# Sky Q



## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

Had Sky Q installed today.

Now I know I'm getting on now(49) and it's new to me but blimey the menu system seems to have taken a few steps back compared to the old sky! 

I know I'll get used to it but things like 9 clicks to get to scheduled recordings seems ridiculous. 

What's others thoughts on it?


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## Will_G (Jan 23, 2012)

Yes it’s different but better. Not sure on your 9 clicks though, to get to what? If it’s programmes you’ve recorded just hit the sky button


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## J306TD (May 19, 2008)

9 clicks is a bit excessive. When they set it up did they not demo it to you. Or show shortcuts?

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

J306TD said:


> 9 clicks is a bit excessive. When they set it up did they not demo it to you. Or show shortcuts?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


Had a brief demo but only a minute or so.
The 9 clicks is to get to what programmes are set up to record. Because it's a new box I've had to set up programmes to record on series link etc(don't want to miss Emmerdale, wife would kill me!!) I got to a point where I wasn't sure if I'd pressed record on one of them so wanted to see if it was in the scheduled recordings. Took ages to find!


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## Arvi (Apr 11, 2007)

I think Sky Q is overrated. I've had it for 2 years and regularly have to reboot when it looses connection. Have had to hard reset it twice loosing all recordings. This weekend they asked me to force a software update after we couldn't get a connection again. Software updated but the Sky Q box would not boot up so an engineer was booked in for next Wednesday - 10 days after being locked out of it. I phoned again yesterday and an engineer is coming out tomorrow.

One of the Sky Q "advantages" is that you get continue to get maintenance assistance after the 1st year but i've had issues that are becoming more regular since October 2018. This time round I've asked for the Q box and mini to be replaced. Will see if it happens.

The recording menu also seems to have taken a back step in that it doesm't tell you which one has been viewed already if you are watching box sets, unlike the old system.

Just after Sky Q installed I read that you could opt for a universal LNB so that if you wanted to revert to the old Sky HD box you could do by plugging in your own box. Wish I had requested this as I would have ditched Q then.

The Sky Q router is a backward step as well. Wi Fi is not as good, only 2 ethernet ports. I've had a white Sky Q booster box installed upstairs to see if that helps and it doesn't seem to do much apart from take up another plugsocket! 

Having a mini box you can move around yourself is handy, but I think the wi -fi connections between boxes and router needs major improvement. I'll be trying Virgin next if this doesn't sort itself out.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

The menu is definately messy compared to the old Sky but you do get used to it.

We've only had ours a couple of months and it has frozen numerous times.

By far the most annoying thing is that a second box (multiroom) is a wifi booster and it can't be turned off. We have our wifi router upstairs and the second box in the bedroom. Maintaining a consistent wifi signal in the bedroom on a phone is a nightmare as it tries to flit between the router and booster in the box.


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## shl-kelso (Dec 27, 2012)

Shiny said:


> The menu is definately messy compared to the old Sky but you do get used to it.
> 
> We've only had ours a couple of months and it has frozen numerous times.
> 
> By far the most annoying thing is that a second box (multiroom) is a wifi booster and it can't be turned off. We have our wifi router upstairs and the second box in the bedroom. Maintaining a consistent wifi signal in the bedroom on a phone is a nightmare as it tries to flit between the router and booster in the box.


You can turn off wifi in all of the Q boxes provided you connect them via wired ethernet. I have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz switch off on both my Q Silver and Minis. You need to access the hidden installer menu to do this.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

shl-kelso said:


> You can turn off wifi in all of the Q boxes provided you connect them via wired ethernet. I have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz switch off on both my Q Silver and Minis. You need to access the hidden installer menu to do this.


Unfortunately that's the problem, I don't have a wired connection to the mini box and it will be a ball ache to put one in, so it has to connect wireless which means I can't turn off the wifi booster.


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

Shiny said:


> The menu is definately messy compared to the old Sky but you do get used to it.
> 
> We've only had ours a couple of months and it has frozen numerous times.
> 
> By far the most annoying thing is that a second box (multiroom) is a wifi booster and it can't be turned off. We have our wifi router upstairs and the second box in the bedroom. Maintaining a consistent wifi signal in the bedroom on a phone is a nightmare as it tries to flit between the router and booster in the box.


Have to say the WiFi dropped last night which I can't remember happening in the previous years of sky WiFi. Wonder if that's the reason? We have 2 mini boxes as well which might complicate it further.

The menu I can see is going to take some getting used to. Have to keep the wife away from it, if she can't use it she won't let me forget it was me that wanted to change it😂


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Darlofan said:


> Have to say the WiFi dropped last night which I can't remember happening in the previous years of sky WiFi. Wonder if that's the reason? We have 2 mini boxes as well which might complicate it further.
> 
> The menu I can see is going to take some getting used to. Have to keep the wife away from it, if she can't use it she won't let me forget it was me that wanted to change it😂


Could be, i have to turn wifi off on my phone and then back on to reconnect when it drops off. It's definately not a problem with the wifi, just the booster in the mini box causing it to swap between sources.

Just make sure you change the remote from swipe to click if your missus is anything like mine, otherwise she'll be all over the place! :lol:

Mine still moans that it doesn't do what you tell it to, mind you neither does her phone or my pc when she uses it...


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

Shiny said:


> Could be, i have to turn wifi off on my phone and then back on to reconnect when it drops off. It's definately not a problem with the wifi, just the booster in the mini box causing it to swap between sources.
> 
> Just make sure you change the remote from swipe to click if your missus is anything like mine, otherwise she'll be all over the place! :lol:
> 
> Mine still moans that it doesn't do what you tell it to, mind you neither does her phone or my pc when she uses it...


