New SKY streaming devices

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23 posts

Geek

#3153315 29-Oct-2023 12:55

Wakrak:

For you battlers that have been with Sky for 20+ years

New Sky Box On Us T&Cs - Sky

This offer is to upgrade to the new Sky Box ‘on us’ (a discount off the one-off fee of $200).
This offer is valid from 1 November 2023 until 30 June 2024.
You are eligible for this offer if you have been a continuous Sky TV customer for 20+ years.
Your offer will be redeemable online and over the phone by contacting us.
Sky Consumer Terms apply.

As "a continuous Sky TV customer for 30+ years" going back to 3 channels UHF, I'd strongly recommend that you don't bother, at least until such time as they fix the appalling interface on the new Sky box.

I foolishly believed their marketing hype, took the free upgrade, and have not been forgiven yet by my family for dumping them with a barely workable, confusing new interface.

We unlucky early adopters are still lumbered with having to fast forward through hours of preamble to get to the bit of the programme we want to see, assuming that it has recorded properly in the first place. So much for all of their testing.

Major

siva992

77 posts

Master Geek

#3153373 29-Oct-2023 13:21

MajorFigjam:
Wakrak:

For you battlers that have been with Sky for 20+ years

New Sky Box On Us T&Cs - Sky

This offer is to upgrade to the new Sky Box ‘on us’ (a discount off the one-off fee of $200).

This offer is valid from 1 November 2023 until 30 June 2024.

You are eligible for this offer if you have been a continuous Sky TV customer for 20+ years.

Your offer will be redeemable online and over the phone by contacting us.

Sky Consumer Terms apply.

As "a continuous Sky TV customer for 30+ years" going back to 3 channels UHF, I'd strongly recommend that you don't bother, at least until such time as they fix the appalling interface on the new Sky box.

I foolishly believed their marketing hype, took the free upgrade, and have not been forgiven yet by my family for dumping them with a barely workable, confusing new interface.

We unlucky early adopters are still lumbered with having to fast forward through hours of preamble to get to the bit of the programme we want to see, assuming that it has recorded properly in the first place. So much for all of their testing.

Major

Given up mine a long time ago. I am speaking from a techie point of view. I can't imagine anyone trying to get used to the bugs and issues when I myself can't even get over it. My parents too were UHF Sky users. And I have not got them on the new Skybox at all.

I was featured in the sky commercial promoting the new sky box, and ever since then I had the new Skybox party in my apartment for people to come and test out the system and of the 30 odd groups who have come over to experience it for themselves, none of them have gotten the new Skybox till today.

I still can't get over the fact that sky is still offering the box, or rather selling the box, and in fact running promotions like this to Sky customers who have been loyal to them. Let's just say that loyalty doesn't get its way sometimes and Sky needs to learn that pronto.

Rushmere

354 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3153392 29-Oct-2023 14:09

I sent my new Sky Pod back 6 months ago. I was sad to give up Sky, but the message from my family was clear: it's unusable, it has to go.

I vowed to have a look 6 months later in the hope that they would have sorted out the problems. Well, here we are 6 months later, and it still looks grim. It's interesting to see that the Sky Pod still hasn't been deemed good enough to release to anyone beyond the original Vodafone TV customers.

I'll come back again for a look in another 6 months, but by then I suspect the family will all have become so used to the reliability and ease-of-use of the the Apple TV, there will be no going back.

It's a shame. I enjoyed using Sky.

Shadbolt

130 posts

Master Geek

#3153645 30-Oct-2023 12:08

My current least-favourite beef with the New Sky Box is the way that once or twice a week it puts itself into full shutdown overnight. When we turn the TV on at around 1830 to watch the TVNZ News, it turns out that the box was fully shut down, and only starts recording from then. Have to watch it on TVNZ+, and any other overnight recordings have been missed.

siva992

77 posts

Master Geek

#3153646 30-Oct-2023 12:10

Shadbolt:
My current least-favourite beef with the New Sky Box is the way that once or twice a week it puts itself into full shutdown overnight. When we turn the TV on at around 1830 to watch the TVNZ News, it turns out that the box was fully shut down, and only starts recording from then. Have to watch it on TVNZ+, and any other overnight recordings have been missed.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It was everyday for me

Shadbolt

130 posts

Master Geek

#3153647 30-Oct-2023 12:13

Suddenly thought - I wonder if it matters which "power" button you push first - Sky then TV, or TV then Sky.

I feel the need to experiment, as I know I don't always do it the same way.

