Sky and Sky Glass are clearly designed to go hand in hand, but people keep their TVs for six years or more. If your circumstances change, you might not want to keep a Sky subscription going for the entire time you have the TV. Without help it will never replace a proper stereo system or even a decent Bluetooth speaker, but you can just about get away with using it to play music from a phone over AirPlay or Bluetooth, and Sky now has native apps for Spotify and BBC Sounds. Verdict If you're buying Sky Glass, you're confident you'll want Sky TV for 18 months and you don't think your circumstances will change then it makes sense to choose the 18 month contract. Since you can only buy Sky Glass with a subscription (either 18 months or one month rolling), you need to buy Sky Glass directly from Sky . The three HDMI inputs mean you can connect external devices to it, such as Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, TV streamers and games consoles.

The Review states that " the wi-fi network itself determines how well the system streams content around your home " and my experience, along with many others, is that the reception by the mini-box is particularly sensitive to interference, resulting in pixilation, or complete drop-out of the stream, including the sound. This interference (source unknown) became so bad we would loose the Sky stream every day for several minutes at a time throughout the day, but at random times. Sky's solution was to hardwire the system, which defeats the idea behind Sky Q, but my own solution was to swap the location of the main box and the mini-box, in relation to the router, and this has helped. However, be wary as the Sky Engineer wouldn't reinstall the terrestrial TV connections they had undone and we had to pay an external engineer to do this (Sky have recently settled a complaint about this by paying the engineer's cost). In this guide we'll explain how the Sky Glass works, what subscription you need, how much it costs and what features you get. Mentioning as there seem to be two threads on Trust Pilot, one for sky in general and the one I have tioned specifically for sky Q.Hello Rodney _trotter,Volume seems to be well standardised across the channels, so you don’t have to keep reaching for the remote whenever you switch over. Sky has made a concerted effort to integrate various streaming services into the Sky platform, so you can now browse the likes Netflix and Disney+ content within the interface – so long as you have the dedicated subscriptions for each. Sky's 4K Formula 1 content easily matches the football for quality. Details on the race helmets and the logos on the cars are clearly visible, and the shots of cars cornering are wonderfully stable and composed. From the night racing in Bahrain to the sun-drenched Monaco circuit, the consistency of the image is superb. Sky Glass TVs have a fancy feature called 'Glance Motion Technology', which turns the screen on when it detects movement (turning off again after a short time if you don't go on to interact with the TV) and off when you leave the room. The sensors only work if you have a Sky subscription. The quality of the sound you’ll get from Sky Q depends largely on what you plug it into, but it supports Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos, and can output to a 5.1 surround sound system or soundbar over HDMI or optical cable.

Advanced HDR formats: Dolby Vision (advanced format that adjusts contrast to suit each scene). Read our HDR guide to learn more about these formats. Plug in your replacement Sky Q box using the new power and HDMI cables provided, and your existing dish cables: Its specs are comparable to other mid-range TVs from LG and Samsung, but the extra attention paid to the speakers could set it apart. The main Sky Q boxes feature 12 tuners (though three are 'dormant'), allowing you to record or watch those seven simultaneous shows. They support Dolby Atmos and have HDMI, 2 x USB 2.0, digital optical, ethernet and wireless connections. As mentioned, they support simultaneous viewing on two tablets and two Sky Q Mini boxes. You can access close to 30 apps on the TV, including popular ones such as All4, BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Apple TV+, YouTube and Prime Video.Sky seems particularly proud of its Fluid Viewing concept. This allows you to stop and start programmes as you move from one room or device to another, including from TV to tablet, inside to outside your home. The Sky Q boxes essentially work not only as TV set-top boxes but also as hubs, delivering content to up to two separate Sky Q Mini boxes and two tablets simultaneously around your home. In total, Sky Q allows you to record six channels and watch a seventh simultaneously – if you can find enough screens. The Sky Q boxes create a Sonos-style mesh network, meaning the speed of your broadband isn't so crucial – the wi-fi network itself determines how well the system streams content around your home. If you have Sky Broadband, each box also works as a wi-fi hotspot.

Each popular Sky TV show now has a ‘show centre’, too. This is a hub from which users can access all seasons, episodes, broadcast schedules and on-demand links, and these show centres even exist for certain Disney+ shows such as The Walking Dead and Loki. Unfortunately, that's not an option for the Sky Glass. There's no PVR functionality, no internal hard drive to record onto and no USB port to add your own hard drive. This means you also can't watch content stored on a USB hard drive on a Sky Glass.You can turn this feature off in the settings if it starts to irritate. Sound issues with Sky Glass You could get them to leave your existing cables as is and just route the new power and HDMI cables outside of the TV stand during the install so that they can sign off that everything is fitted as per their requirements and in a working state.

Once all the cables are securely connected, put your viewing card into the slot on the right-hand side of your box, chip first with the chip facing up. The Sky Glass also has a built-in soundbar which sits under the screen, comprising six speakers and a subwoofer. It's rare to see a dedicated, front-firing speaker section like this on TVs - typically they're behind the screen and point downwards. Tenet is one such 4K title and it looks sensational, with oodles of detail, crisp definition and enticing three-dimensionality. The HDR ensures there's plenty of pop and vibrancy, too. When it first launched in 2016, Sky Q was a huge overhaul over the Sky+ service it replaced. Its bold aim was to do to television what Sonos did to music – make it truly multi-room.Frequent updates have made it even easier to navigate, too: 'expanded view' has replaced the static side-bar menu with a collapsible one that can be hidden to give more screen real-estate to what you're actually browsing. One of the best things about traditional Sky boxes is the ability to record TV onto the hard drive built into them. You don't need a Sky Glass TV to get Sky content. You can also get it through a Sky Q box or Sky Stream. You can turn a TV into a Sky Glass of sorts with a Sky Stream box, though. This Apple TV size box connects to a TV with HDMI and gives you access to Sky channels over wi-fi, just like Sky Glass.