Sounds familiar🤣
Swipe is either turned off or not on our remote! Something else I'll have to figure out.


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## bigbrother (Jun 30, 2011)

Had SkyQ for 2 years now and find it 10 times better than the old HD box, i have 2 mini boxes, i had the installer connect the main box by ethernet asked him to connect the 2 mini boxes via ethernet as i had already installed cables ready "oh no i don't know how to do that, it will work ok without ethernet",suffered for 3 months with the mini boxes losing signal and having to reboot the main box, until Sky did a firmware update that allowed you just to plug inn ethernet cable without altering any settings since then no dropout.

Sky must off known about poor connection between mainbox and minis else why make it easy to connect by ethernet.

If you can connect the minis and main via ethernet, if you are lacking ports on your router by a network switch i only paid £7 for mine and it works great.


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## Arvi (Apr 11, 2007)

This is the annoying thing. Mini boxes are marketed as wireless, place anywhere boxes and then if you suffer drop outs the only resolution seems to be to hard wire the mini box to the Q box. Running an ethernet cable from router to Q to mini seems backward but if thats what it takes to keep a constant connection Sky should highlight this. I bought a 5 port TP link box which works great but again as so much new tech evolves around ethernet connections why did they go from 5 ports to 2?!


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

Have to be honest, only 2 days in and regretting it. Going to give it a few weeks and then I'll come back and update my review on it!!


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## shl-kelso (Dec 27, 2012)

Arvi said:


> This is the annoying thing. Mini boxes are marketed as wireless, place anywhere boxes and then if you suffer drop outs the only resolution seems to be to hard wire the mini box to the Q box. Running an ethernet cable from router to Q to mini seems backward but if thats what it takes to keep a constant connection Sky should highlight this. I bought a 5 port TP link box which works great but again as so much new tech evolves around ethernet connections why did they go from 5 ports to 2?!


Like any kit using wifi and requiring a high bandwidth link then it's not surprising that operating the minis wirelessly does not work well for some/many. If you live in an area with many other wifi users "visible" at your location then it would be far better to use wired connections as much as possible.

Also note that wifi can only "talk" to one device at a time, so if you have many wireless devices all competing for air time along with you Sky boxes attending to operate as repeaters then you overall wifi performance is seriously affected. If you property allows the Sky boxes to use 5GHZ wifi and you can only use the 2.4HHz for general wifi then you may find you get better results - 5GHz is not as "penetrative" of building fabric and has many more non-conflicting channels compared to 2.4GHz.


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## Arvi (Apr 11, 2007)

Thanks for the input, makes sense! I had heard that changing channels may help. And briefly read somewhere about this 5Ghz business. Engineer is coming today so if wi fi doesn't get better on the iPad/phone I will look into this.


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## bigbrother (Jun 30, 2011)

Arvi said:


> This is the annoying thing. Mini boxes are marketed as wireless, place anywhere boxes and then if you suffer drop outs the only resolution seems to be to hard wire the mini box to the Q box. Running an ethernet cable from router to Q to mini seems backward but if thats what it takes to keep a constant connection Sky should highlight this. I bought a 5 port TP link box which works great but again as so much new tech evolves around ethernet connections why did they go from 5 ports to 2?!


I have an ethernet cable going from my router to a TPLink 5 port switch then from the switch to my Q main box,TV,DVD and printer, i also have another cable going to another TP 5 port switch which runs the 2 mini boxes and cctv, what i'm trying to say is that you don't have to connect the mini's to the main via ethernet.

The biggest pain is when you delete a recording the program goes into a delete section so you can retrieve them but to delete the programs from there you have to do it one at a time and believe me before you no it there's no end of them, still haven't found a way to permanently delete multiple's.

Also don't believe what Sky show you on the ads, you can't just pause a program and pick it up in another room, the only way to do this is by pressing record the pick up the recording on the other box.

Join the Sky forum there's clever people on there very helpful.


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## Ben_W (Feb 15, 2009)

We've had it installed approx 18 months and I love it.

The menu options, once you get your head around how it works, is relatively simple. What annoys me the most is the channel renumbering that happens on occasion. Learn your faves and it's all change!

The ultra HD content is very good. The football and F1 look incredible. The voice search can be iffy on results but that's perhaps more about sky's content than the search function not understanding.

We had a problem with the box freezing up. Sky came out and replaced it, no questions asked really. I do find some software updates upset and drop the connection to our BT homehub but to be honest, since the new box, it's not happened. I wonder if the later boxes are better from a firmware/hardware point of view?

Either way, I'm a happy customer


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Darlofan said:


> Have to be honest, only 2 days in and regretting it. Going to give it a few weeks and then I'll come back and update my review on it!!


I love Sky Q, could be without it.

Everytime someone criticises Sky, a puppy gets kicked.
Everytime someone cancels their Sky contract, a puppy is drowned.


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## BrummyPete (Jun 10, 2010)

Never had issues with Sky W but the WiFi is another story, it's a pile of steaming dog poo, have a booster upstairs and it still drops like a stone, I complained about virgin being slow but at least it didn't keep dropping signal 

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


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## Arvi (Apr 11, 2007)

LeadFarmer said:


> I love Sky Q, could be without it.
> 
> Everytime someone criticises Sky, a puppy gets kicked.
> Everytime someone cancels their Sky contract, a puppy is drowned.


:lol:

Everytime I have had to call Sky up with an issue, the Dog Pound goes beserk!

They replaced my main Sky Q box last week with Version 2. I didn't even know this existed until I read up on it, it has its own separate power pack running from the plug. No disconnections so far.


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