New sky Q 4K prepared DVR Brings Wireless Multiroom plus tablet Take Away
[UPDATE – checked out our full real-world evaluation of sky Q] No wise house is total without a DVR however the method we watch TV has altered so much over the last decade that some elements of our usage still feel mired in the past.
Sky’s director of new Products, Andrew Olson (previously COO at Comcast), joined sky as director of product planning as well as style in 2012 with the obligation of producing a new a household of products.
The fruition of that project is ‘Sky Q’, the next generation system from the TV colossus. It’s the very first genuine update because Sky+ HD was introduced a decade back as well as it looks set to bring their DVR into the 21st Century.
The UK’s 11 million sky subscribers are the very first to be offered the Q system. Highlights include the capability to stream recordings to TVs as well as tablets around your home, pause a show in one space as well as bring on in another, as well as sync recordings to your tablet to view offline.
There’s a option of two versions of the new sky box. Both share a new svelte chassis that’s around half the size of last gen design (330mm x 210mm x 43mm) and provides gain access to to the typical multitude of stations including over 50 HD channels as well as 300+ sky Box Sets. They incorporate dual band WiFi
2.4GHz 801.11n is 2×2 MIMO – Back compatible with 802.11 b/g
5GHz 801.11ac is 3×3 MIMO – Back compatible with 802.11n
You can stream music to them through Bluetooth 4.0 LE or AirPlay as well as with Digital Audio available via the HDMI or optical S/PIDF out they might type part of a whole home audio system.
Sky Q
From £42 per month the “Sky Q” is the entry level box with 8 tuners enabling you to record 3 shows while you watch a 4th live. You can view as much as 3 different shows at the same time – 1 x primary box 1 x Q Mini, 1 x Tablet. It has 1TB to store as much as 150 hours of HD TV (around 300GB reserved by sky for other uses).
Sky Q Silver
From £54 per month the “Sky Q Silver” box has 12 tuners enabling you to record 4 shows while you view a 5th live. You can view as much as 5 different shows at the same time – 1 x primary box, 2 x Q Minis, 2 x Tablets.
It’s the only one of the boxes to support UHD when their 4K services comes online later this year (50fps 2160p UHD output utilising HDMI 2.0 as well as HDCP2.2). Its 2TB’s can store as much as 350 hours of HD TV (also around 300GB reserved by sky for other uses). It comes bundled with one of the Q small boxes for multiroom.
Sky Q Mini
The £99 Q small box at last brings wireless multiscreen seeing to sky subscribers – no much more running satellite cable televisions to your bedroom. just like the primary sky box it can show any type of online channel, all your recordings plus on-demand. It’s smaller (232mm x 155mm x 35mm) as well as is restricted to 1080p output.
Sky are calling the Q small ‘plug as well as play’ multiroom as well as it employs both Wi-Fi as well as Powerline AV1.1 (only compatible with other sky gadgets as well as not enabled at launch) to send all your shows as well as recordings from your primary box in one more space in your home. ideally this can make streaming much more trustworthy than wireless only systems. You can have a maximum of 2 mini’s on your Silver system (1 on the fundamental sky Q box). [UPDATE] It appears like you’ll be able to have 4 minis per silver box, the limitation to 2 is only for introduce while stocks are low.
Sky Q Touch Remote
The new remote features a concave touchpad similar to the one discovered on the most recent Apple TV which brings the scrolling as well as swiping gestures we’re all utilized to on our smartphones in addition to clicking to select. It utilizes Bluetooth instead of IR so no much more aiming at the box under the telly (hurrah!).
There’s a devoted browse button to make discovering your shows as well as recordings much simpler as well as a voice browse function is because of be turned on in an upcoming software application update.
The record button now sets a series link with a single click, records a single episode with two or cancels the recording with three.
If you’re always losing your remote down the back of the sofa then a press of the Q button on the front of the new box will begin the remote beeping so yo can discover it faster.
Sky Q Hub
If you are a sky Broadband customer then you’ll get the new sky Q Hub when you purchase your sky Q box. The new router likewise allows a function on all your Q boxes as well as minis turning them into Wi-Fi hotspots (802.11ac) to prolong the variety as well as quaility of your home’s wireless network.
