is glitchy, it keeps disconnecting from the Sky Q Mini box, and the new router is somehow worse than the old. If I were you, I'd wait for a while.
HA
harshy Founding member
It’s missing HDR and HLG and randomly crashes like it did today, can’t even tune channels like the Astra UHD demo.

They do something to the LNBs as well so you can’t hook it up to a FTA tuner.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
They do something to the LNBs as well so you can’t hook it up to a FTA tuner.


Its a wideband LNB which is not compatible with anything other Sky Q. You can get the hybrid LNBs that work with Sky Q and Freesat/FTA tuners, but of course it probably goes without saying you won't get one of them when the installer turns up, you'd either have to change it yourself at a later date, or ask the installer really nicely for one by feeding them more tea and biscuits than they can physically consume.
NG
noggin Founding member

They do something to the LNBs as well so you can’t hook it up to a FTA tuner.


Yes - Sky Q uses (as a default) Wideband LNBs to allow them to send what used to require 4 cables down 2. If you retained the old style LNB you'd only be able to support 2 tuners down 2 cables, whereas the Sky Q approach supports an unlimited number of tuners (I think the biggest Sky box has 12?)

Sky Q does also support Unicable II, which is also supported by some FTA tuners, and this may be an option with some installs (but the Unicable LNBs are likely to be more expensive I think) Note that Unicable II isn't supported by earlier Sky devices (they used a different Unicable-like standard called SCR to support two tuners down one cable)

As others have state - you can get hybrid LNBs that support both Sky Q and normal Sky boxes (and FTA boxes without using Unicable II)
NG
noggin Founding member

You don't "buy" Sky Q boxes and you don't own them. They are rented from Sky. The Sky+HD boxes were given away and yours as soon as the engineer opened the box.


Yes - this is the main reason we haven't switched yet. Don't like the rental model at all.

Quote:

Note that Ultra HD is only available on the main 2tb box, not the Mini boxes and not the 1Tb either. Also note you lose all your recordings on Sky+ when you switch as the boxes won't play the content with no active subscription.


Also if you record UHD content, you can't play this remotely on other HD Sky Q boxes (a big selling point of the Mini is that you can watch recordings made on your main Sky Q box), so have to make two recordings or downloads.
RU
russty_russ
Hello everyone!

Right now I have a sky+ HD box and I've been hearing a lot about the Sky Q box! I've been thinking about getting my hands on one but I want to know if its worth the money and could it replace the sky+ HD box? If any of you own a Sky Q box I'd love to hear your thoughts on it so I can decide whether to buy one or not.

Thanks in advance Smile ,
Aerolyto


You don't "buy" Sky Q boxes and you don't own them. They are rented from Sky. The Sky+HD boxes were given away and yours as soon as the engineer opened the box.

Note that Ultra HD is only available on the main 2tb box, not the Mini boxes and not the 1Tb either. Also note you lose all your recordings on Sky+ when you switch as the boxes won't play the content with no active subscription.


As well as the 2tb box, don't you need to subscribe to the multiroom package as well at £12 p/m ?
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
As well as the 2tb box, don't you need to subscribe to the multiroom package as well at £12 p/m ?


You don't "need" to subscribe to it as such, though when its presented as an upgrade from Sky+HD it mplies that you have to have it. You can get SkyQ as a new customer without the multi-room feature though the advertising suggests you get more benefit out of it.
UK
UKnews
You do have to take multiroom if you want to get the UHD content. Thats the reason I've got it- although the second box is just used to feed a Slingbox for occasional outside UK viewing, its also handy to have a limit of 4 registered devices for Sky Go. I suspect I wouldn't have got the discount I did on the package a whole if I hadn't taken multiroom. The fact the equipment is rented doesn't particularly bother me- given that even the basic recording functions require a subscription I wouldn't have a use for the box if I weren't paying.

It feels at times like theres a few too many menus to step through to get to certain functions but aside from that and the odd other minor gripe, I like Sky Q. The on screen menus look good, and the system is smooth and responsive. I haven't kept count of the number of times its crashed in the 18 months I've had it, but its very few, certainly no more than the Sky+HD box did.

I wasn't keen on the touch remote at first, but the installer was right when he said to stick with it and that after a while most people prefer it. Thats my experience as well- it makes its easier moving forwards and backwards in a recorded programme and moving through the menus and EPG.
HA
harshy Founding member
The Ultra HD with Sport dosent look that different from regular HD, it could be the upscaler on my 4k telly being too good for HD.

But I swear the Astra UHD demo look amazing when I bought the TV.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
But I swear the Astra UHD demo look amazing when I bought the TV.


Classic salesroom method. I wouldn't be surprised if the TV has a hidden "dealer" mode or something that just makes everything it receives look like the bee's knees, yet look nothing like that you set it up at home.

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