Skysports UHD channels on my TV today

[Brucemeister5]

Yeah, but you’ll have to put up with that in HD. 

[naylor2006]

Haha, don’t rub it in 🙂

[stereohaven]

When this is delivered via the Pro Box (agree this will likely be sooner rather than later), I think EE should add 3 more virtual tuners to take IP recording to 4 channels plus watch 1 channel live if you are on say Full Fibre 500 or greater.

They should then make a real song and dance about being the only streaming platform where you can record all of the UHD HDR sport, watch live or on demand. 

The only platform that Sky have that can is Sky Q and trust me, that hardware is really struggling to keep up now. Great PVR, probably the best ever (and it never cuts short a recording...), but it cannot cope with apps these days. 

I have a lot of problems with the UX of EE TV, but I really hate Sky and only use them because it has worked all these years and you could negotiate a good deal. 

Both of these things seem to be coming to an end, EE should make great strides with their platform if they get the messaging right. 

[naylor2006]

That is a great post @stereohaven 

The reality is I would have had Sky all along but for the only fast internet service that was available in my area was Virgin Cable.

Then late last year when Openreach put their fibre in I had a decision to make which came down to price and who offered TV, as I had Virgin before, man I was glad to see the back of the TiVo box, the latency of cable and just Virgin in general, they had the monopoly around here for yonks.

Sky definitely offered the 900Mbps I wanted AND all the UHD sport, but only with Sky Stream, what BT offered was all of the same but minus UHD Sky Sports, for a tenner less a month and with a proper recordable box, the recordable box is really helpful for me and my young family, can’t always catch live kick offs. Also the final kicker was I couldn’t quite come up with a working config for their DHCPv6-PD for my own router. BT just using the most simple or PPPOE it ended up being an easy decision. 82 quid all in, 900 and Big Sport.

What im eventually trying to say is that yes, I agree, EETV should bring it all in one place and truly offer competition to sky.

[stereohaven]

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@naylor2006wrote:

What im eventually trying to say is that yes, I agree, EETV should bring it all in one place and truly offer competition to sky.

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I would aim for a "great value alternative that plays to it's strengths", kind of what we hoped for in the early days of BT TV.

EE cannot really compete with Sky for UX or breadth of integrations, but I honestly don't think it needs to, it just needs to do the basics really well on the Pro Box:

• Apps wise it just needs to add Disney+ and do an amazing deal with HBO/Max for the end of 2025 - anything niche can be added through Prime channels
• It really should be able to do a better integration of Discovery+ and it's channels to make it easier for customers to get at the content they want. Do people even realise they can also watch Discovery and TLC etc. in HD live via the app? 
• It has to sort out the main catch up apps and make premium itvX and Channel 4 work correctly (HD/no ads) - My5 is a lost cause but you have the full suite in HD anyway
• It has to get recording right and it has to take ownership rather than keep blaming app quality and EPG problems on "partners". It's your platform, own it.
• Get all apps (appreciate Netflix will never do it), integrated with the Watch List
• Get all apps to work correctly - Apple TV+ needs HDR, Netflix changes output with the box settings, Prime is very slow to buffer up to speed etc.
• Sort the sound inconsistencies out across IP channels

I don't think I'm asking much! 🤣

[naylor2006]

You see I want even less from the box, I only use the EPG and recording which is another reason why Sky Stream was just not attractive to me, the three tele's we have are by default operated by Apple TV 4K's...thats were we do everything, the box is there for when its required, IE recording footy or series linking stuff on channels that have OD services full of ads, ill exclude ITV from that as you cannot fast forward ads either way, even if you pay you cant do it on the Multicast feed and only in the app. 

Having said that, I do tend to watch Now and TNT on the box just because I got the Multicast to work with my own router and I take some personal satisfaction in that, cause at heart im a nerd.

[stereohaven]

Fair enough.

I think that is where we will end up with our Apple TVs doing the daily heavy lifting but the multicast delivered live channels being used for sport, only to reduce the broadcast delay as much as possible. 

My Sky Q contract is up in November and they now want me to sign up for 2 years with no idea on in contract price rises or what will happen to HBO content at the end of 2025.

With our exchange finally close to rolling out Full Fibre and UHD Sky Sports coming to NOW, I think I might be able to survive on a mix of the Pro Box and my Apple TV!

[naylor2006]

Yes I forgot about that, indeed another benefit of the box is that there is less of a delay, which is great apart from when watching BBC Euro coverage on the red button for HDR (that in so thirsty for) and having to close all the window 🙂

As much I don’t need all the features there, I agree the EE box could and should be ‘OneForAll’.

[why_oh_why]

only to reduce the broadcast delay as much as possible

@stereohaven

Low Latency Mode for sport has recently been introduced in new firmware for Sky Glass and Stream. 

Stream is by far the best option out there for live viewing, app implementation (as compared to BT/EE and Virgin), and completely doing away with the need of recording boxes with its handling of catch up / chase play options. 

I was once a huge BTTV fan but sadly the ball has been dropped there (as you righly point out with your reasoned 'wishlist' just a few posts ago). My Pro box is now gathering dust awaiting return at the end of my contract period. My TNT Sport / Discovery channel viewing is done via the Discovery+ platform, which is the only thing I'd now commend still linked with BT/EE.

[stereohaven]

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@why_oh_whywrote:

Stream is by far the best option out there for live viewing, app implementation (as compared to BT/EE and Virgin), and completely doing away with the need of recording boxes with its handling of catch up / chase play options. 

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I know, it's why I ended up with Sky Q again and watching TNT Sports on Discovery+, because as a daily driver, the UX of EE TV is miles away from Sky.

But my dislike of Sky has never gone away, they did me dirty on a broadband contract once, and as I have said before, I don't like their renewal tactics, package price hikes and add on charges. 

The reason I came to BT TV as it originally existed was because it was a good mix of value and key content at the time and I was fed up having to keep leaving Sky to get a decent deal within a week of switch off. 

I'm stuck in this weird space where I love the Sky TV experience but hate the company with a passion, and really dislike the EE TV experience, but want to make it work somehow because I think it can be a decent alternative if they get it right.