The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box sells for $230, though it currently appears to be out of stock at a number of storefronts, including the Philips Hue website. It’s also now able to support controls from infrared TV remotes and Logitech’s Harmony universal remote. Today’s update also adds voice control to the sync box through Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, letting you turn it on or off, switch HDMI inputs, and more. The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box lets you create an entertainment setup that wows by syncing Philips Hue lights to the content on your TV screen. (Though your enjoyment, I’m sure, will vary - I can imagine the effect growing tiring.) It’s supposed to provide a more immersive experience while gaming or watching movies. The device analyzes pretty much any video content that’s being passed to your TV, figures out the dominant colors, and then constantly changes nearby Hue lightbulbs to match the color. The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box has four HDMI inputs, allowing you to connect multiple media devices, such as gaming consoles and streaming devices, to your Hue smart lighting setup. Until now, the box has just done nothing when those higher-quality signals were passed through.Īfter today’s update, the box should work with a lot more systems and content. Create an Entertainment area in the original Hue app to sync up to 10 color-capable Philips Hue lights with the content on your TV screen.

For people with newer TV sets or who are serious about home theater, that’d be a major miss, since the HDR10+ standard and Dolby Vision are now more common and offer better image quality.

The box that syncs Philips Hue lights with whatever’s on your TV is getting a big update today: it now supports two major HDR standards: HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.Īt launch, the longly named Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box could analyze content playing at up to 4K at 60Hz, but it only supported regular HDR10.

Philips hue play hdmi sync box