The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box lets you sync Hue lights with your TV

Want to add a new level of immersion to movies and games by syncing your Philips Hue lights with the picture on your TV? Until now, doing so involved a cumbersome process of mirroring your PC’s desktop on your TV screen, but a much easier method is on tap for next month.
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[@djtechs345]

screen bloom does this with any PC hue bulb already, but props to HUE for adopting this to the multimedia center aspect, if lightpack brand hadn't of fucked up the execution they would've had the market but they didn't none the less glad to see this tech finally being adopted

[@TiVo2Go]

Finally this solves the two major problems. *EXPENSIVE* 1. Buy a Philips TV with amilight tech in it which they stopped making in the US years ago so you would have to import a tv from Europe. *CUMBERSOME* 2. Buy lights(Mad Catz Gaming Lights, cheap rope lights, LightPackTV, etc. and then run the TV to a capture card on your PC and deal with the slight lag and power consumption, or use some cheap 3rd party app and position your phone camera to be pointed at the TV and once again deal with the slight lag or just get a lighting system that slowly cycled through the colors and maybe have once scene in your movie or show sync up at the right time right before it goes random again.* Now you buy a box, plug and play, so you can use your own TV.

[@Agobey]

Price is outrageous!!! Considering the price you need to pay up for the lights as well!

[@puretoronto]

You could make a ghetto version with some switches and some Xmas bulbs if that fits your budget.

[@twosawyers]

Alex Gobey 150 maybe! 230?

[@joeynavarro6762]

You should see the price on other hdmi passes

[@lockheed08]

I would’ve bought it for kicks, but it doesn’t support built in tv apps. Netflix is like 90% of my tv usage.

[@Vaisero]

I CAME HERE LOOKING FOR THIS INFO. thank you. that is a massive shame as the market these days is all about streaming apps BUILT IN the tv.

[@wagnerfsj]

I took the plunge and pre-ordered mine. I need to try this for myself and see whether it’s worth its outrageous price. If not, I’ll just return it 🙃

[@TiVo2Go]

same here, people dont get it, with time technology gets better the only original way to get this perfectly was to buy a philips tv with ambilight or wait for lightpacktv or some other kickstarter promise this tech only to have it delayed by years because they cant get hdmi licensing and the final way was to run it to a capture card on pc. This is Philips who created this tech, taking it out of the tv and putting it in a box where you can take the box anywhere and use it on any tv not just philips. plug and play.

[@Vaisero]

i want it, but it doesnt support SMART TV apps. it would only work for my consoles.

[@akruz52]

@@Vaisero Haha I was just setting mine up and realized that. I guess I need to grab that new Nvidia Shield Pro now lol.

[@TiVo2Go]

*Also for the people complaining about not being able to use it with the streaming apps on the TV, just stop it, name me one person who is interested in Hue Lights behind the TV and does not have an Xbox, PlayStation or a BluRay player with Streaming Apps on them. That is how you get it to work with NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. Playing directly from the TV does not work but playing them from your game console, BluRay Player or Roku/FireStickChrome, etc. works so just stop complaining.* *First world problems, I can play this on my Xbox but I don't want to, I WANNA PLAY THIS ONLY STRAIGHT FROM MY TV.*

[@chuddoctor6820]

I love my hue lights but this is expensive AF, does it include any lights at all? Or just that box? I don't think it's worth it.

[@KevinCorporation]

The price is on par with other HDMI pass through light box set ups. Learn to research. This is including the price for lights too. It is 230 + the price of lights. The DreamScreen (discontinued), lightpack 2, and 4K Diva 18Gbps were/are 300-400+ including lights. Hue, in this case, is priced competitively and is actually pretty much the cheapest option for an HDMI pass through solution. But you get what you pay for too, this is probably the least response/precise out of all the options.

[@TiVo2Go]

*Yeah people complaining just remember...* *The old way was you had to buy a Philips TV with Amilight which they stopped making in the US and only in Europe.* *So you had to import and what if the TV stopped working?* *Then you had to buy MadCatz Cyborg Lights or some other third party/kickstarter like LightPackTV which I did and now they announced lLightPackTV2 which supposed to work with HDMI but still not out years later.* *And you had to run most of these bootleg options through a capture card and deal with the lag.* *Or you could download a 3rd party app and take you phone and point it at the TV and capture the colors on-screen and hoped it matched and cycled the lights correctly.* *So Philips finally did the right thing and just put the tech in a box and not the TV, you think the tech in the TV would be and extra $200 for the TV? Wrong, much more.* *Do you want a TV/VCR Combo a TV/Ambilight Combo or just a box that you can use on any TV and any HDMI input.* *Just got mine today and I already had the light bars and the bridge so it was an easy setup.* *I have the Tivo, BluRay, Nintendo Switch & XBOXOne and it is perfect, no lag.* *I'm playing L4D2 and switching between main weapons and pistols and the light is lag free.* *I wasted money on LightStrips, MadCatz Cyborg Lights, Color Changing Bulbs with remotes, 3rd party iphone apps and this is all you need anymore.*

[@metromodels1]

But it doesn't support 4k and HDR games and movies The device will pass Dolby Vision/HDR content so you can still watch it, we are just unable to product any light effects from it (today)," oplyser Signify i en mail til Flatpanels.

