24 hours with Sky Stream: a review
I’ve recently subscribed to Sky Stream Ultimate. The “puck” arrived yesterday and I’ve spent just under 24 hours with it. My verdict is in: I do not like this.
The channel offerings are good and so are the bundled apps which come along with my Ultimate package. I get Netflix with ads, HBO Max with ads, Discovery+ with ads, everything with ads. Lovely jubbly!
I already have Netflix with ads as part of my Internet subscription (through Virgin Media) and I still have not signed in to watch anything. The kids and spouse are not too interested either. So, no one in the Cybrkyd household is exactly jumping and clapping hands at now having HBO Max or Discovery+ in addition to Netflix. All with ads.
What I got this for was mainly to watch Sky Sports which is in a league of its own; it is the best thing UK TV has to offer, in my opinion. I now regret – 24 hours later – getting the Sky Stream “puck” as they call it. The puck is basically the name for their set top box. I should have just subscribed to NowTV with sports but the Sky Stream package with sports was much cheaper when compared to NowTV with sports. With NowTV, I could have at least used my own equipment, my Formuler Z11 Pro Max.
What’s the problem?
The Sky Stream box is rubbish! It takes 7 remote button presses just to tune in and watch a live TV channel. SEVEN.
Watching a live channel on Sky Stream
This UI needs a BIG rework. This UI needs to believe in better. It looks nice but seems to be carefully crafted to resemble an app. So, think of trying to watch YouTube on a TV and how many remote button presses that takes before you start streaming the show. That many.
At power on (at EVERY power on) the box defaults to the Home screen. To begin watching a TV channel, BBC 1 for example, the following is required, from the Home screen:
- Move down past the first rail which contains a bunch of recommendations.
- Move down past the second rail, the Playlists.
- Press Enter to access the TV guide.
- The TV guide opens, but presents the user with Categories, e.g. All Channels, Sports, Movies, etc. Select All Channels or your preferred category.
- You are on another rail, “Restart what’s on now”. Press down once. You are now on the first TV channel in the list.
- To watch it, press Enter. The channel starts streaming, but in a small pop-out screen on the bottom right.
- To watch the channel full screen, press Enter again.
To recap, that is a total of seven – yes, seven – presses on the remote. Why? It would not be so bad if the box started and carried on where you left off, but no, it does not. The above procedure needs to be repeated each and every time you come out of standby.
The same applies to all the other apps on the box; if you standby from YouTube, let’s say, you start up again on the Home screen.
The remote
It’s backlit, which is nice. But it is too slippery and smooth, making it impossible (for me) to operate one-handed in certain situations. For example, when punching in a channel number, I need to hold it with one hand and use the other hand to punch in the numbers.
The number pad is at the bottom – normally this is at the top of a remote controller. See previous paragraph for description of how this leads to a two-handed remote.
There is no dedicated “Guide” button on the remote. This has led to my thinking that this Sky Stream box has very much been designed to be like a glorified “app” box, something along the lines of a Fire TV stick, making a break away from Sky’s core business of satellite TV. I am guessing they want to make a clear distinction between their satellite TV offering and their streaming service. Or compete with the likes of Fire TV stick.
All well and good. But (i) deliberately requiring a user to press 7 buttons just to watch live TV, and (ii) not having a dedicated “guide” button on the remote takes some getting used to.
The voice navigation seems to be working well enough. I’m able to change channels via voice and it’s pretty responsive when it understands me. I still feel stupid talking to my TV but hey, I can always try getting used to it.
Overall performance
Once you are on a channel, the connection is stable and I have not had a single buffer as yet.
The box does tend to be very slow to switch channels. It is very slow. My Formuler Android box is instant; this Sky Stream box takes about 2-3 seconds to change channels.
Pressing the Back button on the remote when watching a TV channel is supposed to take you back a step. So, if your previous screen was the TV Guide, that’s where you should go. Except, for this exact scenario, what has been happening for me is that it freezes up on the TV Guide, showing only the dynamic background (a wallpaper of the current show you are watching) and no data to go along with it. This has happened numerous times over the past 24 hours, which leads me to think that the dynamic refresh is the one causing the issue. Or, slow hardware which cannot keep up.
Pressing Back again sends you further back… not exactly where you want to go, but at least it breaks the TV guide screen with no actual TV guide on it.
Verdict
A very pretty-looking interface and access to the coveted Sky Sports channels. However, the Sky Stream service seems designed to prevent you for as long as possible from actually watching something. The hardware performance is horribly slow, the remote control is missing a dedicated “Guide” button, and the constant freezes between screen changes (from channel back to TV Guide) is already making me regret my decision to subscribe.
I am used to an instant channel change; this box does not provide you with one. If that is where the “buffer” is happening, I can sort of start to accept that, provided the flawless buffer-less actual viewing continues as it has.
To be honest, I expected much better from the likes of Sky. Their satellite service and set top boxes are world-leading. Sky Stream places them at the very bottom of the streamers pile for their terrible hardware and curious navigation design choices.
Final thoughts?
I’m paying to stream, i.e. to actually watch something, not to view the pretty Home page of the Sky Stream interface. Sky Stream itself needs to (as their own company catchphrase suggests): Believe in better. I am no longer a believer.