Sky Q ....likes and dislikes

Thought i would start a thread about the functionality or lack thereof of Sky's new flagship service Q

Likes

I like the look ,it looks modern and smooth more graphic than the text ridden Sky+.

I like the functionality of the mini box when compared to the old multiroom box.

I like not having a cable for each box going through the walls

I like not having to connect an Ethernet cable to receive on demand .

Picture quality is fantastic even on a mid range panasonic tv like mine

I like the new router ,it seems much faster and as yet have no problems with connectivity considering everything is now wifi (tv,sky Q connections, NAS ,phones ,2 laptops and 2 computers)

I like the sideways scrolling of the menu ,very fast and smooth

Dislikes

The new menu layout is inefficient it is full of unnecessary actions to get to different parts of the menu ,example ,it now takes 4 button pushes/swipes to get to categories in the tv guide

The Q silver box can fry eggs it gets that hot

As a premium product there is a lot missing that we had with the old Sky+ ,things like reminders,favourites and many, many more functions

There is no stop button on the remote ,if you let the recording go to the end on it's own it does not stop it pauses which means that the Q box thinks you are still watching it and won't let you delete it .The only solution i have found is to rewind a little ,use the 'dismiss' button to exit the recording and then delete (more unnecessary button pushes)

Why didn't Sky make the remotes with rechargeable batteries all this extra button pushing and swiping is going to tear through batteries.


'TV guide' button has been removed and replaced with a 'home' button,the first page in the menu is some obscure listing called 'top picks' ,this consists of stuff sky want you to watch not the stuff i want to watch ,the actual tv guide is buried 3 pages away from the home screen

There are no on screen hints .The Sky+ menu would tell what coloured button to press for +/- 24hrs ,favourites etc ,now you have to watch a help video to find out how to do stuff that was intuitive in sky+

Why does the Sky button on the remote go to recordings and not the tv guide or even better given that it is supposed to be a premium product why not make it user configurable so i can choose what the button does .

Conclusion

Overall i like it and it has huge potential to be awesome, but it is needing a lot more work to make it the flagship product Sky are selling it as .I understand that Sky+ did not start out as it is now it took quite a few years to get to where it is now but quite honestly that should have been the starting point for Q ,instead quite a lot of the functionality has been removed and as it stands it is a backward step .

[muppetman11]

Like anything new things will change over time , Sky can see which areas are being used and requested the most going forward expect changes.

My use differs from yours as I rarely use the TV guide these days.

Just a thought for the mods ,is it worth having another sub forum for Sky Q

---------- Post added at 15:07 ---------- Previous post was at 15:00 ----------

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Like anything new things will change over time , Sky can see which areas are being used and requested the most going forward expect changes.

My use differs from yours as I rarely use the TV guide these days.

What seems evident is that the whole menu system is geared towards on demand content ,it seems to take priority over all other functions ,for example ,as soon as you press home the first thing in the list going down (which is the natural way of looking at menus) is box sets then Cinema followed by Sky Store ,the actual TV guide is buried way up and almost invisible right at the top of the screen above catch Up TV

[Stephen]

I see you mentioned reminders, remember when TiVo came out and there were no reminders where as V+ had them. VM eventually had them added for people that still missed them.

I guess Sky think people don't need them as anything can be recorded with ease now.

I would have thought the Sky button did the same as it used to and go to the main menu. Having a recordings button on TiVo is one thing I would have thought Sky Q would have had?

Is it fast and more responsive than TiVo though? Thats the biggy

[muppetman11]

Home button brings up home page with all the options

Sky button takes you directly to your recordings

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Home button brings up home page with all the options

Sky button takes you directly to your recordings

This is where i think Sky missed a trick ,they could have had the Sky button go anywhere the user wishes because as you said earlier different people have different priorities in their viewing habits .Some may like to go straight to the TV guide others may wish to go straight to on demand .

Of course you have to know it is a button first ,because of the design it looks just like the Sky logo ,2 days before i realised

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by martyh

The Q silver box can fry eggs it gets that hot

Bad news. I had Philips DVD recorder (DVDR75) that was like that. Died very quickly with expensive laser failure. Heat is the worst enemy of sophisticated electronics.

Originally Posted by Stephen

I see you mentioned reminders, remember when TiVo came out and there were no reminders where as V+ had them. VM eventually had them added for people that still missed them.

I guess Sky think people don't need them as anything can be recorded with ease now.

I would have thought the Sky button did the same as it used to and go to the main menu. Having a recordings button on TiVo is one thing I would have thought Sky Q would have had?

Is it fast and more responsive than TiVo though? Thats the biggy

I never had Tivo but many on the Sky forums reckon it's blisteringly fast in comparison .

Have to say i never use reminders but it seems a strange thing to leave out given it's so easy to include

---------- Post added at 17:58 ---------- Previous post was at 17:55 ----------

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Bad news. I had Philips DVD recorder (DVDR75) that was like that. Died very quickly with expensive laser failure. Heat is the worst enemy of sophisticated electronics.

Cook a joint of beef when watching UHD content i think in the interest of H&S it needs looking at .The heat seems concentrated on the left side

---------- Post added at 18:05 ---------- Previous post was at 17:58 ----------

Oh and another thing can someone please tell me what the point of 'My Q ' is ,i thought it may be for suggestions or favourites but you don't get those with Q ,all it appears to do is keep half watched recordings that you forgot to delete

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Is it fast and more responsive than TiVo though? Thats the biggy

Mile faster and more responsive.

[dilli-theclaw]

Can you make the epg talk / large print?

There is audio description for some programs if that's what you mean

Originally Posted by martyh

Just a thought for the mods ,is it worth having another sub forum for Sky Q

No, but I have updated the title of this one.

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by martyh

There is audio description for some programs if that's what you mean

For example my tv reads out loud what's on now/next and subtitles. When the info / subtitles are on screen.

Originally Posted by dilli-theclaw

For example my tv reads out loud what's on now/next and subtitles. When the info / subtitles are on screen.

I don't think it goes that far, as far as i know it's just an additional commentary on the action in the program

[dilli-theclaw]

Well cheers anyway