Review Of Sky Angel Iptv

[tsrk30]

REVIEW OF SKY ANGEL IPTV


I ordered the IPTV service Friday in just a few minutes I received the following e-mail:

Thank you for ordering Sky Angel IPTV. Your order is almost complete!
In order to process your order we will need you to review and agree to the terms and conditions related to your order. Please click on the link below to complete the order process.

After you click the link you are required to read the Terms and Conditions and accept them.

Then on Monday I received this e-mail:

DHL Shipment Notification

Greetings from DHL!

On February 25, 2008 a shipment label was printed by Sky Angel for delivery to:


You are given a link so you can track the shipment:

Today my tracking looks like this:

Tracking history...

Date and time Status DHL Facility Location
2/27/2008 6:35 pm In transit. Waco Regional Hub, TX
2/26/2008 12:28 am Processed at DHL Location. Allentown Hub, PA
12:28 am In transit. Allentown Hub, PA
2/25/2008 5:19 pm Shipment picked up Melville, NY




From what I can tell by this is that my order should arrive tomorrow.

When it does I will take pictures of everything and give a detailed review of the system.


Many believe IPTV is the future of TV so I am interested to see if the quality of the service indicates if this is true.

My concerns at this time before I have used the service is this:

1. Picture Quality: I am not expecting it to be as good as Dish Network or Direct TV.

2. Sound Quality: I want sound that is as good as Dish Network or a CD. I am worried that it is not going to be that good. I am going to use the Sky Angel service to watch the music video channels and to listen to many of the radio stations. I am going to have the sound hooked up through my Yamaha stereo receiver and Klipsch speakers. This could be the factor that determines if I keep the service or return it.

Hopefully sometime tomorrow I can post the most detailed review of the Sky Angel IPTV service that can be found on the Internet.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thanks it will be interesting to see how this shapes up for them. I know a lot of folks are upset with Sky Angel for what they did to their lifetime satellite subscribers. But in my heart I know they did what they had to do to stay alive.

I am looking forward to your review.

 

[tsrk30]

I know a lot of people are upset about what happened but I think the issue now is about the technology. Sky Angel may be a great test to see if a quality TV service can be delivered using IPTV. If the quality is equal to that of Satellite then maybe there will come a day that most Americans are watching TV through IPTV. This is the issue now not the past choice made by Sky Angel or even the kind of channels they carry.

NeuLion, Inc is the compnay that made the set top box for Sky Angel. This is how their equipment is described:

NeuLion uses an optimized H.264 MPEG4-AVC Codec Encoder. The NeuLion iPTV platform sends large-scale simultaneous video-streaming of DVD quality videos and broadcast television at data transmission rates of 700 kbit/s.



The NeuLion iPTV Set Top Box includes the following features:

Based on the Linux platform, provides a cost effective, high performance, and low bit rate solution

Plug & Play with Cable Modem/ADSL/Ethernet connection and support for WiFi wireless network

Integrated CPU+DSP H.264 decoder design

Supports multiple channel broadcasting, VOD and PVR functions

Video quality at 30 frame/s (NTSC) or 25 frame/s (PAL)

Supports MP3/stereo Audio output and S-Video/YVR/RGB Video output. Bit rate at 600 ~ 800kbps

The STB can self-upgrade through the network so that new features can be pushed out from the central server

VOD “trick” features such as pause, fast forward and rewind

Embedded browser, provides central control, customized branding and lower maintenance cost



Those are some impressive claims. I hope tomorrow I will be able to report that the quality is as good as thet claim.

Scott you have experince with IPTV services, do you think this is the future of TV? What should I expect when I try this service?

Thanks for your time

 

[jholland]

I look forward to your review, too, TSRK30, and I agree completely with what Scott said.

I am finding that the SA IPTV picture is actually better than on Dish -- which for the moment I can actually compare by switching between the DBS and IPTV service on the same TV. The sound is fine, at least equal to what it was as far as I can tell. My IPTV is not on my "best" TV, as I have it in my computer room where I spend much of my daytime hours.

I don't necessarily think IPTV will be the way TV goes in the future -- but it may well be the way TV can be offered for "special-interest" programming like sports, "religious" programming, etc. It opens up a whole new avenue for smaller players who target a specific audience.

I am extremely pleased with the program offerings on SA IPTV, using it much more than I did the DBS Sky Angel service. And I get crystal-clear SA audio on every radio in my house with my attached FM transmitter.

 

[Bill R]

But in my heart I know they did what they had to do to stay alive.

Scott,

That is not how I see it at all. Sky Angel has signed their own death warrant by NOT honoring lifetime subscriptions. As I posted in another thread, MANY people don't seem to realize how many of us lifetime subscriber were supporting Sky Angel with yearly (or more often) donations. Those are gone and because of the EXTREME bad will that Sky Angel has created MANY of those people will never support Sky Angel or recommend it to their friends (MOST of their customers come from "word of mouth"). On top of that there very likely will be a class action lawsuit (I know a couple of people that are "looking" into that). Even if they win in court, they have lost.

