Sky Q box(es)

[Deron]

New Sky Box infrastructure from Sky coming next year.

Sky Q Silver

2TB Hard Disk Drive, 1.7TB for customer use.
Supporting up to 350 hours of HD recordings
• Ability to record four channels while watching a fifth
• Ability to support simultaneous viewing on
two tablets using the Sky Q app
• Ability to support simultaneous viewing on
two Sky Q Mini boxes

https://corporate.sky.com/documents/...q%20silver.pdf

Sky Q

1TB Hard Disk Drive, over 700GB for customer use
• Supporting up to 150 hours of HD recordings
• Ability to record three channels while watching
a fourth
• Ability to support viewing on one tablet using
the Sky Q app
• Ability to support viewing on one Sky Q Mini box

https://corporate.sky.com/documents/...heet-sky-q.pdf

Sky Q mini

The Sky Q Mini allows you to watch your shows and recordings
from the main Sky Q box throughout the home.
This means you can enjoy the same Sky Q experience in
another room without the need for more satellite cables.
When combined with Sky Broadband, it also boosts your Wi-Fi
signal, because the box acts as an extra hotspot

https://corporate.sky.com/documents/...sky-q-mini.pdf

https://corporate.sky.com/media-cent...of-watching-tv

Going by that naming scheme there must be an even fancier Sky Q Gold box on the way

[Deron]

Originally Posted by ShakeyJake

Going by that naming scheme there must be an even fancier Sky Q Gold box on the way

Probably with a Platinum to follow.

Interesting things to note from the technical documents.

-All boxes will support 1080p
-The two satellite boxes still only have two physical tuners, so I'm guessing the other 'tuners' are video streaming recording.
-4k box is hdmi 1.4b.
-No gigabit ethernet.
-Sky Q mini has ethernet and supports dolby digital.

[Coolio]

Sky should've used the opportunity to go wireless with their receivers. The boxes should not have to run off wires to every TV. That was something we found a pain in the UK and something we love not having to deal with here.

[Deron]

Originally Posted by Coolio

Sky should've used the opportunity to go wireless with their receivers. The boxes should not have to run off wires to every TV. That was something we found a pain in the UK and something we love not having to deal with here.

The Sky Q mini is fully wireless.

[Coolio]

My bad, I read an article elsewhere and not the original post. We have had ours for 2 years (Bell Fibe) with a PVR and 4 additional wireless boxes and it's been great. Can even watch TV out on the deck!

[GregB]

Price will be the most important factor.

[ColinP]

It just doesn't feel like this is a massive step up from what I've got with multiroom and Sky Go though. 4K support is nice but I doubt we'll get loads of content and Sky have a habit of blocking Sky competitors like Netflix etc from their hardware.

[jockosjungle]

It's not sounding free is it? It'll join the SKY+ box, not replace it.

[Deron]

Originally Posted by ColinP

It just doesn't feel like this is a massive step up from what I've got with multiroom and Sky Go though. 4K support is nice but I doubt we'll get loads of content and Sky have a habit of blocking Sky competitors like Netflix etc from their hardware.

I suppose the innovative bit is handing over recordings to a different box/tablet. Seems to be more integrated.

Sky Go is pretty separate to your existing sky box.

They waive the multiroom fee, and it may become interesting.

[DJBenson]

Originally Posted by Deron

The two satellite boxes still only have two physical tuners, so I'm guessing the other 'tuners' are video streaming recording

The advert specifically mentions recording four channels whilst watching a fifth.

I was surprised to see in the photos that there was only two sockets for satellite feeds on the back but I believe it is possible to extract multiple streams from the satellite feed by using one tuner on the horizontal band and one on the vertical band, thus allowing four combinations from two feeds. I might be slightly off with this explanation but it's something like that

I am REALLY excited about this, Sky have trailed (IMO) in the technology space in the last couple of year, while others have been innovating with on demand and streaming, Sky's boxes have remained largely the same - yes they are functional and pretty stable these days, but people want more...I want more!

So as I understand it, I would need one Q box (obviously the silver model) and a number of mini boxes for each room that I want to access content in. I can also sync and stream to the iPad? Sounds brilliant.

You just know the costs are going to be astronomical but I just have to have this

[DJBenson]

100mb ethernet is an odd decision, I'd like to see how they plan on spewing multiple HD and potentially UHD streams down a 100mb link. And if the answer is wireless then my response would be

[BlueDwarf]

No HD audio, 4K content (yet), HDR, HDMI 2, etc., so I'm not desperate to upgrade.
/edit - apparently Q Silver has HDMI 2.0, which is good.

I remember people putting network cards into their TiVo boxes even before Sky+ came out...

But hey, at least we may finally be getting proper HD and it's less hassle for those wanting multi-room.

I presume the main Q box will stream to the mini boxes using a system like the Wii U does (modified 5ghz wifi?) to the gamepad?

[stephen]

It seems a bit backwards to me, does anyone still record to these days? Everything streamed to a cheap stick seems a much better option to me.

[Deron]

Originally Posted by BlueDwarf

No HD audio, 4K content (yet), HDR, HDMI 2, etc., so I'm not desperate to upgrade.
/edit - apparently Q Silver has HDMI 2.0, which is good.

"2x HDMI
– HDMI Out (HDMI 1.4b output with HDCP 1.2 – will be
updated after launch to support Ultra HD)
• HDMI In (HDMI 1.4 input (YUV & RGB) with HDCP 1.2) –
for future use"

Originally Posted by stephen

It seems a bit backwards to me, does anyone still record to these days? Everything streamed to a cheap stick seems a much better option to me.

I do still have a few things I system link... Takes the strain off my broadband.

[BlueDwarf]

Yeah, reading the spec-sheet now, but some else (mis?)quoted a sky bod saying they had HDMI 2.0.

[Deron]

Originally Posted by BlueDwarf

Yeah, reading the spec-sheet now, but some else (mis?)quoted a sky bod saying they had HDMI 2.0.

That was why I waited for the spec sheets.

All I've heard reported so far on all the websites is 12 tuners, and I wondering how the hell they were going to get big enough lnb's to support multiroom.

[AndyWilson]

The reason we've always stuck with TV Link rather than multiroom is that the latter doesn't let us watch programmes recorded on the living room Sky box in bed.

Presumably this will get round that, without the limitation of UHF picture / sound quality?

Our needs are simple

[BlueDwarf]

http://www.insideci.co.uk/news/sky-q...ellite-tv.aspx

"Sky Q mastermind Andrew Olson said that the Silver box will be HDMI 2.0 HDCP 2.2 equipped, with all that that entails. "

[Deron]

That would make more sense as would gigabit Ethernet.