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How does Sky Q mini boxes work?


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Old 28-12-2016, 19:24
arras
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I'm about to get Sky Q installed next month (Sky Q Silver). I'm getting a mini box, but since its wont be connected to the satellite dish I'm wondering how it recieves signal. I heard it streams it from the main boxbut if someone could elaborate more that would be great. Also, does anyone have any problems streaming this (wifi speed, buffering etc..)?
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Old 28-12-2016, 20:23
johnny777
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It works via it's own wi-if environment, referred to as 'Mesh' which is basically just another wi-fi 5ghz environment just for Sky Q in your house. There are differences depending on whether you have Sky Broadband or not. I am not on Sky BB so my Q connects to my own wi-fi via 2.4ghz wi-fi (for some reason Sky only let it use 5ghz on Sky BB) and there is a private 5ghz network for Q that I can see as 'SKY9FB19'

I have a Q silver and 2 minis.......one of them being in the opposite corner of the house. So far all works perfectly with no issues.
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Old 28-12-2016, 20:27
Music Lover One
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We have never thought about how the signal is received but it does. We've had Sky Q Silver for about 6 months now and we had the free mini with it which is upstairs in one of our bedrooms. It has always worked perfectly well and it's wonderful to be able to watch what you want from the Sky independently of what is being watched on the main tv in the sitting room. Brilliant. We love it.

The only thing we don't get on with is the infrared touch remote control which is one of the remote's that come with the main box, you also get the ordinary standard remote with it plus another one for the mini upstairs. We just share the one ordinary remote downstairs between the both of us and don't use the infrared one as it's just too sensitive. It's a shame they don't just give two of the standard remote controls with it. The ordinary standard remotes work perfectly and so easy to use. The one upstairs used with the mini is a standard one as well.

Hope this has given you a bit of information. My husband and I are tv addicts and watch a lot of tv. We would never give up our Sky unless we couldn't afford it any more of course .
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Old 28-12-2016, 20:30
Magic Torch
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1. Satellite Dish is physically connected to the main SkyQ (Silver) receiver

2. Main SkyQ box connects to your Router (via WiFi, Poweline, or Ethernet cable)

3. The main SkyQ Box has a tuner reserved for the SkyQ Mini box

4. The SkyQ Mini is connected to the same Network (Router) that your main SkyQ box is connected to

5. The output of the allocated tuner in the main SkyQ box is streamed to the SkyQ Mini via the shared Network (Router)
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Old 28-12-2016, 20:33
arras
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Thanks everyone! Was worried that it'd end up buffering
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Old 28-12-2016, 20:49
Magic Torch
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I have read about people having connectivity problems, but my experience has been positive. I've had SkyQ since launch (February) & touch wood, have had no problems. My set up is:

Ground Floor: 1 x SkyQ Silver & 1 x SkyQ Hub in lounge, 1 x SkyQ Mini in dining room

1st Floor. No Sky kit or TVs (for now )

2nd Floor: 1 x SkyQ Mini in bedroom

Both Minis work perfectly. I have Powerline activated on the SkyQ Hub, SkyQ Silver & both SkyQ Minis - activating Powerline has not caused any issues. Everything worked perfectly before I activated Powerline, but I have chosen to leave Powerline activated for resiliency
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Old 29-12-2016, 09:55
Randomguy1
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Now and again you get drop outs but mostly it works perfectly. Usually a restart on all boxes solves any problems.
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:26
Bircho
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We have never thought about how the signal is received but it does. We've had Sky Q Silver for about 6 months now and we had the free mini with it which is upstairs in one of our bedrooms. It has always worked perfectly well and it's wonderful to be able to watch what you want from the Sky independently of what is being watched on the main tv in the sitting room. Brilliant. We love it.

The only thing we don't get on with is the infrared touch remote control which is one of the remote's that come with the main box, you also get the ordinary standard remote with it plus another one for the mini upstairs. We just share the one ordinary remote downstairs between the both of us and don't use the infrared one as it's just too sensitive. It's a shame they don't just give two of the standard remote controls with it. The ordinary standard remotes work perfectly and so easy to use. The one upstairs used with the mini is a standard one as well.

