Tv 360 vs sky stream

[Dave6018]

So, after seven years with Virgin, I decided to leave, mainly because of the price and terrible retention deals.

So, tonight is my first day with Sky Stream, and I have to say it is impressive. I love the way it records, grabs everything together. For each show, you have the option of watching from the beginning, even Sky Sports News. The picture and sound quality are superior, but the biggest difference is in my wallet.

[newapollo]

Sky stream has no local-storage for recordings, therefore it doesn't record at all.

Instead, you get limited “Cloud Recording” capabilities, with the device supposedly being able to record up to 1,000 hours “to the cloud”, and then stream them back to you on demand/playlists.

It relies on streaming from 3rd party apps like BBC iPlayer My5 and Channel4, each with its own content expiry rules.

It's missing a number of freeview channels (all of which are now available on the VM Stream box)

The Sky Stream puck will stop working if you unsubscribe from Sky – even the 3rd party apps like BBC iPlayer won’t work anymore.

It does have the advantage, when you’re watching a live channel, you can always pause and resume the live broadcast. Starting over, however, depends on the channel – some have that function, and some don’t (much like VM Stream)

[Adduxi]

Nah, I think I'll just keep my old 2TB Humax Freeview recorder going for as long as possible.   😉

[unisoft]

I have both. I have now DITCHED Sky Stream and in 30 day cancellation period, because VM Stream is half the price and has added all the channels I care about now. I've had Sky Stream nearly a year.

• Sky Stream was initially, for some months last year, extremely buggy with messages like "Please wait for the channel to load..." even though it was nothing to do with WIFI (green site, DFS higher transmit channels, spectrum clean and confirmed by speed test on actual stream device). Took months to "nearly" fix. It's much better now but not totally fixed. Many people on Sky forums were complaining and cancelling as this thing was annoying just changing channels. Rebooting the box was the "workaround".
• It also cannot cope with a router having scheduled on/off for WIFI. Every day, I had to go to network settings to reconnect the box because after it doesn't see a WIFI signal, it only tries a few times after to reconnect. Sky Customer Services admitted this during cancellation and that many customers had cancelled because of this.
• Picture quality is actually higher on Virgin Media's Stream box - there may be an odd channel exception, but major channels and UKTV channels are better on VM Stream.
• VM Stream's hardware is also significantly faster than Sky Stream's current hardware.
• The QVC shopping channels are encoded incorrectly on Sky Stream. They have done simple 1080i50 to 1080p25 and lose the temporal motion resulting in judder/flicker on any motion. VM Stream is correctly encoded and honours the original interlaced picture.
• Far too many clicks of remote to actually watch a channel on Sky Stream as I had to group channels in a Favourites list (stupidly limited to 99 channels maximum) just so I could have my own channel numbering and exclude channels I didn't ever watch or didn't subscribe to. VM makes this easier through use of profiles and channel reordering is unlimited. Create a user on VM Stream, sign in with it, and then you can create a custom numbered channel list with BBC1 on channel 1 for example.
• The Sky Stream box had other issues like remote control being very basic compared to VM Stream and no channel up or down keys. As a new user, I found the normal arrow keys and holding them down was the only way to make the EPG scroll faster. In VM Stream, you can do whole pages at a time.
• UI on Sky Stream was annoying as "Watch from start" dialogue popup when changing channel, and often got selected by mistake with OK button (intended to bring up mini guide) which then launched a catch-up app. And nothing is fast on Sky Stream.
• VM Stream is FREE of any TV subscription package if you want to be. Sky Stream isn't. Stop paying a subscription and the Sky Stream box has to be returned. VM Stream carries Freeview channels + a few extra WITHOUT a subscription - subscriptions are optional for premium content and rolling monthly if chosen with 10% discount each month.

At £29 a month for rolling contract on Sky vs VM £13.50 (10% automatic discount every month for this price) it was cheaper with some channels not on Sky (+1 channels, some music channels), but equally Sky Atlantic and CNN not available on VM.

What I don't like about VM Stream is the lack of WPA3 support and only WPA2 for WiFi. That seems a stupid omission to me.

[Adduxi]

All my streaming kit is cabled so WPA is a non issue.