Do I need a SkyQ box/subscription?

The_Bookman

My apologies, but I'm losing the will to live trying to find an intelligible answer from someone who isn't trying to sell me something.
1. I have a 4K/UHD TV.
2. I have a Sky+HD subscription with everything except Sky Sports.
3. Before I got the 4K TV, some programs I watch e.g. Blacklist said at the start "Also available in UHD". Now they don't. Is this because I am now watching in 4K/UHD?
4. If I'm not watching in 4K/UHD - why is that?
5. I feel it looks a lot better than it used to, but if I'm not watching it in 4K/UHD, then presumably it's just because I have a better TV?

And so to the point of the title; do I have to upgrade my existing package to SkyQ in order to watch any or all 4K/UHD content output by Sky on my 4K/UHD TV?

All replies will be appreciated. I don't need to hear about Amazon & Netflix - I know what they do and offer, I'm only interested in Sky content. Feel free to explain it to me like I'm a 5 year old.

Browntoa

You need sky Q for UHD

Tiexen

You can only view UHD on a Sky Q box - your existing box is only HD

Most of the UHD content is (apart from sport) not live - its all on demand, so you need to find out if theirs enough UHD of the type you want to watch before deciding to upgrade - Live UHD (mainly sport) will need a good broadband speed but the on demand stuff will download to your box for viewing.

You need the Sky Q 2TB box to view UHD

Hope that helps

Inner_Zone

Tiexen wrote: »

You can only view UHD on a Sky Q box - your existing box is only HD

Most of the UHD content is (apart from sport) not live - its all on demand, so you need to find out if theirs enough UHD of the type you want to watch before deciding to upgrade - Live UHD (mainly sport) will need a good broadband speed but the on demand stuff will download to your box for viewing.

You need the Sky Q 2TB box to view UHD

Hope that helps

And a multiroom subscription.

The_Bookman

All,
Very grateful for the prompt and '"like I'm a 5 year old" replies.

Thank you.

brewerdave

Just a comment about the quality of the piccies you are viewing -some of the 4k sets are supposedly good at upscaling the standard HD channels so that might be why you believe they look better. Can't confirm as I'm still on 1080p:)

[Deleted User]

Just to summarise all of the above, to view 4K content on Sky you need:-

a 4K TV
Sky Q 2TB box & the new LNB on the dish (the 1TB box won't show 4K content)
a multiroom subscription (extra £12 a month)
4K content (not a given btw)


Downsides are that recording file sizes go up, so less available space on the hard drive.

The mini box (which is free for the first one) will NOT display 4K content, it's main box only.


4K TV's as mentioned above usually upscale HD content so they can look better than on an HD TV, however generally I believe SD content (and there's still a lot out there) will look terrible as there's just not enough information in the signal to look decent.

[Deleted User]

I would consider holding off on Q for awhile unless you're out of minimum term and see if you're happy with the better picture from your HD source. If you are out of minimum term and still want to upgrade then try and make sure you get a decent deal off them at least.

teddysmum

If you are happy enough with the picture you have, why pay out more ?

The_Bookman

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Just to summarise all of the above, to view 4K content on Sky you need:-

a 4K TV
Sky Q 2TB box & the new LNB on the dish (the 1TB box won't show 4K content)
a multiroom subscription (extra £12 a month)
4K content (not a given btw)


Downsides are that recording file sizes go up, so less available space on the hard drive.

The mini box (which is free for the first one) will NOT display 4K content, it's main box only.


4K TV's as mentioned above usually upscale HD content so they can look better than on an HD TV, however generally I believe SD content (and there's still a lot out there) will look terrible as there's just not enough information in the signal to look decent.

Thank you for all the above. I think you've probably explained why I believe I'm getting better picture quality - upscaling, etc. I'd still like to know why I no longer see "Also available in UltraHD" at the start of some programs.

SD content may look terrible - I've not heard about that; and it might be an issue for me - BBC local news (BBC South in my area) doesn't broadcast in HD, so after looking at Fiona Bruce on Sky 115, I have to switch to 101 for the lovely Sally Taylor - and you think she may look worse via SkyQ?

brewerdave

The_Bookman wrote: »

SD content may look terrible - I've not heard about that; and it might be an issue for me - BBC local news (BBC South in my area) doesn't broadcast in HD, so after looking at Fiona Bruce on Sky 115, I have to switch to 101 for the lovely Sally Taylor - and you think she may look worse via SkyQ?

I find that the SD picture quality on my local BBC channels (Wales) is very poor via Sky HD box on my 51" HD set - the sport content is almost unwatchable:(