Hope this has given you a bit of information. My husband and I are tv addicts and watch a lot of tv. We would never give up our Sky unless we couldn't afford it any more of course .
You are correct in saying Sky issue one of each type of remote with the Sky Q but I am intrigued ... why would you want two "standard" remotes to operate the same box?
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Old 29-12-2016, 17:45
BOOTHY2905
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We have never thought about how the signal is received but it does. We've had Sky Q Silver for about 6 months now and we had the free mini with it which is upstairs in one of our bedrooms. It has always worked perfectly well and it's wonderful to be able to watch what you want from the Sky independently of what is being watched on the main tv in the sitting room. Brilliant. We love it.

The only thing we don't get on with is the infrared touch remote control which is one of the remote's that come with the main box, you also get the ordinary standard remote with it plus another one for the mini upstairs. We just share the one ordinary remote downstairs between the both of us and don't use the infrared one as it's just too sensitive. It's a shame they don't just give two of the standard remote controls with it. The ordinary standard remotes work perfectly and so easy to use. The one upstairs used with the mini is a standard one as well.

Hope this has given you a bit of information. My husband and I are tv addicts and watch a lot of tv. We would never give up our Sky unless we couldn't afford it any more of course .
It's bluetooth not Infrared. Standard touch button is infrared.
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Old 31-12-2016, 12:39
simon194
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4. The SkyQ Mini is connected to the same Network (Router) that your main SkyQ box is connected to

5. The output of the allocated tuner in the main SkyQ box is streamed to the SkyQ Mini via the shared Network (Router)
The mini box is initially connected to the main Sky Q box during the setup, not the router, although it will eventually create a connection with the router, if it can, as part of the mesh so it has an alternative data path.
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Old 02-01-2017, 23:00
Simon_More
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We have had no issue for the first two weeks it has been installed. But now we are getting drop outs. Saying it's not connected to the network. I am on a BT home hub 3. Is it worth upgrading to the hub 6? And what's this power line business. It's only loosing signal on one of the mini boxes. But it the box nearest to the router.
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Old 03-01-2017, 22:17
DJ Benson
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When we had Sky Q installed a couple of weeks ago, I anticipated the installer refusing to use my CAT6 cabling to connect the mini box to the silver but he was more than happy to do so and I've seen absolutely none of the issues that seem to be blighting some of the users who are using the mesh network.

If your house has ethernet infrastructure in place then I would always choose that over wifi, 5Ghz or otherwise.
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Old 03-01-2017, 22:30
Mark.
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When we had Sky Q installed a couple of weeks ago, I anticipated the installer refusing to use my CAT6 cabling to connect the mini box to the silver but he was more than happy to do so and I've seen absolutely none of the issues that seem to be blighting some of the users who are using the mesh network.

If your house has ethernet infrastructure in place then I would always choose that over wifi, 5Ghz or otherwise.
Be aware, however, that if 5Ghz is enabled on all Sky Q equipment, then that will be what it attempts to use by default, even if you also have everything connected by ethernet. The only way to guarantee that ethernet is being used is to disable both 5Ghz and Powerline on all boxes.
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Old 04-01-2017, 06:31
BOOTHY2905
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Be aware, however, that if 5Ghz is enabled on all Sky Q equipment, then that will be what it attempts to use by default, even if you also have everything connected by ethernet. The only way to guarantee that ethernet is being used is to disable both 5Ghz and Powerline on all boxes.
No it doesn't. If Ethernet is enabled and an RJ45 is present it will default to this.
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Old 04-01-2017, 06:34
BOOTHY2905
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We have had no issue for the first two weeks it has been installed. But now we are getting drop outs. Saying it's not connected to the network. I am on a BT home hub 3. Is it worth upgrading to the hub 6? And what's this power line business. It's only loosing signal on one of the mini boxes. But it the box nearest to the router.
No don't do it in regards to using Q system. Hub 6 has some features that can intermittently restrict some Q boxes.
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Old 04-01-2017, 11:09
Mark.
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No it doesn't. If Ethernet is enabled and an RJ45 is present it will default to this.
No it doesn't. Ethernet, if enabled, is simply used as an alternative path for the "mesh" to work. Like the built-in Powerline.

