Sunday, March 24, 2024

How To Sync Hue Lights To TV

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How Do Philips Hue Play Lighting Effects Look

How to SYNC your Philips Hue Lights with your TV & PS4/XBOX! | The Tech Chap

The effect of the Play light bars is really cool. They match the intensity and colours of whats on screen to essentially widen the viewing area, making for a much more immersive experience. If youve added in other lights around the room too, your whole area reacts. Imagine watching a movie where when a building explodes, and your whole room lights up, or playing an intense video game where your space reflects exactly whats happening in the game. It takes in-home entertainment to a whole other level.

What Is The Hue Sync App

This app allows you to do a lot of fun things, it is for both Mac and PC users. You can install this app on your device. It works with anything, really, even web browsing and music, but the experience is especially immersive when watching movies or gaming on full screen.

If you want to use the Hue app, you have to have a Hue bridge and Hue lighting in the room. It can be for all of your Hue devices.

The Philips Hue app is the most comprehensive way to control, organize, and customize your Philips Hue lights and accessories.

You also need to install the new Sync app on your PC or Mac. By adding the element of synchronized lights to your movie-watching, gaming, and music-listening experiences, the free app will offer a new level of immersion when you enjoy your entertainment.

Sync Your Lights To Your Games

Once you’ve mastered one sync type, you more or less know how to operate the others as well. Back on the main menu, pick Games from the list of choices.

Your choices here are exactly the same as they are for movies. You can choose from a Subtle, Moderate, High or Intense effect, and you can toggle the Use audio for effect switch underneath to have the Hue lights you’ve selected take your game’s soundtrack into account as well.

Click Start light sync and the show starts. You can then get your game of choice up on screen and get playing, watching the colours of your chosen Hue lights change shades as your virtual environment does. Again, for best results, play in full-screen mode.

To our untrained eyes we can’t really spot any differences between this and the Video mode, but it doesn’t really matter it’s still very impressive, with the colours of your lights changing to match what’s on screen in real time, just about.

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How To Set Up Philips Hue Play

With your new Play light bars, youll need to get them set up using the Philips Hue app, then youll also need to activate new software on your computer called Philips Hue Sync. Then, both will work together to provide an entertainment area that will wow you.

First things first place then plug in your lights. You can set them in the included stands beside your TV or computer monitor, or use included adhesive tabs to stick them to the back of your screen.

Then sign up for or sign into the free Philips Hue app. Youll want to add your lights to the app for control, so go to Settings, Light Set Up and click Add Light. Click Search and the lights should pop up in your list of available lights. You may need to scroll either to the top or the bottom of the list depending on how many like to have in order to see them.

Once the lights appear, youll need to assign them to a room so choose where youll use them. This will help later when you create your lighting Entertainment area.

To assign Hue lights to a room, go to Settings, Room Set up, and check the box to select the lights to operate in a particular room.

Room controls, by the way, allow you to use voice control if you have a smart digital assistant like Google Home or Amazon Echo and Alexa. They also allow your lights to be controlled all at once, or room-by-room from your smart phone.

As Ive said before, Hue lights are easy to operate and bug free so the set up process should be quick and painless.

Set Up Your Entertainment Areas

hueDynamic App Camera Sync TV to Hue Lights (Aurora)

Before you install the desktop application on your computer, you need to set up what’s called an “entertainment area” in the Hue app for iOS or Android.

In the mobile app, head to the Settings tab, then tap Entertainment areas. Pick Create area, then select the rooms with the lights you want to use you’ll only be able to select ones with multicoloured bulbs installed in them. You can then pick individual lights, if needed.

Hit the Lights are ready button when asked to, and the app shows you a typical home cinema setup with a big TV screen and a sofa. Drag the icons on the app screen to match the physical location of your lights.

The app lets you test the positions and colour syncing until you’re happy. You can then turn your attention to the desktop app.

