Not allowed a Sky dish at your pad, however have already got a wonderfully good TV so don’t need Sky Glass?
Sky’s current announcement that it was making all of its channels accessible over the web can have been music to your ears – and all you want is one in every of its dinky Stream pucks.
However how do you get it, how a lot will it price, and when will or not it’s accessible?
Sky Stream puck launch date
In case you’ve bought Sky Glass at residence, you possibly can already purchase a Stream puck straight from Sky. Don’t go considering you possibly can head to eBay and bag somebody’s undesirable machine for dish-free TV, although.
Proper now, the Stream puck can solely add multiroom functionality to an current Sky Glass setup. You gained’t be capable of apply it to its personal.
Sky hasn’t stated precisely when it’ll be accessible as a standalone product – however we do comprehend it’ll be later this yr. We’re betting it’ll be out in time for the Soccer World Cup in November, as Sky will need to bag new clients keen to look at the motion.
Sky Stream puck worth
Sky hasn’t revealed a worth for the Sky Stream puck as a standalone product simply but. For brand new and current Sky Glass clients, every puck prices £50, however proper now the broadcaster is giving new clients their first puck free of charge. There’s then £10 to pay on a month-to-month rolling contract, along with your Sky Glass fee.
We predict two attainable methods to pay. The primary is {that a} single Stream puck could also be free as a part of a subscription. Contemplating there’s no cost for a Sky Q predominant field – you’re technically simply renting it and need to return it for those who cancel – it stands to motive a technically a much less succesful machine than the Q field that doesn’t require a go to from an engineer to put in would price the identical (or much less). Sky could resolve to cost further for Extremely HD although.
The choice is paying an upfront payment to personal the {hardware} outright, with numerous months’ Sky subscription included. It’s what Sky did for its final standalone machine, the Now TV sensible stick – however given the Stream puck’s reliance on a Sky subscription, that is the much less doubtless possibility.
Sky Stream puck design
The Sky Stream puck seems to be lots like a barely thinner Apple TV, however then it’s laborious to make a small black field stand out. With no tuners or laborious drive inside it’s considerably smaller than even the Sky Q Mini packing containers, with only a refined Sky brand on prime.
The distant you get is an identical to the one which comes with Sky Glass, which is barely totally different to the one for Sky Q. The structure has been tweaked, with a plus button so as to add stuff to your playlist as an alternative of a report button. The button to activate voice management has additionally been moved entrance and centre, nevertheless it’ll reply to the ‘Whats up Sky’ command if lifting a finger is an excessive amount of effort.
The Sky Glass distant is available in 5 colors to match the TV, nevertheless it seems to be just like the Stream puck can be accessible in any color so long as it’s black.
Sky Stream puck specs and OS
The Stream Puck makes use of precisely the identical interface as Sky Glass, which is a redesign of what you get with Sky Q. There’s nonetheless a information to entry dwell TV, however the focus is extra on suggestions, which ought to get higher the extra you employ it. As an alternative of recordings you get a Playlist, which is the place you save all of the stuff you need to watch. You may also leap in to particular apps, comparable to Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer et al.
By way of specs, the Stream puck will assist Extremely HD at 60fps, Dolby Imaginative and prescient and Dolby Atmos sound, however clearly you’ll must plug it right into a suitably specced TV and sound system for these. Sky recommends a minimal obtain pace of 15Mbps to make use of it, but when your TV and router aren’t on talking phrases it additionally comes with an ethernet port so you possibly can hardwire it.