sky store

[tothbros]

hi,

has anybody noticed that movies purchased in sky store are quite poor quality on now devices?

they are far worse then sky cinema movies with boost or other hd content.

im talking about sharpness, picture noise, resolution...pixelated, blurred picture expecially with fast moving images. seems like low bitrate.

these are movies that are supposed to be hd quality, that is what i purchased.

i was just wondering if anybody else had similar experience and is sky store better on other devices?

(my device: now tv smart box 4631uk)

thanks!

[schnapps · Accepted solution]

Hi @tothbros 

The reason being Sky Store is only 720p HD when watching from your NOW box (see this screen shot taken from the Sky Store FAQ).

[tothbros]

wow, thats a bummer... thanks for the quick reply.

wonder why this is? doesnt really make sense.

especially since sky/now blocks other movie rental services on their devices, they should really make sky store better

[schnapps]

Hi @tothbros 

I haven't used Sky Store in a long time and the movies in my Sky Store library when watching on my NOW box has a pretty poor PQ.

Where like you said the various streaming services out there has much better PQ in either HD or 4K compared to Sky Store rentals or purchases.

I don't think Sky Store has moved on from a few years gone by with any significant improvements and has been pretty static.

I think the last significant offering was the option for Blu-Ray in the post over DVD.

To be honest i haven't bought a Disc in a number of years (same with music) and i stream both music and video nowadays.

Where any new movie release, i am prepared to wait until they pop up on a streaming service.

I have quite a large catalogue of Blu-Rays and CD's and can't remember the last time i used either media.

[tothbros]

yeah, u're right about sky store being behind.

last night i had a chance to test it on an android tv, and the quality is the same (i guess 720p) as on now devices. even among 720p material, quality is on the lower side.

so i guess real hd is limited to satellite sky boxes.

[schnapps]

Hi @tothbros 

Even on the Sky Satellite boxes Sky Store is only 1080i and not 1080p.

When i have compared stuff on 720p & 1080i i find it difficult to differentiate the PQ if the bit rate is similar.

I haven't owned a Sky Sat box since the early nineties (apart from seeing my mates Sky Q in action for a short period of time), so i don't know what the 1080i quality is like or the bit rate used when watching on the Sky Sat boxes, where my mate doesn't use Sky Store.

To be honest i haven't really compared rentals or purchases from the likes of Amazon, Apple or Google for example (too mean with my money) and i have a tendency to wait until on a stream with my subscription hopefully on one of the main streaming services.

[tothbros]

good point about 1080i vs 1080p

we've had sky satellite in the family up till 5-6 years ago, and sky hd was good quality, but never used sky store back then. originally, when we moved to iptv solutions, i was actually disappointed with the bitrate compared to satellite. either things got better since then or my eyes got used to it 🙂

by now i'm happy with the quality on the likes of netflix, google (movies & tv) and now (tv) with boost.

/too bad google is moving away from roku-based systems/

never really got into amazon and apple universe.

sky store has a nice interface, easy to navigate and find stuff, content availability is good, just a shame about the picture quality. a missed opportunity, i feel...