Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

SKY Q and SKY Q MINI BOXES

The 2TB Sky Q box lets people watch five screens at once, is fitted with 12 tuners and comes with a 'plug and play box' Sky Q Mini.

The Sky Q Mini box also doubles up as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The new service blends live and on-demand TV - which Sky calls 'fluid viewing.'

Elsewhere, the service brings Ultra HD 4K video quality to Sky TV channels for the first time, including sports and movies.

There is also a new remote control that features a touchpad and voice control.

The service will launch in 'early 2016' but prices have not yet been announced.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...flix-Roku.html

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I'm not a fan of sky in any way... But this... Now I hope VM has a competitive product in the pipe line...

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

One suspect Virgin have got something in the pipeline....

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Yeah but with VM the pipe tends to be very, very, very long.

If they do have something they've yet again let Sky get the drop on them. I have to say I'd be very interested in Sky Q. TiVo has satisfied my needs since 2011 but it looks like this may be more suitable for my home now that the kids are growing up.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

It does sound interesting, especially with all the connectivity Powerline, WiFi, Bluetooth, airplay and recordings being downloadable to tablets fro watching offline. New bluetooth remote sounds good too.

Wait to see the cost though!

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Aye the cost will not be cheap but they might be offering some cut price deals to get people onto the tech.

The size of the box is fantastic. The only downside is needing a sky dish on the side of the house.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I bet they will be asking a big big price for this and the features to.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

What would be interesting is if they bundle some apps on the box too like NowTV etc...

For me some of the features will justify the cost e.g. the Mini Q. I can just stream recordings to a few of these around the house.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

You can bet your bottom dollar on that.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

My only concern is the spec on the 4K box says hdmi 1.4 which if correct seems a massive own goal , if 4K is what you are after.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Sounds very impressive.

I don't consider myself an idiot when it comes to technology, but even I'm a little confused by all the different boxes - I just worry about the average punter.

OK it has 12 tuners, but would surmise that a much more limited number will be available on the main box for recording. But I am just guessing.

But this is Sky and they have a solid track record in delivering reliable TV interfaces. It may not always be as feature rich as competitors, but it works :)

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

They have ;)

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Good, current Tivo is a bag of cr@p

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Yes indeedy but the doomsayers of Cable Forum will still be prevalent one imagines even then.:waving::Yes:

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Game changer in my eyes, Virgin are last again with new tech.

BT have 4k
Sky now have 4k

Even if you aren't interested in 4k it's going to be the future.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Just for accuracy, Sky don't have 4K - they will have it early 2016.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Mmm. That's what they said about 3D and where is that now? Unless you have a monster TV or the vision acuity of an eagle most peeps will never tell the difference over HD. Even then how good it is will depend upon how much bandwidth is allocated to a channel to support a decent bit rate. Many (all?) current HD channels are quite woeful in this respect as the moment the picture is panned or zoomed all detail is lost or pixelated even on premium channels.

In past times I lost count of the number of people that had not set their box's SCART output to component video for the crispest picture and were still using the default composite. :(

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I'd say talktalk are last they don't even have HD yet.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I am sure that I posted something similar to this the other year or 2 ago from Cisco?

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I recently spoke to someone at VM and they were adamant the Tivo could output 4K in the future. I'm guessing he's just another member of CS talking nonsense?

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Sky Q video

https://youtu.be/h_nWe39VF_0

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

They have.
they're taking on more canvassers to knock on peoples doors getting them to sign up and enter into a contract with them before they get to find out about Sky.

and then when you say you're with Sky they say "what you with Sky for? Virgin's the best in the world!"

desperate canvassers.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

TalkTalk has some PSB channels in HD and some catch-up and on-demand content too. But it's a laggard on not having its pay-tv channels in HD.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I think tv player are one to watch they are offering incredible value at the moment £4.99p/m for 25 premium channels which include the uktv channels and discovery.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Yep, i was very impressed with that offering if i ditch paytv (again) :)

OT

Reading the DM article it says it's completely separate to the Satellite offering and has 4 recordable tuners. Will it be fibre customers only then?

I thunk the clue is in the 'super premium' tagline though, gotta cost a fortune for early adopters.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Sky Q does look very good but it does all depend on price, will keep an eye open for when the pricing is announced.

