Sky Sports app on Windows

[DMJH]

I am a Virgin Media customer with a package that includes both Sky Sports and BT Sport. Using the Virgin To Go web site I can watch BT Sport directly via my laptop browser without any issue whatsover.

To view Sky Sports programs on my laptop I have installed the Sky Sports app on my laptop (which complies with the hardware and sofware requirements published for the app - Windows 10, latest version of Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome broswer) and signed in with my Virgin media credentials, but the video playback via the Sky Sport app is terrible.

Every couple of minutes the the picture goes "blurry", for about 10 seconds, then clear, then blurry again and so on.

I have no problem with my internet connection. Everything else works fine - including Sky Cinema. Has anyone else experiencing the same problem (which I've seen on various forums both Virgin and Sky) received a solution?

It's a very frustrating problem, as I travel a lot and would love to watch Sky Sports on my laptop, but it's basically unwatchable.

I've posted the same question on the Sky discussion forum and their response was to contact Virgin Media as I am their customer - even though the app is Sky's and not Virgin Media's 
Thanks in advance

[newapollo]

 Hi DMJH 

Check your browser settings and try turning off hardware acceleration if it's enabled.

[mikefraser]

I get exactly the same on my Windows devices, yet BT sport and Virgin channels are fine. I think the Sky Windows app is very buggy, and I doubt very much its your kit!

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @DMJH 👋.

Thanks for reaching out to us. Apologies you are having streaming issues with your Virgin Togo via the web browser. Please could you ensure that the settings on your browser are fit for sport streaming requirements, as nowadays most sports is recorded and broadcasted in 4K if your laptop resolution does not cater for that then pixelation and buffering will become more common, also via the web browser settings. 

Please let us know how you get on.

Sabrina

[DMJH]

Hello. This isn't relevant to my question. I don't have Sky Sports 4K as part of my package, its Sky Sport HD and my Windows 10 laptop's display resolution is set to HD (1920 x 1080). There's no option for setting display resolution in web browsers, as they rely on the resolution settings of the laptop.

Thanks

[DMJH]

I'll give it a go as soon as I can sign on to my Virgin Media account via the sky sports web site, as that seems to have a problem now, just keeps giving me an error.

Thanks

[DMJH]

I agree Mike, it's one of the worst apps I've tried to use. Why can't we be give the option of using the Sky Go app as "real" Sky Sports customers can? Surely Sky gets paid from Virgin media for us paying for Sky Sports

[Travis_M]

Hi @DMJH 

Thanks for your response

Please keep us updated with how you get on, this would be an issue to take up with Sky Sports as they run the app and we cannot run faults diagnostics on the back of this. We can only do so for TVGo etc ran by ourselves.

Regards

[DMJH]

I've already tried raising this with Sky and they say I should raise this with Virgin Media as I am a VM customer. Seems to be a lot of buck passing going on here.
Thanks

[newapollo]

Hi again DMJH 

Do you have another computer/laptop to try viewing channels via the Sky Sports web site?  If so are they affected.

I have devices with Windows 10 and Windows 11 and don't have any issues with either of them.

Have you tried uninstalling and then re-installing the desktop player? The last time I  uninstalled the Sky Desktop Player (version 6.0.1) and then reinstalled it for some reason the page said it was downloading version 6.0.0 but  it actually downloaded 6.0.1 again and all worked as expected.

If that doesn't work then try the following:-

You remove the hidden files and folders that the Sky Sports desktop app uses:

 Uninstall the Sky Sports Player app, then type 'run' in the windows search bar and open the 'Run' app

Type in '%AppData%' and click 'OK' ***** 

- Delete the 'Sky Sports' folders

- Click back on 'AppData' and go into the 'LocalLow' folder

- Click on the 'Cisco' folder, then the 'VideoGuard' folder

- Delete the 'SKY_GB-SKY_SKYSPORTS' folder

- Restart you computer

- Download the Sky Sports Player app again

****** (If it doesn't find that folder then you need to open it manually by opening File Explorer and going to C: Users/Yourname where Yourname is the third option showing (not the Default or Public folder)  Then open the Roaming Folder and delete the Sky Sports folders. Then follow the instructions for AppData' and go into the 'LocalLow' folder etc.