Maybe you always did it the same way, and it always ended up in shutdown?

siva992

77 posts

Master Geek

#3153649 30-Oct-2023 12:16

Shadbolt:
Suddenly thought - I wonder if it matters which "power" button you push first - Sky then TV, or TV then Sky.

I feel the need to experiment, as I know I don't always do it the same way.

Maybe you always did it the same way, and it always ended up in shutdown?

I was very sceptical about the new Skybox because it was powered by Android, and also because the last time I've experienced this exact same issue, was with the Dish TV superbox A2 which also ran Android. That had so many issues that are so similar to this new Skybox, which there were countless exchanges of the Super Box A2 to see if the new one worked, and also the constant upgrade with firmware, to the extent that I was given a beta version of the future release which was told to fix those issues, but it didn't at all. I returned it to Noel Leeming, Dish TV expedited the case, and I got a full refund.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

afe66

3181 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3153650 30-Oct-2023 12:19

I got the "offer" to change from my old box and declined and specifically referenced geekzone for problems other ppl had.
My parents were swapped when their hard drive died and I wasn't impressed at all with new box.

And then there's the ongoing absence of 4k sport despite it being available in Australia.

Went to "party" to watch the world cup final. Huge 80" TV but showing 1080 and the picture was decidedly average.....

siva992

77 posts

Master Geek

#3153655 30-Oct-2023 12:30

afe66: I got the "offer" to change from my old box and declined and specifically referenced geekzone for problems other ppl had.
My parents were swapped when their hard drive died and I wasn't impressed at all with new box.

And then there's the ongoing absence of 4k sport despite it being available in Australia.

Went to "party" to watch the world cup final. Huge 80" TV but showing 1080 and the picture was decidedly average.....

By that, You now know how bad Sky TV is. They won't even buy more satellite bandwidth to test trial a 4K channel. They are so invested with Optus D1, that they won't even trial IPTV. I know the IPTV model is done on the sky pod, but I feel like that's just sky go in a puck. Likewise for the new skybox, the front facade of the whole thing is sky go. They prioritise that because they think that pushing the on-demand agenda as a satellite TV company is the right thing to do, But the new Skybox still depends on a satellite to watch live TV. It's just so dumb. I have discussed this with the trial team before and I don't think there are planning on changing that path at all.

So many other countries like Astro in Malaysia who have now gone satellite IPTV hybrid, have successfully trialed EPL 4K broadcast and are now officially and commercially offering it to customers, with Singtel IPTV in Singapore, just about to conclude 4K trials with the same EPL 4K broadcast.

Rushmere

354 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3153660 30-Oct-2023 12:39

It's probably a bit fanciful, but I'm hoping that the buyout offer currently on the table for Sky NZ (if it goes ahead) is from a company that has experience in delivering quality software.

I think Sky would do well to move towards delivering services via an App for streaming customers, and reduce the need to also be a hardware supplier, which is hard to do well.

I do find it a bit worrying that the Sky NZ CEO is saying that the new Box is "back on track" after a few software problems have been fixed, and is largely saying that the remaining problems are basically due to older customers taking time to get used to it. I hope that's only the public position, and that they're actually still working furiously in the background on improving it, otherwise there isn't a lot of hope.

siva992

77 posts

Master Geek

#3153679 30-Oct-2023 12:47

Rushmere:
It's probably a bit fanciful, but I'm hoping that the buyout offer currently on the table for Sky NZ (if it goes ahead) is from a company that has experience in delivering quality software.

I think Sky would do well to move towards delivering services via an App for streaming customers, and reduce the need to also be a hardware supplier, which is hard to do well.

I do find it a bit worrying that the Sky NZ CEO is saying that the new Box is "back on track" after a few software problems have been fixed, and is largely saying that the remaining problems are basically due to older customers taking time to get used to it. I hope that's only the public position, and that they're actually still working furiously in the background on improving it, otherwise there isn't a lot of hope.

It just looks like a contract that they have signed and there's no looking back right now. The objective is to get as many people onto the new platform and just hope for the best. They might be facing a quota contract and an over ambitious projection of getting as many people on board the new Skybox. Having said that, they have no obligations right now to fix the issues on time but they know that they've got problems at hand, which might suggest that there will be a fix in a (perhaps) new Skybox 2.0.