Personally I want to see what VM have in the pipeline before making a decision on my beloved TiVo

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Tivo should and could have been so much more than it had ended up. Slow and clunky, I've had it from the start, but several updates and new boxes later, it' still not that great. Shame really. Changes are a coming!, for the first time, i do expect to be leaving VM for my TV offering early next year. I'm cutting the cord(or cable). UNless VM pull something magical out of the box! I think they have become complacent and lazy.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I don't have a 4k tv and I think the take up will generally be quite slow. A lot of people who wanted flat screen TV's have bought them and the lack of currently available 4k content means you'd have to be very keen on it to adopt early. The result will be that there won't be a rush to produce lots of 4k content meaning that you'll have a never ending circle of low output and low take up, each perpetuating the other.

I've just gone to BT who have a 4k sport channel. I wanted the biggest capacity hard drive so I have their uhd box and it came with a list of compatible 4k tv's. What I didn't realise was that there is still no industry standard for 4k, which means that some who bought early 4k tv's and then waited patiently for content to arrive can't actually use them to access the only current linear channel. That's not going to help things along.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I certainly think VM are at risk of losing out on the one element of TV they had an advantage on and is essential for our house i.e. recording multiple programmes at once with the extra tuners, so we build up our version of box sets and watch later e.g. just watched Scorpion series 1 so the adverts were for Christmas 2014 at the start!). Ideally I would want a minimum of 3 tuners with a 4th to watch live TV so 1 short for current Tivo box, as it happens several time a week where we are recording 3 programmes on different channels so if you want to have some buffer at start and end, all tuners are used up during the buffer period. With the use of +1 channels I manage to get around with 3 complete programmes being recorded at the same time, just a pain if you want to keep some buffer time on recordings. So I need more flexibility and Sky Q will resolve that for us. Unless there is a new Tivo box coming out to address, I will be moving to Sky once my contract ends. But there is some time to go with my contract so time for VM to respond with a new Tivo box and it better be quicker as well!!

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I've read a number of the reviews (more announcements, really) of the forthcoming Sky Q box and I must admit the more I read the more I am impressed. Depending on what Virgin Media come up with to match it, including pricing, I will be seriously thinking of moving over to Sky next year. One of the reviews - I can't remember which one - mentions that the box has an HDMI 'in' connection. Sky refused to comment why except to say it's for the future. Anyone care to speculate what this might be for?

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I admit I haven't checked them in detail, but after a quick look, it appears that the Tivo Bolt is capable of many (maybe all?) of the same functions as the Sky Q box, though it has fewer tuners.

https://www.tivo.com/

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

yep, think that has to be the answer to Sky Q box especially for the number of concurrent recording capacity I need. Just wait to see what VM do in 2016 and sort out performance of course + when will we have a live EPG!!! I would like to stop my wife having to turn on the kitchen TV to look at Freeview EPG so see what is really on when the schedule is delayed or changes!

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

The big showstopper with Sky Q, Tivo Bolt and TIVO multiroom streaming is the restrictions from the broadcasters prohibiting streaming to other boxes/devices. Obviously Sky is in a better position than VM they should allow their own channels to be re transmitted to other devices without too much of a problem

Why does the Sky Q need 12 tuners if you can only record on 4 of them + 1 for live viewing?

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

4 for recording with 1 for live viewing , 2 for mini tv boxes , 2 for tablets/phones and the rest reserved for future expansion.

I'd expect all channels to be able to watch on multiroom boxes.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

12 tuners, that's gonna be drawing a nice bit of power for the amplifier(s)

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

It's not a problem for VM either. Sky have allowed multi-room streaming of their channels since July 2014.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I would hope any future box from Virgin played more to their strength in massive bandwidth to their customers than in huge numbers of tuners and local storage. Watch from the beginning and letting customers build cloud-hosted programme libraries out of recordings, on-demand subs and purchases would give them a better competitive edge.

This from Wired a few months back is good on the problems of making a decent set top box: http://www.wired.com/2015/09/perfect...ll-never-make/

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Regardless of what features it has , it should respond rapidly to the user's input

watching a spinning disc in this day and age on a set top box is a joke.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Wait and see. Sky threw a massive amount of money into 3D and look what happened there..