IMO, it is not possible for them to survive. The trust factor of a lot of people that they need to survive is gone forever. Also, from a marketing standpoint their pricing is really high for what they offer.

 

[drfreeman]

oh Bill,give it a rest......

 

[jholland]

Could we please keep this new thread as a place where those who choose to subscribe to SA IPTV can talk about the programming and equipment? I promise I will read whatever anyone posts in every other thread in this forum.

Addendum: I definitely have no beef with SA's pricing! I also have cable and can tell you I pay a lot more for that. Getting 70 channels for $25 is a pretty good deal! And believe me, what I watch on SA makes more impact in my life!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Bill I am sure that if Sky Angel could give all of this Lifetime Subs free IPTV service they would, but they can't. You need to understand that bandwidth is not free. For every customer tuned in, it cost them money. Its not like paying to send a signal via satellite or over the air and anyone who can get the signal can watch it. A seperate datastream is sent to each person watch a channel on Sky Angel on IPTV.

Here at SatelliteGuys we pay for our bandwidth by the Gigabyte, I know what our bandwidth bills are and can't even imagine what it costs them to send out video streams to folks. I am also sure that they probably lose money on some folks who keep their box turned on watching TV 24/7.

I agree that Sky Angle did not handle the Lifetime subscribers situation well at all, but that does not mean that we should pretend they are not in existence anymore because these lifetime subscribers are not happy.

 

[Bill R]

oh Bill,give it a rest......

No way, unless Scott or Tony tells me to stop.

Everyone that reads this forum needs to hear from both sides. IMO, those of you that think that Sky Angel is a honest, trustworthy company have your head in the sand.

 

[tsrk30]

For those who are so upset about Sky Angel can you please just go create your own site where you can complain. Here are a few possible names for the site:

I HATE SKY ANGEL. COM

I CANNOT MOVE ON. COM

WE HOLD GRUDGES FOR A LONG TIME. COM

DEATH TO SKY ANGEL. COM

there are many possibilities so please get to work.

I understand that everyone is saying Sky Angel is doomed and they will never last. But for the 5 of us who are subscribers can we at least enjoy the service for the few day's it has left and come here to discuss the technology and the programing.

Now where is the DHL truck with my IPTV!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Bill at least make your own I hate Sky Angel thread or something, every thread that is posted about Sky Angel becomes a Sky Angel is a bunch of crooks thread.

As a forum moderator your self I am sure you can understand that this constant posting of the same thing becomes annoying and after awhile we have to call these posts spam.

You have very valid gripes about Sky Angel, no question about that. But please don't take other Sky Angel topics off topic because you are unhappy with them.

 

[Shine]

Here is my review of the SA IPTV Box and Programing:

Pro's
1.The box is smaller than expected which makes it very easy to move to another TV.
2.Picture quality is very nice and crisp, much clearer picture than SA satellite.
3.Sound quality is also very good. Although, there are a couple of channels that you have to raise the volume on (just like with satellite)
4.The menus are relatively easy to navigate through.
5.Wireless is easy to set up and I notice no difference between hard wired with Cat 5 and wireless.
6.Excellent additional programing, I have both Faith and Family.

Con's
1. Rather difficult to wire up to another TV in another room. The SA website says you need to purchase a wireless audio/video sender and receiver. I checked into the prices of these and they can run anywhere from $100-200, they run on 2.4mhz freq which would mean that there would be major interference from other appliances in the home. Option 2 would be to hard wire from the STB to the second TV which I would have to utilize 30 feet or so of RCA cable or S-Video. I would either have to buy the cable in bulk or splice together what I have lying around. I chose the easiest route which is to just unplug the STB and cables from one TV and go wireless and S-video/RCA on the other TV. Works just fine! Remember, this does not allow you to watch 2 seperate channels on both TV's.
2.The "blooping" sound on the Home Screen is annoying at first but you get used to it.
3.My biggest annoyance is the Eastern time zone and the military time. I really hope the can send out an update for this issue. It get's old fast by having to deduct 2 hours from the time listed!
4.The channels are listed as icons, which is fine but the yellow highlight box that moves is hard to see. They should change it to a darker color.
5.When changing channels with the up/down button, I wish there was reference to what station you are on other than just the channel number.
6.The 2-5 second delay while changing channels is annoying but I had this issue on SA satellite too.
7. I'm running on 1.5 meg and I do get the buffering bar sometimes. I noticed that it can happen at anytime for no reason but recovers rather quick. I can have internet running and have the STB on and have not have any lag time.

Overall opinion:
I am very impressed with the picture/audio quality, above my expectations. The buffering is a concern on 1.5 meg but it's worth the trouble until I have 3.0 in my area.
The additional channels are welcomed and worth the extra money. My only request would be to send out an upgrade for the military/timezone issue. So far, I would advise if you are still trying to decide to go SA IPTV to go ahead and do it.

Finally, I agree with Tsrk30, Let's try to keep at least one thread open to the discussion of product at hand for those of us that made the choice to give it a try.