But it's 2023, these are rookie mistakes. How is someone at the backend testing out these products and saying that this is okay? Better yet, how are they able to release an unusable product?

middleearth

54 posts

Master Geek

#3153682 30-Oct-2023 12:52

Rushmere:

It's probably a bit fanciful, but I'm hoping that the buyout offer currently on the table for Sky NZ (if it goes ahead) is from a company that has experience in delivering quality software.

I think Sky would do well to move towards delivering services via an App for streaming customers, and reduce the need to also be a hardware supplier, which is hard to do well.

I do find it a bit worrying that the Sky NZ CEO is saying that the new Box is "back on track" after a few software problems have been fixed, and is largely saying that the remaining problems are basically due to older customers taking time to get used to it. I hope that's only the public position, and that they're actually still working furiously in the background on improving it, otherwise there isn't a lot of hope.

Hmmm, glad to hear they think they fixed the issues - wonder why the heck I have 3 hours of live tennis recorded over 27 partially recorded sessions - some are 0 minutes recorded and some are 9 minutes - honestly don't know how they function.......... Don't think that is an older customer issue.......

mclean

581 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3153745 30-Oct-2023 16:00

It seems we were one of the lucky subscribers who got a SkyPod when the VTV service ended. After more than 6 months of use we've experienced none of the issues described in this topic, apart from needing maybe a couple of restarts, and that's with it connected via Wifi. It's a bit quirky in places, but that's improving and it's vastly better than the old VTV. I can't help thinking that anyone reading this topic might write off the SkyPod, when in fact most of the criticisms relate to the SkyBox. Anyway, we like it.

Fog

372 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3153753 30-Oct-2023 16:12

I can't see a lot wrong with the new sky box either.

MajorFigjam

23 posts

Geek

#3153804 30-Oct-2023 21:13

Fog:

I can't see a lot wrong with the new sky box either.

Really?

So all or any of the following issues come within your assessment of not "a lot wrong." Thanks to others who have already made these points, but I don't think it hurts to repeat them here.

1. After deleting a watched recording the 'Delete Recording' is still active and if other recordings are present it is very easy to accidently delete another. If there are no other recordings after deleting a recording, but recordings are scheduled the active window, 'Delete Recording' changes to 'Cancel Recording' again so very easy to accidentally delete. This results in deleting an episode that yoou have not viewed yet, or accidentally deleting another episode after deleting an episode, or accidentally cancelling a future recording after deleting the last recorded episode

2. Whilst using FFW/REW/Pause.
Screen Dims (makes it difficult to see especially in dark scenes)
Title of the program is displayed across the screen
Various other icons on the screen eg "<-Back" display in the top/left of the screen while FFWD/RWNDing is really annoying because it displays over important information such as the scores in rugby
REW hardly ever stops at the point wanted, quite often going back to the position REW started from or some other random position. If you rewind using 4x for just a second or 2 to rewatch something that was just shown that you missed, in many cases the box will automatically fast forward to the place you started to rewind from.
FFW speed needs fine tuning.2 x 4 x 8 x 12 are more relevant along with a means of getting to specific point in recording - except of course if you have to skip through 2 hours of preamble to get to the halftime highlights!

3. Series Link records everything remotely connected to the series wanted, also series link finding episodes from multiple series even across multiple channels, sometimes episode recorded in multiple parts, sometimes episode is missing end

4. Episodes are listed from newest to oldest, so have to scroll all the way through to get to the episode most likely to view.

5. On the old Sky box you could position into a long recording (golf, rugby) by typing in the number of minutes to skip to in the recording. e.g. Typing 120 would position 2 hours into the recording.

6. When you exit back to the main Planner screen after watching and deleting a recording, the "active box" could be anywhere on the screen, and not visible.

7. The ability to hide channels you are not subscribed to has gone

8. If watching something on Planner that is still recording and you reach the live point it will kick you back to the start. Particularly annoying if you are several hours into say something like golf and instead of stopping when reaching the live point and letting you resume there, it takes you all the way back to the start.

9. On some recordings, mainly the TVNZ 6pm news, a few minutes into replay, the picture goes black for a few seconds, and it then resumes playing from around five seconds prior to the black screen. I'm guessing that the box is stitching together the two recordings.

10. The new Sky Box now randomly puts itself into full shutdown overnight. For example, when we turn the TV on to watch Breakfast TV, or the TVNZ News, it turns out that the box was fully shut down, and only starts recording from then. Any other overnight recordings have been missed.

Lets hope that Sky eventually get round to addressing these points. After all, if there's not a lot wrong it can't take a lot to fix them.

Major

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