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Not accuracy, pedancy.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Yes there were quite a few venerable forum members who one remembers saying that 3D was the future.;)

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Personally I would like Tivo scrapped ( Its well known I questioned this choice from day one) & replaced with something like Contour :-
Record 6 DVR

Get the flexibility of recording up to six shows at a time and storing up to 1,000* hours of programming.

• Watch recorded shows on any TV
• Start watching in one room and resume in another
• Create your own personal playlist

This is the standard box in my part of the world these days.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Oh, the irony of being corrected with a word that doesn't exist in the dictionary...:D

I think you may have meant pedantry, but I am not sure it's a minor detail pointing out the fact that if something is coming in 2016, it is incorrect to say that someone has it now.

You have a business - if someone said they had put the money into your account now, but in fact meant they were going to put it in there some time in 2016, would you accept it as a factual statement?

ymov

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

It won't actually have 12 tuners inside, it will probably have 2 fbc tuners and 2 standard tuners, if you then connect the 2 fbc tuners with uni cable and use a compatible lnb that will effectivly give you the pseudo effect of 10 tuners plus 2 physical tuners... Can you imagine 12 cables on the back of one box.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

It would be nice if Tivo worked with your aerial input or satellite input in the UK at least you'd then have the option of decent spec'd boxes. Because Tivo has an exclusive agreement with VM your stuck with the hardware they dish out.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

Although the VM Tivo uses different hardware, the software is still Tivo software and the software is what makes Tivo a Tivo.

When the VM Tivo launched, it was based on the US Tivo Premier, software wise. And I'm pretty sure, if I recall correctly, that VM's Tivo had enhancements over the Premier functionality, that was eventually added to the US Premier. The only functionality the Premier had over the VM Tivo was functionality that was blocked by UK content provider rights restrictions.

And baring rights related functionality, VM's Tivo has had all the functionality upgrades that The Premier has had up to present day. Apart from the last one earlier this year, but there is always a delay between the Premier an VM Tivo updates, I suspect for testing purposes.

Since the Premer, the US has had the Roamio and now the Bolt. It would be unfeasible for VM to change the box every time a new model is released in the US. But at some stage I suspect VM will. The bolt has 4K and other functionality, that may make it's software a good basis for a new box based on hardware of VM's choosing and the Bolt's software. The change seems significant enough from the Premier software based box to possibly warrant it.

Or VM may be planning a different route with a cloud based PVR.

Around the time of the Bolt release I read a Q & A on the US Tivo forums with a high up person from Tivo, who said that the Bolt was a general consumer product and an improved Roamio was being developed for serious Tivo users. Maybe that could be the basis for a replacement for the current Tivo if VM go the traditional PVR route?

For most people, with normal sized TVs (40"-55"), in normal sized houses, 4K is not going to make any difference to viewing quality; 60" is borderline. But I suspect that VM will be effectively forced to release a 4K box, purely because the competition has 4K boxes available. I know Apple didn't release a 4K box this time, but they know there loyal followers will stump up anther 150 quid next year!

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I'm aware it's the Tivo software that VM have exclusive but surely some of the slowness is related to the hardware VM use or is this not the case ?

VM need to do something soon in my opinion.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

I would be very surprised if VM put the Premier software on a box that was less well speced processing wise than the US Premier hardware, but I don't know that for sure.

I don't find the speed of Tivo an issue; it works perfectly well for me. But others do.

It's five year old hardware so it is going to seem sluggish compared to recent boxes. And, Tivo does a lot more than any other PVR.

It probably is time for a refresh though. But given that cloud based PVRs are more than likely the future, but not quite there yet (more than likely due to resistance from content providers), it must be difficult to decide whether to go for a new interim traditional PVR.

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

One suspects they will.;)

Re: Sky throws down the gauntlet
 

If you're buying hundreds of thousands of set top boxes you're going to allow only a small overhead of additional power in their specification or it's a waste of money. At the time it was designed it was certainly fine. However, VM's TiVo has gone from a PVR with some basic apps to one with extra competitive features, red button support and apps that their developers want to make able to do the same as on much newer platforms.

On top of that user expectations of what such a box should do and how it should perform have gone up hugely, especially when users have seen the kind of products that well-funded Silicon Valley companies with the cream of talent are capable of.