*** Sky Q Thread ***

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2004
Posts
6,812
This is probably a dumbass question but I am about t sign up and I want to know where to put the main box (The 4k tv is in my room but my mum does most of the recording) is there any way to set a record from the mini box (as in order the main box to record) and then to access those recordings from the mini box? Or should I be a good son and leave the main box downstairs for my mother who can't even tell the difference between sd and hd?
 
Don
Joined
9 Jun 2004
Posts
46,269
You can record and watch recordings from the mini box so you're fine putting the main box in your room. Everything gets recorded to the main box (whether you set it to record from the mini box or main box) and all those recordings are available on both the mini and main box.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
Posts
21,892
What Broadband speed do you practically need to get the (on-demand) UHD movies streamed ? do you need the >25MB/s netflix uhd needs
I do not have fibre so I guess it is a non-starter ?
Are they ever going to deliver UHD movies from the satellite,so that it could be stored on the local disk ?

( sky sport UHD seems to use 40Mb/s from satellite, which is also what you need for your Broadband if you have BT UHD sport, so maybe I even need 40MB/s )

EDIT This thread suggests I would indeed need >40Mb/s

... I could not see anything in thread history that already answered this
 
Associate
Joined
5 Apr 2013
Posts
128
Location
Nr Portsmouth
What Broadband speed do you practically need to get the (on-demand) UHD movies streamed ? do you need the >25MB/s netflix uhd needs

Sky doesn't actually 'stream' the content via the Q Silver. NowTV, BT Sport, Netflix and Amazon stream content.

Sky's system is to download enough content to act as a buffer so that it can continue to download enough so that you can watch it without catching up to the point where it is still downloading. With a Fibre connection this can mean that HD content might not be ready for 15-30 seconds. However HD and SD content does have its speed capped, otherwise the whole lot would be ready much sooner on my connection.

With UHD the system is much the same. What we don't know, and what I suspect you would like to know, is whether the content is capped at a specific download speed and what that speed is.

From reading some of the threads it's obvious that having a Fibre connection is beneficial. It can take a few hours with an ADSL connection to download a UHD 4K film, but it will download it.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2004
Posts
6,812
I'm having this installed on Wednesday so just a few questions:

Will they be likely to replace the disconnected sky dish that's about 8 years old or will they just reconnect it?

After Virgin Media offered to give me the phone line and 200mb bb for 30 quid a month I've decided to keep them. They are sending me a superhub 3 on Wednesday as well for a self install. I was wondering is there any particular configuration I need to be aware of to get maximum performance from sky q and virgin broadband?

Anyone else using vm internet with sky q and is it all ok?

Many thanks
 
Associate
Joined
5 Apr 2013
Posts
128
Location
Nr Portsmouth
I'm having this installed on Wednesday so just a few questions:

Will they be likely to replace the disconnected sky dish that's about 8 years old or will they just reconnect it?

This depends on a few factors such as the fittings on the dish. A few years ago these were changed and the older dishes have a different fitting for the LNB that isn't compatible with current LNBs.

After Virgin Media offered to give me the phone line and 200mb bb for 30 quid a month I've decided to keep them. They are sending me a superhub 3 on Wednesday as well for a self install. I was wondering is there any particular configuration I need to be aware of to get maximum performance from sky q and virgin broadband?

I'm not aware of any specific changes which you should do, but the Sky Installer will do all that he can for you. However he's not a Network specialist.

If your VM router is not in the best location for WiFi coverage in your home, he'll likely want to install boosters. Personally I hate boosters.
 
Don
Joined
9 Jun 2004
Posts
46,269
No idea about any of that stuff but there's a clear difference in picture quality from 4k stuff I've seen. It's not bad by any means but not as good as I hoped.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2003
Posts
16,076
With UHD the system is much the same. What we don't know, and what I suspect you would like to know, is whether the content is capped at a specific download speed and what that speed is.

Seems to run at about 85mbps for me, via Ethernet on a 200mbps connection. Bear in mind that, for reasons that escape me, Sky saw fit to equip the Q kit with fast ethernet rather than gigabit so there's a hardware limit of 100mbps regardless.

If I start a UHD film downloading, it lets me start watching in 5-10 seconds, which I presume is just long enough for it to work out that it's downloading faster than realtime so there's no problem.

I'd be much more worried about bitrate that resolution, do we know what bitrate the Sky UHD stuff has?

I worked it out on a few films at launch (The Martian, Spectre & MI:5 I think) and it seems to be around the 16-17mbps range.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
Posts
21,892
Scubbie - thanks for the explanation for the uhd movie download process

Offish topic - here was a March favorable review of netflix movie 4k versus std blu-ray , it would be interesting to see similar for sky
 
Back
Top Bottom