The UI as well as UX
With a brand new contemporary UI the hardware as well as software application come together to offer a new individual experience that sky are calling ‘Fluid Viewing’…
Fluid seeing provides you the versatility to pause a show in one space as well as pick up the action best where you left it on one more TV or tablet in your home. It introduces the top requested function from customers, the capability to take recordings with you anywhere you go. And battles over what to view or record are a thing of the past, as you can likewise view different programmes at the same time on as much as five screens around the house while recording as much as four other channels – a very first in the UK as well as Ireland
The TV guide includes a curated ‘Top Picks’ section in addition to personalised suggestions in the My Q section based on your seeing habits. This is likewise the location you’ll pickup from where you left off seeing in one more space from Q Play function in the ‘Continue’ menu. The much more powerful browse functions will let you discover your next episode, whether it’s on online TV, recorded or on-demand.
The new side bar enables you to utilize a so-far restricted variety of apps without interrupting your viewing. There are sky news as well as sport apps as well as a pictures one that can pull in pics from Facebook.
The new on the internet videos section includes YouTube as well as Vimeo integration in addition to videos from other sources like Wired.
Sky Q App
The sky Q app is a new application for your iOS iPad or Android tablet that enables you to stream shows as well as recordings around your house in addition to Q Sync them for offline viewing. numerous parents may recon the chance of silence during a long cars and truck journey is worth the cost of admission alone.
As ever licensing problems rear their unsightly head as well as BBC iPlayer shows cannot be transferred to a tablet. Here’s the little print we’ve handled to discover concerning this feature – “Save chosen recordings from last 90 days. material deleted from tablet 48 hours after seeing starts or no later than 30 days after syncing”.
Sky state a smartphone version of the app is in the works too…
In addition, the ‘Fluid Viewing’ experience will come to even much more screens with a new app for smartphones, with other gadgets to follow.
RELATED: Infuse Media app Syncs videos to your Tablet
No word yet on the choices for 3rd celebration manage for customized Installers but certainly sky will release official protocol details for IP manage as well as integration (and please our good friends at Cornflake).
Costs & client Service
Sky Q is offered to order from tomorrow (9 February). house installations begin at the end of this month as well as expense £50 for existing sky customers or £99 for new ones. In addition there’s a one-off ‘Smart Features’ fee of between £99 as well as £299 (check out this pricing grid for details). That’s not for the hardware though as you’re just renting it as well as should return to sky if you cancel your sub.
Both boxes come bundled with ‘Sky Go Extra’ (normally £5 per month) which enables you to stream as well as download from as much as 70 sky channels over 3G/4G/Wi-Fi to 4 gadgets (games consoles, phones as well as tablets) instead of the routine 2.
Sky Broadband clients will be very first to get their systems with broadband individuals from other providers to follow. Sky state the common continuous monthly expense for existing Sky+ clients will be around £12 extra, while new clients can get on board from £42.
There’s no mention of Ultra HD pricing for later in the year, however if history is anything to go by there’s going to be an extra premium to pay for that too.
Sky Q doesn’t replace Sky+, which is because of get an EPG update itself in the coming months which may even bring a few of these new features.
An completely new level of client service is guaranteed for this ‘premium product’ as well as anybody that’s had to phone sky in the past will tell you that can only be a great thing.
For the very first time ever, sky Q clients will get servicing as well as mechanical fault repair work at no additional cost. In addition, clients will have gain access to to a devoted premium service centre based in the UK.
Is It For You?
Watching TV is getting messy. want to see “House of Cards’? Get a NetFlix subscription. want to see Clarkson’s new top Gear? pay for Amazon Prime. It would be good to see choices to view these services on sky Q rather than having all these boxes hanging off your telly.
Sky are keen to point out this is just the beginning for this new platform, presumably alluding to new features being added over time with software application updates. So perhaps we’ll see a Netflix or Amazon added in the future.
They’re likewise trying to catchup as well as overtake the rival offerings from BT as well as Virgin as well as of program the streaming cable television cutters good friends like Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, terminate TV etc.
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Many of us are locked into the sky platform though, if you’re an F1 fan like me, or a footballist you’ve truly got no other option. We’ve been longing for a new system such as this because it was very first rumoured and we hope to get our hands on one in the coming weeks. It’ll be simpler to judge after living with it for a while. For now we can state it’s definitely premium priced, however it likewise appears like a premium product too.
sky.com/SkyQ
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Last update on 2021-10-04 / affiliate links / pictures from Amazon product marketing API