[@deeharp]

whats the point? the best setup is video games. And HDR is being more standard and with new consoles coming next year. You will have wasted 230 bucks.

[@jonathanharris2326]

This thread is probably dead, but does anyone know if you can just connect this to the back of a smart TV via HDMI?

[@Kommaardoor64]

I feel like I really want this. But I also know myself, use it once, find it annoying and then only use it to show off my lights to others. Not worth €250; which is what it costs in Europe. Outrageous.

[@dannykl6883]

Geert van 't Zand I agree I think I would find it distracting when watching movies

[@4ndroid55]

How much you wanna bet this kills your HDR and Dolby Atmos surround

[@pandasdreamlygon]

i preordered it.. i already have 50 hue lights

[@pujolf]

Will it work on say Samsung Smart TV if im using Netflix, HBOGo or Vudu via the apps on the smart TV?

[@EdijsPerkums]

No, you need external HDMI source

[@rakeshreddy8584]

Love it!

[@briansmith1560]

How does it switch between the hdmi's? Just turning on a ps4 will switch it over or has to be done in the app or remote?

[@TiVo2Go]

yes, a little glitchy with switching back to my Tivo but you can manually Switch over ro each one in the app, could be some hdmi settings on my TV i need to play with.

[@creese83]

With that price, just download the hue camera app and it does pretty much the same thing for free

[@TiVo2Go]

yeah I want to use my phone and have it pointed at the tv which means I gotta position it just right, not have it go into sleep mode, break the already laggy immersion everytime I get a phone or text and have my phone battery explode or burn my hands when I try touching it after watching a 2 hour movie.

[@23kgoat19]

Does this work on every TV?

[@twosawyers]

23kgoat if it has hdmi yes

[@Lead_Foot]

Hue sync really isn't all that good. It only cares about what's on the screen from left to right. There's no vertical dimension to it. Huestacean on pc actually lets you layout your lights according to where you want to match the screen vertically.

[@djtechs345]

damn if ths is true hopefully hue takes notice and can fix this with a software update.

[@mtt7738]

Hue sync lets you position your lights at ground level, tv level or ceiling level in the app.

[@mquirozz]

Cool idea but nothing new. The price is just stupid.

[@puretoronto]

Q does Review How is the price compared to similar devices on the market?

[@EdijsPerkums]

@@puretoronto there are third party devices with hdmi that come with lightstrips for the same price and they will better at emulating ambilight

[@matthewgaines10]

That looks distracting. I would rather have no/low light that is fixed. I guess there is a customer for this product but I don't know who they would be.

[@rickrolled2691]

I dont get this whole behind the tv lights bs. My home theater room is pitch black with an 82" 4k and its like Im at the theater. I would get a headache with all lights flashing different colors

[@BPipkins]

A simple light behind the TV (preferably 6500k in color temperature) is all that is needed and recommended. No flashing lights. It’s actually called a bias light. It helps to reduce eye fatigue and also has the added benefit of making black levels on the TV appear darker than they are. I typically turn mine off when watching a movie, but playing a video game or binge-watching shows I turn it on at 50%. They make LED strip lights that you can mount directly on the TV, though I’ve had luck using a TP-Link Kasa bulb in a desk lamp. Easy and can be controlled via WiFi.

[@tompro53]

$230 for that?

[@Lesiunta]

Seems steep. There has to be a cheap solution.

[@DGCRP]

@@Lesiunta you can do the same effect with a PC using non hue RGB light strips and a raspberry Pi, wayyyy cheaper but only really works for putting light behind a PC monitor

[@adonistopofmen2571]

great …….

[@MrTypzz]

Hell yeah 🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

[@BlackSkull289]

Cool product but too much ££££££

[@hwang1607]

this is too expensive

[@JoshuaCorley]

The day they add code in for ambient lights to videos and it actually looks good and isn't a distraction I'll be in, in a heart.... Until then I feel this is just a toy

[@tornadocapoeira]

Hahahahhahaha

[@timmy2310]

Nice but overpriced

[@dkindig]

Ridiculous gimmick. The real purpose of backlighting is to maintain a reasonably consistent pupil dilation across dark and light content. I use a 6500K light source behind my tv that is set to match the brightness of a 20% grey field. The reason that 6500K (daylight) is critical is so the backlight doesn't skew your perception of the colors on the screen. The whole Philips Hue concept just shows a complete lack of understanding of what we're trying to achieve with proper color and brightness calibration.