Cinema Lounge Reviews

So Sky’s new exciting TV has been out for some time now which has given me enough time to truly get to grips with it to see if it is actually the best new thing on the market. The Sky Glass is an interesting concept with Sky and all your favourite streaming platforms built into the TV itself connected via the internet rather than a standard satellite dish. So how does it actually work and the most important question is, is it really worth it?

On paper, it does seem so with a 4K Ultra HD display with Dolby Vision and a sound system that is beyond perfect and makes you think you’re actually in the theatre. With an endless library of content right at your fingertips spanning across all your favourite streaming services as well as Sky itself, this sounds like the perfect choice, right? Well after having one myself or some time now I can tell you that they have been some minor faults I have found with it and they are still some things I miss about the standard TV.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore this piece of tech and the concept of it is brilliant. The need for TV satellite dishes could be non-existent in the near future with the arrival of the Sky Glass as it connects to your broadband instead. Before we start talking about what it can actually do compared to a normal TV, let’s get the boring technical stats out of the way first. I will admit, it did take me a little bit of time to get the picture settings just right and up to Ultra HD quality as at first my family and I both agreed that it didn’t look as good as when it was on display in-store.

However, they are some neat little tricks to help you achieve the best quality possible. We will cover more of these in a future post but Sky Glass has the option to edit your own picture settings to make it just right for you, change your default viewing mode to UHD to make sure you’re always streaming in UHD and also turning off something called blacklight. Basically what blacklight does is that it alters the brightness and picture settings automatically depending on the environment surrounding your TV. Although, some users have reported that this feature still makes their screen too dark at night so they recommend turning this off and changing the settings if you need to.

This brings me to my next point. Like all good things, it does have a few minor glitches and faults that I have experienced now and then. Nothing too serious but more annoying as they have come up quite regularly for me. For example, sometimes you can be watching a TV channel and then all of a sudden the sound completely disappears from it. Not muted itself but the sound would literally vanish from the channel. If you switch channels and back again the sound comes back so it’s still a mystery how this is exactly occurring. It can get annoying after doing it time after time but it doesn’t really affect your viewing experience.

If you’re switching over from a normal TV to the Sky Glass then don’t be intimidated straight away as I will admit, it is a huge learning curve. The two arguably best features that you would find on a normal TV such as recording shows to watch later and reminding shows so you know when they start have been removed from the Sky Glass as they say you will no longer need them, and here’s why. The whole concept of the Sky Glass is that you are able to search up any show, movie or sporting event and be able to access it whenever you want so you never miss anything ever again. This sounds great but isn’t entirely true at times. Sky Glass allows you to add shows to your playlist so that you can still easily access all your favourite shows even if you have missed them later on via the catchup services provided by BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and more but what we were told is that for British soaps, such as your Emmerdale and Coronation Street, you won’t be able to retrieve these shows to watch until 24 hours after they have been broadcasted that day.

In addition to that, the other day I missed out on the first race of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series and so I added it to my playlist and came back later on to watch it. If the Sky Glass was using the conventional recording system then I would be able to rerun the race by finding it on my planner. However, because it doesn’t work this way I have to rely on catchup services and so I couldn’t watch the race until the race highlights broadcasted on the following Tuesday and even after that I could only access the race highlights and not the full race. So for me, this reason alone could make or break people’s decisions to buy a Sky Glass. One good thing about the playlist is that it is endless and doesn’t have a set storage capacity unlike most other TV boxes out there so you can add all the movies, shows and sporting events you desire.

For what Sky’s very own TV offers though, I am hugely impressed with its features such as the previously mentioned Ultra HD and HDR capability and even has its own Ultra HD movie section on the movie section of the Sky Glass homepage. Without being too negative still, this section isn’t the biggest ever but at least you can find more Ultra HD capable movies and TV shows on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

Nonetheless, for what it is it is a fantastic piece of tech which could even intimidate some of the biggest tech giants out there. One thing I was wondering when we purchased one was if it came with additional HDMI ports and the answer is yes. The Sky Glass comes with an additional 3 HDMI ports so you can easily plug in your Xbox, PS5 or any other gaming console or streaming device and use it as a standard 4K TV.

So the main question we’re here today to answer is whether the Sky Glass is really worth the investment and the answer really depend on whether or not you are willing to take the risk with this new concept. If you’re fine with a steep learning curve, to begin with as some of it is dramatically different compared to the everyday TV box then I’d say go for it because, in the end, I doubt you’ll be disappointed but bear in mind that you will be making some sacrifices compared to your old TV box. Although, if you aren’t yet ready to part ways with the easy-going of a normal TV box with your conventional recording features then I wouldn’t recommend it to you as I wouldn’t believe you would get along with it. Instead, you could opt for the Sky Q which is similar to the Sky Glass in terms of what it has to offer as it’ll still feel like home.