 

[Larobpra]

We are very pleased overall with the picture and sound quality. I would like to see a different style of listing as to what's on - ie. what's on all the channels on one page instead of having to scroll through all the individual channel pages. And a daily channel listing online would be great too. The military time is kind of annoying too.

Bill at least make your own I hate Sky Angel thread or something, every thread that is posted about Sky Angel becomes a Sky Angel is a bunch of crooks thread.

As a forum moderator your self I am sure you can understand that this constant posting of the same thing becomes annoying and after awhile we have to call these posts spam.

You have very valid gripes about Sky Angel, no question about that. But please don't take other Sky Angel topics off topic because you are unhappy with them.

AMEN!

We ordered the IPTV service back on Jan. 19th as it sounded like something we wanted to try. I then ran into this and another forum where a "vocal minority" were airing their gripes and wondered what we might be getting into. I'm sorry that you "Lifetimers" feel cheated, but can you honestly say that you really expected it to last for a lifetime? I have a tool set I bought 30 some years ago that came with a "lifetime" guarantee. Guess what? The company made those tools for only a short time and I can't get replacements for broken ones. I've got over it and moved on. Those of you in the "vocal minority" should too.

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:31-32

 

[catkoko]

The tool company may be out of business, sky angel is not. they plan on broadcasting via both IPTV and DISH!

I find it amazing that those of you who wouldn't support sky angel by purchasing a lifetime sub when they needed $$ the most now step up to criticize those of us who did.

Expect a CHRISTIAN company to honor a lifetime agreement, yes I did expect it. fool me once shame on you fool me twice, shame on ME which is why I will NOT be subscribng to IPTV. If IPTV subs get burned by sky angel they were warned. After all, Canada IPTV lasted aprox 6 months before it went under.......

 

[jholland]

There is a daily channel listing on-line at the Sky Angel site. You can also set up a personalized listing that displays just the channels you want and in the order you want. You have to register and log-in to use that feature.

I did purchase a lifetime subscription. I just choose to accept what is and make the best decision I can, which for me is to continue receiving SA programming since it makes a huge difference in my life day after day. It helps make me a person who can more effectively reflect Christ in my particular universe.

Many years ago, my mother was the victim of a brutal rape-murder six days before Christmas. I made the decision then not to allow bitterness or anger to have a place in my life or to keep beating my head against a wall about something I couldn't change. Sometimes in life things don't turn out the way we think they should. Let God be judge and vindicator, if needed. Fortunately for me, God chooses to extend mercy and grace to frail, imperfect humans instead of "justice," and He calls on us to do the same.

I do understand that some lifetimers are upset, and I realize some will not be able to get SA IPTV, at least not right now, even if they would like to have it. There are some other options I hope will be a satisfactory alternative. I shake my head when some people express such bitterness and anger again and again. State it once, then let it go. Bitterness is never a productive response.

Please let there be one thread here where the same angry posts are not repeated over and over. As I said, I promise to read every post in every thread of this forum.

 

[catkoko]

I understand how you feel about "complaining". yet , technically isn't this forum about SATELLITE, not IPTV? Therefore discussing sky angel DBS and lifetime is more in line with the forum than IPTV discussions, isn't it? so why do we have threads about IPTV?

Every time it seems we are about to move on sky angel throws a new monkey wrench in the works, such as continuing to broadcast via dish DBS, angel 1, angel 2 and ktv........

jholland, while I don't always agree with you I respect your opinions, More so because you are a lifetime member. what bothers me is those who were not yet choose to sit judgement on the rest.

 

[familyupnorth]

Shine

I'm curious how often the buffering kicks in on a one hour show? How long does it take to recover? We have 1.5 service, but in reality only get about 1.25. We live in such a remote area that this is probably as good as the internet will get for a long time.

Thanks

 

[jbmiller]

hi, i'm a lifetime subsciber for over 10 years the service was great. now i have skyangel iptv and i love it. audio and video is great. color looks good too. on the iptv receiver there is only the on/off switch. if you loose the remote you can't use the receiver. it would be nice to have controls on the box too just in case you loose the remote. whats cool about iptv i have nasa tv
god bless
john

 

[JPage]

I have 1.5 and I live in a remote area also. I ran an ethernet cable from my network router instead of using my wireless connection - I dont know if that helped, but they say that can be a better connection. Anyway, it buffers when I first change the channel and then it is great. It maybe buffers one more time if any. I was a little worried that I would not have enough strength, but it has been great. The Page Family

 

[Mr Tony]

I understand how you feel about "complaining". yet , technically isn't this forum about SATELLITE, not IPTV? Therefore discussing sky angel DBS and lifetime is more in line with the forum than IPTV discussions, isn't it? so why do we have threads about IPTV?

we talk about more than just satellite here. We have a IPTV section, cable sections, FTA section, etc

Putting IPTV threads here with SA is fine since its still the same thing (Sky Angel). But people hijacking each and every thread about "being screwed" and complaining isnt what this is for.