Top positive review
4 people found this helpful
Marvelous technology Read this if you want to know how to use it.
By Christopher Temple on Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2025
I bought the Philips hue sync box with the LED strip for the top of the back of the TV and the bar that goes along the bottom of the TV. This TV is a Sony 77-in A80L and is mounted beautifully on the back and creates a magnificent juxtaposition of the light that is being cast from the scene and then emits from the scene around your room without distracting from the shot. You have to have an external stream box if you want streaming content to be affected with the hue system. It's also very touchy with 4K blu-ray players in that if you have a Sony, it doesn't work. You have to have the top of the line Panasonic DP UB820 which I'm just ordering. But back to the streaming issue, TVs do not send video they send audio through their eARC HDMI port. Now some people look at the back of the unit and see 4 HDMI inputs and one output and the software switches those inputs to the output. If you use it in this fashion you will be wasting your money. It does not work that way. It is very clunky and completely puts everything out of sync. The correct way of using it is having an AVR with dual outputs and use the secondary output to feed the input number one of the Philips hue box. If the AVR does not have a dual HDMI output then you need to have a HDMI splitting amplifier so that you have two HDMI outs of your AVR. The other point is that you should not run it in and out to the TV as it affects the signal going to it and it's another thing in the past that that usually screws up and end up regretting it. This set up I got is around $500 for the two lights and the sync box. Yes that is very pricey but the technology required to strip the metadata out of the HDMI input for the video signals is quite extensive so it works really well if you hook it up correctly. You have a full multimedia sound system to hook it up to correctly. It doesn't really work with single systems. Good luck
Top critical review
24 people found this helpful
Does Not Function As Advertised
By Justin on Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2020
Normally, I love Philips Hue products. I was an adopter of the 1st gen Hue lights, which still function today and provide a fun, colorful experience in the home. I adopted the Hue Play bars out the gate, and they provide an excellent backlight for my TV. I even use Hue lamps and lights in my bedroom, and synchronize my gaming PC to them with the Hue Sync app for an immersive gaming experience. So I bought the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box expecting the same experience. Unfortunately, it does not work anywhere remotely close to as advertised unless you have a very basic entertainment system. For the sake of brevity, I'll address my key concerns: Dolby Vision Support: NOT as advertised. The AppleTV 4K routinely reset its picture settings, as Dolby Vision would force the Sync Box to crash on the latest firmware (as of writing, 09-OCT-2020) to a black screen. There is a Dolby Vision compatibility toggle in the iOS App for the box, but it specifically states it will degrade picture quality and shifts the blame to the TV for not being "Dolby Vision native" rather than Philips accepting responsibility for its bad design. For what it's worth, Dolby Vision from my AppleTV 4K to my Vizio PX65-G1 has been stunning since Day One with exactly zero issues whatsoever, so I know it's the Hue box, not the AppleTV or the Vizio display. HDR10 Support: Kinda? The manual doesn't mention it, but HDR10 support is *only* via YUV420 color. This isn't a problem for BD or UHD players, as that's their default output, but it's a *huge* problem for game consoles who default to RGB (arguably superior, depending on who you ask). So when I setup the box and started playing some PS4 Pro titles in HDR10, imagine my surprise at seeing the entire display blank for two seconds every five to ten seconds of gameplay. It made gaming unplayable, and I only found the "solution" via a Reddit thread from someone claiming to talk to Philips Hue support about the issue...in 2019. The point being, don't advertise "HDR10 Support" if it's *only* for a *very specific flavor* of HDR10 in *very specific settings*. That's highly misleading to consumers. I didn't get any further into evaluating the product, since it totally failed to perform its core functions with my first two (and primary) media sources. This box should be plug, play, and forget at $230, but it performs none of its functions without issues that require the user to reconfigure their devices to specifically support it in ways that aren't documented in the included manuals. To me, that's a failed product that gets immediately returned, not something I tinker with until I'm satisfied it works. Maybe at $50 to $100 I'd be more forgiving, but for $230, it needs to do its job without significant end user intervention. Avoid at all costs, unless you're willing to put in more time than the box is worth to get everything setup properly. Or unless you just have a smart TV and a soundbar, in which case this is probably all you need.
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