Sky TV Soundbox Speaker Review
This is a review of a speaker I bought for myself that I also thought might be worth sharing with others. However as its only available in the UK and then exclusively for Sky TV customers and only really of interest to a small fraction of those, it is probably one to skip unless you fall into this tiny minority of a minority.
P.S. Also my apologies, but this video as a whole is a bit rubbish. I'm battling against a nasty cold and I think it shows in the lacklustre results on display here. If this was a Star Trek movie it would be Star Trek V.... but never mind, onwards and upwards. Hopefully the next one will turn out better. This might have to remain a Patreon exclusive...I'm not sure yet.
UPDATE: 15 November
I've decided to make the video public after seeing another review of the Soundbox today (this time from Gizmodo) that didn't mention the standby issue. I really do think potential buyers really do need to know that to watch TV, they'll have to turn this speaker on every time, using it's dedicated remote. To me that seems like an important thing to cover, but as yet no other review I've seen has mentioned this.
Comments (36)
i apologize if you have already been pummeled with this but I wonder if the glitch with the menu was due to the ARC. I have found with HDCP settings, you can have issues or functions turned off if the HDCP shows that audio from the original source goes to a device that can also feed it to another device (video too). I.e. if I connect my pc to my stereo via hdmi with audio over the hdmi, if the stereo is set to feed sound to BOTH the tv and amp, HDCP drops the quality to only 2 channel stereo (no 7.1). As well I've seen this where if I connect a device to the tv and then connect the tv audio to something via hdmi or optical, it either kills it completely, or interrupts it. I wonder if due to the special encoding of skybox "q sound" it by default disables it so that metadata doesn't feed to the tv or a device that can capture hack or break/freeze. The other 2 sets you tested.. do they also have ARC in use? I know you are over and done with the unit at this point.. I'm more just curious. If you'd pulled out enough hair to not even wan to entertain my inquiry, I understand.
Yes I tried it on all three HDMIs, only one of which has ARC.
"What does God need ... with a Soundbox?"
Your complaint makes sense to me. My question is, did you send this box back for a refund or are you just sitting on it in hopes an update will solve this problem? For me I would send it back wanting a refund.
I was hoping a firmware update would resolve my issues...but they’ve issued one and it’s made things worse (more info in the video description text on YouTube). I think it’s going to have to go back now.
With our TV, we use a black 2.1 PC speaker system that plugs into the TV's headphones socket, i.e. a small speaker on each side of the TV and a small wooden subwoofer beside the cabinet. It doesn't look out of place and provides substantial improvement over the TV's tinny speakers without the house-penetrating sound/bass of a larger surround sound system. As it's a wired "dumb" unit, it's completely seamless while using the TV as any sound going the TV simply goes out the headphones socket and the TV's volume control adjusts the headphones socket output. We leave it switched on and it's been like this since we got the TV 7 years ago.
Even with my Harmony hub and remote I still have resort to multiple remotes, mouse for pc input. One day maybe there will be something that works 100% of the time. Keep up the video variety!
Being clear on this sort of detail is what helps makes your vids so good. Fab muppets with a large dose groan:-)! Apologies tech geek moment coming.... Apart from the hdmi throughput this appear expensive (w/o discount) compared to the good sounding Canton dm75 which it also less breezeblock like. And there’s the very decent (if you can find one) Goodmans sound base 4.2 for around £75.
I am full of gin, but the puppets actually have me in stitches today
I'm happy whenever they make anyone chuckle.
I’ve got an old Sony 55cm Trinitron TV. Any experience with HDMI to Scart converters?
No, sorry...but I’d imagine they won’t work well with anything that needs authenticating. Probably tech that’s worth avoiding.
If getting one remote to do it all was a requirement I'd still be using TV speakers :( right now I'm at 4 and it's the best I can do - roku, soundbar, LG TV, HDMI switch.
And if you give an honest review of a product you paid for yourself, who can complain?
Oh you’d be surprised...actually you won’t, many people don’t like honesty.
Even if you thought this video was a bit ho hum, I always stay for the outro music montage and the muppets. The slew of Dad jokes was a nice ending, to be honest. :) Oh, and: nice shirt. Don't really want to be wearing a black T-shirt and being grumpy, people might think it was a send-up of Spinal Tap.
Hard to talk about Sky in any way without getting at least a bit grumpy! I found it interesting, I've been following the progress of the Sky soundbox with interest as I just can't be bothered with surround systems. Maybe I'll stick to the venerable Bose Solo for now. And you forgot, "I was going be training as a human cannonball, but I wasn't the right calibre"
Perfectly reasonable review I thought, even as someone living in the US - though you did seem unusually angry at the end. (!)
Yes, sorry about that. There’s a background story there...after the WiFi doorbell review I got badgered by PR people as well as people pretending to be customers (who were clearly talking on behalf of the company). This is the reason why some top youtube review channels say that everything they touch is brilliant, they don’t want to upset anyone.
I have Sky Q, but was never interested in the Soundbox as I just don’t have the space. Interesting to see in fails at basic usability, I am not surprised, the Q box also has some basic retrograde usability features. The fact that when you switch it on from standby, it goes to “My Q” instead of Tv. You have to additionally press the back button to watch tv, and it won’t even accept channel number input I put until you do this. Plus the Sky Q App has less functionality than the old Sky+ App; you can’t use the new app as a remote. Sky Q has less FF speeds than Sky HD, and you can’t jump to a specific time in a recording either. But never mind all that = Where did you get the Orange case for you Sky Q remote. I could really do with one of those to make the remote easier to find.
I bought the rubber bumper case from Sky themselves. We have two remotes in the lounge, both now in different colour bumpers. I think they’re designed to protect the remote if you drop it on a hard floor..but they just make them a bit grippier too which is why I got them.
Star Trek V :D
Do you think the designers might be using deliberately out-of-phase speakers to get the soundfield "spatial" effects?
I doubt it. I think as far as the sound goes it’s pretty spot on...it’s the other stuff that’s the problem.
You’re apologizing needlessly. Unless you were apologizing for the pun run at the very end. :)
What they say is out of my hands. ;-)
What a crap device. From 2 big brands you would expect better. So many little bugs. Would drive me mad. I can move away from using proper A/V Receivers. Brilliant video...
If it’s not collecting the metadata correctly, do you have chain it between the sky box and tv? Could you not just connect power an toslink? I hate ARC, I had nothing but issues. My TV would automatically turn over to the ARC channel if it detected audio of any type. It would regularly turn over the channel when I was playing PlayStation.
You could just use it as a Bluetooth speaker or a speaker with an optical input, however my real issue that killed it, is the fact it doesn’t turn itself on automatically when it gets a signal via HDMI. If you were using it over optical you’d also need the soundbox remote to turn it on and off.
I'm across the pond but still thought it was interesting. Enjoyed the muppets - and the 'bad' puns :)
Whether I can buy it or not, I still find it interesting and still like to learn about the tech. I mean, how many things do you see on YouTube that is only in the US, etc?
Plenty...and I usually have to try and find a way to import some of the better ones that aren’t sold here.
Good call, I was going to treat myself to this but I have the same “her who must be obeyed” issue (I did have to chuckle to myself as I thought of the puppet wife was your wife lol. Bet she does say the same things however)
I couldn’t possibly comment on that...
What's your opinion on Sky Q itself? I'm still on Sky+ HD for now but tempted to upgrade.
For the longest time it gave me big headaches with the multiroom connections...but since I wired them up over ethernet it’s been great. I’m now very happy with it and wouldn’t want to go back. I’ve had Sky TV since 1989, and gone through all the upgrades during that time.