The app lets you choose between four levels of intensity – like how the lights react, and there’s a brightness slider too.
#Hue sync with movies plus#
On the plus side, if I switched to stereo music, the music sync effects worked and were impressive. However, it turns out that while the Sync Box supports Atmos from HDMI video sources, it doesn’t recognize Atmos in music mode, which seems like a missed opportunity. Second, a feature I was looking forward to was syncing all the lights in the room to Dolby Atmos tracks from Apple Music, specifically Dawn FM from The Weekend. First, the light show did my projector-based system a disservice, just washing out the image and not adding much to the experience. On my first try, I set up the Sync box in my dedicated cinema room, with a total of 10 lights (six ceiling GU10 bulbs, two Hue Play lights, and a gradient light strip) – with the gradient light resting on the top edge of my projection screen, and the Hue Play projecting upwards, so quite the setup. You tell Hue Sync where your lights are physically located in your space, so you get the most out of it … effective surround light effects. You can add additional zones, but I couldn’t find any way to modify an existing zone, or for that matter remove it, so if you get more lights or change them, the app might get messy, for so to speak. As part of the setup, you add your lights to an “entertainment zone”, where you add up to 10 lights that you want to control and tell the app where they are physically in the room in order to get the best possible synchronization effects.
#Hue sync with movies android#
The Hue Sync Box has its own iOS and Android app, which is separate from the main Hue Sync app. If you want to ensure the music mode works, you will need to plug your device into the Sync Box and connect to an input on the receiver.
#Hue sync with movies tv#
You probably want to plug the sync box between the receiver output and the TV so you can still switch between your inputs on your receiver as normal – however be aware that in this setup the Music mode may not work – as the receiver must send the audio output to the receiver speakers and the TV at the same time and not all do. However, there are some frustrating limitations. If you plug your devices into the Box and then into the TV, setup is pretty straightforward, but I set it up through my receiver. Philips told me this shouldn’t be necessary, so your experience may vary, but this happened to me and this was my workaround. Eventually I temporarily turned off the 5GHz and it was able to connect to the 2.4GHz network, then complete the setup, and everything was fine when I turned the 5GHz back on. Despite having strong coverage, on my network it couldn’t find the 2.4 GHz network and kept failing to configure. It needs to connect to Wi-Fi and only supports 2.4 GHz. Installation was relatively simple, but it was not without problems. The box has received several updates since launch and now supports 4K with standard HDR and Dolby Vision up to 120Hz, so you can get the effect with fast frame rates when playing on the latest consoles – although my TV is not 120Hz compatible, I couldn’t confirm this myself.
It’s also worth remembering that for syncing to work, it has to go through the box via HDMI, so your built-in TV streaming apps won’t get any joy from Hue syncing. However, if you already have other compatible Hue lights and a Bridge, you can buy things piecemeal: a pair of Hue Plays alone cost £103. The Sync Box has been on the market for a few years now and it’s something I’ve wanted to experience for a while so I was eager to try it out.Ĭonnect up to four HDMI devices – but ports 2 and 4 offer the most bandwidthĪs of this writing, the Sync Box, Hue Bridge and two Hue Play Lights can be had on Amazon UK for £382.98 – so again, not a cheap buy. If it sounds frivolous and expensive, you’d be right on both counts – but it’s also PDC (Pretty Damn Cool) and to see it is to want it.
The Hue Sync Box is a small, black device with four HDMI inputs and with the addition of compatible Hue lights and the Hue Bridge, you can bring an Ambilight-style light show to your TV, regardless of brand. Philips is well known as a TV and lighting brand, and its Ambilight technology brings the two together, delivering cool multi-color LED effects that react in sync with your TV content and music.
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