Stream is really not good enough

[EAB2021]

OK, so the stream puck arrived. It's like going back ten years in terms of quality. 

Unless I'm mistaken, there's no way to watch from start unless it's BBC which jumps to the iPlayer, or itv channels that go to itv X. On sky stream when you select a channel you can always press a button to watch ANY PROGRAMME from start from sky's servers. 

The picture quality is truly appalling. How you can call this HD I have no idea! 

Attached are two photos from channel 4 news. Even at the low resolution this forum uploads, you can see the sky stream picture is pin sharp, but virgin stream is barely focused and far darker. I got those to get sky sports cheaper, but I'm loathe to give virgin a penny more if the quality is so awful 

 

 I'm very tech savvy, so please don't @ me will comments about trying different cables or whatever. The tv thinks it's receiving a uhd picture at 3840x2160, so the quality issue is clearly Virgin's. 

Even the TV guide is kind of fuzzy!

These two issues are absolute deal breakers, which, after the ball ache I've had getting the puck, has made me even angrier than before!

[EAB2021]

Thanks for your long reply, so here's mine bit by bit...

1. Aside from MTV 80s where the picture quality isn't really relevant I don't watch any SD broadcasts, as pretty much everything on sky stream is HD by default, and the picture is far better than virgin stream

2. The 'please wait for your programme to load' error is bad, I agree. I thought it was my connection, but even when wired it happens so it's clearly a Sky issue with the puck, the OS or the servers.

3. I don't really understand your issue. My favourites come up along the first rail and I use that constantly to select the channel I want to watch. It couldn't be easier. 

4. Why are you disabling your WiFi? 🤷‍♂️

5. I'm not worshipping sky stream, it has many faults. But in terms of usability the UX is very good - similar in design to the brilliant Q, which I'd love to have but simply can't in my rented flat.

I wish virgin stream was good, but it really isn't. And dealing with virgin as a customer is perhaps the worst experience you could possibly imagine.

[unisoft]

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@EAB2021 wrote:

Thanks for your long reply, so here's mine bit by bit...

1. Aside from MTV 80s where the picture quality isn't really relevant I don't watch any SD broadcasts, as pretty much everything on sky stream is HD by default, and the picture is far better than virgin stream

2. The 'please wait for your programme to load' error is bad, I agree. I thought it was my connection, but even when wired it happens so it's clearly a Sky issue with the puck, the OS or the servers.

3. I don't really understand your issue. My favourites come up along the first rail and I use that constantly to select the channel I want to watch. It couldn't be easier. 

4. Why are you disabling your WiFi? 🤷‍♂️

5. I'm not worshipping sky stream, it has many faults. But in terms of usability the UX is very good - similar in design to the brilliant Q, which I'd love to have but simply can't in my rented flat.

I wish virgin stream was good, but it really isn't. And dealing with virgin as a customer is perhaps the worst experience you could possibly imagine.

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• Its 99 favourites on Sky and when you use the mini guide, the renumbering of channels you have done gets reverted to default Sky numbering. You always have to select "Favourites" on the home screen to get your own list. On VM Stream, as long as you don;t sign in with default user profile, whenever you press EPG button on remote or use mini guide or the main guide; it always shows your renumbered list and it does not limit the list to 99 tv/radio channels either.
• I don't need WiFi on during the night, so my router turns it off on a schedule as it allows me to as not using the rubbish ISP one except in modem mode.
• Most of the SD channels on VM Stream are HD ones too with higher at a higher bit rate. The picture really is quite decent on VM Stream, I definitely found it to be better than Sky Stream on SD and HD. VM do not decode and recode an off air picture from aerial or satellite likes years ago for set top boxes, they have direct feeds from broadcasters now at higher bit rates than goes out on Transmitter MUXs.

I agree on the CS bit. 🙂

[EAB2021]

I don't really understand what you're saying about favourites. 

On my home screen the TV guide rail has my favourites, and if I select one it is my favourite number, not the sky number. 

Similarly if I press 'tv guide' at the start of my favourites rail and go up one step to 'favourites' they are all listed with their favourite number, not sky. 

  

[unisoft]

OK, TRY adding more than 99 channels to a favourite list. You can't. It's ceiling is 99 which is not many if you want to renumber all the channels you care about.

Go into favourites on the TV GUIDE link on home screen. Get the mini-guide up by pressing an arrow key on remote - it's back to Sky numbering again. There are some other methods which revert to Sky numbering too.

[pete_at_home]

For the Video resolution question, look up how Mpeg Dash actually works.   There are multiple copies of each TV channel, but at different resolution & bitrates.  Only one rate is used at a given time, depending on the network connection (primarily your router to stb WiFi).   If the bandwidth from the Router to STB drops, then the STB will switch to a lower resolution in order to maintain the vdieo & audio.   Clearly this will be more predominate on WiFi, and also depends on the distance from the router to the STB.

As said above if you set the STB to follow the stream resolution you will then see the TV switch as the streams change.   Note: this will be annoying on some TV's, so only do it as a test.

Lastly, when changing channels the STB will probably start with the lowest resolution.  Wait a bit for the streaming to switch to the higher rates.  I don't know what chunk size VM uses, but it could be anything from 2-10 seconds, whci means it could take 30seconds to get to full resolution (assuming your WiFi can support it).

If possible, try the same tests using Ethernet from the router to STB.