Has anyone ever actually managed to use Sky Go for more than 10 minutes?!?

Forums › Sky, Neon, Lightbox › Has anyone ever actually managed to use Sky Go for more than 10 minutes?!?

Philbert

53 posts

Master Geek

#143603 20-Apr-2014 19:23

Multiple laptops and PCs (plus multiple OS and browsers) over the life of ISky and now Sky Go but have never managed to get more than 5-10 mins of use before I get some error or another - usually a concurrent stream limit reached or variation thereof.

The glitchiness of it is such that I have virtually given up on using Sky Go - the frustration is such that I would rather record it on MySky and watch it 24 hours later than have the viewing experience totally ruined.

A scan of forums (geekzone and others) would suggest that this is not uncommon for either Sky NZ Sky Go or the British system it appears to be based on.....

Any suggestions gratefully accepted but not holding my breath!

Inphinity

2759 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1028316 20-Apr-2014 19:46

Yes, frequently use it for longer durations. Occasionally buffering issues, but usually fine. A few times have had it simply stop, and had to reload, but not often. I won't say it's fantastic, but to me it's usable. I would like the buffering issues to be less frequent though.

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cjmchch

264 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1028390 20-Apr-2014 22:17

I have the odd concurrency issue but that is because I am jumping from one wireless access point to another and sees it as another connection.

Zippity

683 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1028497 21-Apr-2014 09:51

I watched the Chinese GP in its entirety last night on Sky Go.

No interuptions or breakdowns

old3eyes

8995 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1028505 21-Apr-2014 10:34

I haven't used it since last weekend but no problems except for the occasional buffer. Normally send it to the Chromecast..

Regards,

Old3eyes

TwoSeven

1512 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1028558 21-Apr-2014 12:31

I gave up with it yesterday when trying to watch the formula one. On a surface pro with a good wifi connection, it was unusable. Stuttering and video freezing (still get audio). On my IPhone sitting next to the surface, I was able to get 10 minutes worth, then the video froze and just got audio. I had to completely disconnect and log back in in order to get it working again

On the IPhone I thought I would try and display on a big screen, but it was blocked from using Airplay ("not supported on this device").

It seems to be a rather amateur service as video streaming services go.

Software Engineer
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old3eyes

8995 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1028562 21-Apr-2014 12:41

Yeah I had the frozen video but audio allot during the Winter Olympics usual had to shut down the app making sure that you log out first and relogin again..

Regards,

Old3eyes

Zippity

683 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1028563 21-Apr-2014 12:44

Buy a better hand held

Philbert

53 posts

Master Geek

#1028576 21-Apr-2014 13:24

ok - seems that there are plenty of happy customers but also others that suffer problems - I was trying to watch Grand Prix on Win 8.1 ultrabook over ADSL2 wifi last night but gave up.....had the same problems trying to watch McCallum's 300.

Surprisingly the only time that I have actually enjoyed an uninterrupted, high quality service was *cough* *cough* using it to watch an All Blacks test using Firefox whilst in North America - maybe the problem is not SkyGo but the NZ internet infrastructure

jjnz1

1325 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1028578 21-Apr-2014 13:28

Maybe try alternatives such as Foxtel Play from Aussie.

They have a dedicated service just for online subscribers and it works quite well. It beats Sky NZ's poorly designed online content distribution network! Trying to watch the netball on Sky Go while away from home really doesn't work like it should.

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1028579 21-Apr-2014 13:34

I watched Net Geo for about 45 minutes. Used a constant 3Mbp/s bandwidth.

Talkiet

4689 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1028584 21-Apr-2014 13:43

perfect for me every time I have used it since they switched to using Akamai a year or so ago. (and made changes to their DRM at the same time)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1028590 21-Apr-2014 14:05

I want Sky Go on my S4 :( But its on available on Apple. How sad.

k14

623 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1028623 21-Apr-2014 16:59

It is pretty average, compared to tvnz and tv3's offerings.

It is sporadic in the connecting but usually when I connect it is stable. Except when I have upgraded chrome twice in 30 days, then I am out of luck till I can reset the "devices". Such a dumb system. Why don't they just limit the concurrent connections, no idea why it is a per device/program limit too!

But the biggest frustration is that you cannot set the video quality manually. It thinks it knows how to do it and progressively ramps up the quality until it buffers and then quickly goes down to the lowest quality and progressively ramps the quality up again, till it hits the highest quality and then buffers and goes back to the start. I have watched rugby/cricket games and it just goes through this infinite loop settling at the medium quality setting for 5-10 mins, then you will notice it go up to high quality and 10 seconds later it is buffering and switches back to low quality. If I could set it to the medium I reckon it would stream for hours with no buffering at all.

JarrodM

962 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1028641 21-Apr-2014 17:41

With the device limit, we have my iPhone and my sisters MacBook using chrome as the two devices. But I can go on my macbook using chrome and it works. haven't had any issues with the chrome update breaking it. the device is registered on chrome 31, my macbook is on 34 and it works without changing the device.

for actually watching things it is sometimes hit and miss, but generally when it connects properly and cycles up through the different bitrates to the highest it usually stays on it and is watchable.