When I connect by Ethernet and have 5Ghz enabled, unplugging the cable causes no immediate connectivity problems. Not even an audio glitch. If Ethernet were being prioritised, you'd expect at least a small amount of connection disturbance.

I also see the blue "connectivity problems" screen with both 5Ghz and Ethernet enabled; disable the former and they stop.
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Old 04-01-2017, 18:57
BOOTHY2905
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Ok mate, Great test that. Mine does have a momentary loss when pulling Ethernet cable out by stopping for a split second and resuming again. the system always takes fastest path first. so you'd assume ethernet is fastest path
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Old 04-01-2017, 19:07
Mark.
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Ok mate, Great test that. Mine does have a momentary loss when pulling Ethernet cable out by stopping for a split second and resuming again. the system always takes fastest path first. so you'd assume ethernet is fastest path
Not necessarily.

The mini boxes only have Fast Ethernet, whereas the 5Ghz WiFi is ac.
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Old 04-01-2017, 19:35
BOOTHY2905
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Not necessarily.

The mini boxes only have Fast Ethernet, whereas the 5Ghz WiFi is ac.
Only if the boxes are in the same room. You will never get the theoretical 166MBps speeds over wifi at the end device so id say fast ethernet will always be quickest.
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Old Yesterday, 21:34
DJ Benson
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No it doesn't. Ethernet, if enabled, is simply used as an alternative path for the "mesh" to work. Like the built-in Powerline.

When I connect by Ethernet and have 5Ghz enabled, unplugging the cable causes no immediate connectivity problems. Not even an audio glitch. If Ethernet were being prioritised, you'd expect at least a small amount of connection disturbance.

I also see the blue "connectivity problems" screen with both 5Ghz and Ethernet enabled; disable the former and they stop.
When the installer installed my Q Mini - he couldn't get it to "talk" to the Silver over ethernet so had to enable the mesh network, I thought he'd left me with a fully-wired install but he hadn't, it was using the mesh it seems. My mini has both mesh and powerline enabled as well as ethernet and if I pull the ethernet cable from my mini (as I did last night trying to suss out how the powerline technology works) I lose connectivity and it does not automatically use the mesh or powerline options, just sits on the blue screen telling me I have connectivity issues - exactly the opposite of your test
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Old Yesterday, 21:41
BOOTHY2905
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When the installer installed my Q Mini - he couldn't get it to "talk" to the Silver over ethernet so had to enable the mesh network, I thought he'd left me with a fully-wired install but he hadn't, it was using the mesh it seems. My mini has both mesh and powerline enabled as well as ethernet and if I pull the ethernet cable from my mini (as I did last night trying to suss out how the powerline technology works) I lose connectivity and it does not automatically use the mesh or powerline options, just sits on the blue screen telling me I have connectivity issues - exactly the opposite of your test
Turn PLC off as its not stable.
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Old Yesterday, 21:49
DJ Benson
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Turn PLC off as its not stable.
Makes no difference to me, my boxes are using ethernet and nothing else
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Old Yesterday, 21:53
BOOTHY2905
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Makes no difference to me, my boxes are using ethernet and nothing else
When I say not stable I mean some boxes with it active do strange and wonderful unpredicted things of annoyance
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Old Yesterday, 22:03
DJ Benson
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When I say not stable I mean some boxes with it active do strange and wonderful unpredicted things of annoyance
Ah fair enough, I noticed on my Silver it was enabled by default but I had to turn it on on the Mini.

I'm turning wifi and powerline off on my boxes now as they are rock solid on ethernet so there's no point having them switched on creating noise in my house
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