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Great When It Works But Frustrating When It Doesnt

Ive had this set up now for over six months and when it works its very impressive. But seemingly at random it will decide to stop working. Turning everything off and back on again seems to solve the problem most times. But sometimes you have to go into this sync app and its super frustrating when youre sitting right in front of the box and it tells you its not found and maybe its on a different network. Argh!!! I dont know whats going on behind the scenes maybe its because the hue hub is wired into a ethernet port and this thing is on Wi-Fi that it thinks its on a different network for some god-awful reason and maybe its using Bluetooth for some thing I dont know. I dont know why they didnt include an ethernet port on this thing so it could be hardwired in. Im sure that would solve a lot of these problems by not using Wi-Fi. But judging from the horrible reviews here I guess its not just me having this issue. Ill stick with it and at the very least its a four port HDMI automatic switcher that seems to actually work OK.

Philips Hue Entertainment Mode

Any app can control all of the lights in a particular room, but to make it dynamic and interactive Philips created a new color sync mode that makes the app you are using aware of where the lights are in the room. These custom rooms are different from the normal room assignments, and are called Entertainment Areas. When setting up an Entertainment Area, you can choose the lights that are closest to the television and leave the other lights in their default settings, or you can choose a single light behind your television just to add a little depth to your experiences.

Here’s how you get an Entertainment Area set up:

  • Open the Philips Hue app and tap on the Settings gear at the bottom right of the app
  • Locate Entertainment Areas in the list and select that option
  • Choose the room you want to build and Entertainment Area in and tap Continue
  • Tap all of the lights in the room you want to add and tap Continue
  • Drag the lights to their relative position in your room based on the diagram on the screen
  • Tap Test Area to confirm the lights are set up on the diagram correctly
  • Tap Perfect Match when you have the lights set up correctly
  • Once you confirm the lights are set up correctly, the Entertainment Area is finished. From here, you can use Entertainment Mode apps to create dynamic lighting based on your experiences.

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    Man Your Battle Stations

    Highlight and amplify your in-game actions with your smart lights. Whether youre unlocking an achievement or beating a boss, you can experience lighting effects that correspond to whats going on in your characters world.

    Using the Hue Sync desktop app isnt only for gaming: from watching your favorite streaming service to listening to the latest chart topper, you can pair your lights with whatever is happening on your computer.

    For music, movies, and TV shows

    Two: Set Up The Hue Sync App On Your Mac Or Pc

    How to Sync Philips Hue Lights to ANY TV! (Hue Sync Box Lightstrip Signe Floor Lamps LG CX)

    Your entertainment area has been created and you can now move onto setting up the Hue Sync app on your Mac or PC. To get started with that, as usual . Fire it up, and then click the Search for Bridge button.

    When the app finds your Hue Bridge, check the box next to the terms and privacy policy, and then hit the Connect button.

    After that, youll be instructed to press the big round button on your Hue Bridge, and youll have about 15-20 seconds do so.

    Next, select the entertainment area that you created in the Hue mobile app.

    Youre now ready to begin using Hue Sync. The section at the top shows your entertainment area, and gives you a button for turning the lights in the area off, as well as a slider for controlling brightness. Its just a convenient way to control your lights without using your mobile device.

    Underneath that, youll see four buttons that represent the four things you can control with the app: Scenes, Games, Music, and Video.

    Tap the Scenes button and at the bottom of the window, youll see buttons corresponding to the scenes you have set up. These dont sync your lights to your PC they just provide shortcuts to activate different static scenes.

    The other three buttons work much basically the same. They provide buttons that let you set the intensity of the lights . The Music mode also lets you select from a handful of color palettes.

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    How To Create An Entertainment Area

    Back at the Hue smartphone app theres one more step: Youll need to set up whats called an Entertainment Area. This set up tells the Hue lights where exactly to operate in your home. I chose to make my Living Room the Entertainment area.

    To set up the Entertainment Area, head back to Settings, then Entertainment Areas, then Create an Entertainment Area.

    Once your area is created, you can assign lights to be used for these special immersive effects.

    The app gives you a diagram of a room, and all you need to do is drag the light icons around and place them to accurately represent where they are in your space. In my case, I added the new Play light bars beside my TV, then added my Hue smart bulbs, as well as the Hue Bloom lamp to create an all-around lighting effect.

    Save your settings and exit.

    Now its time to have some fun!

    How To Set Up Philips Hue Entertainment

    Depending on your preferred method of learning, you can check out the following step-by-step video or follow along with the instructions to get your lights synced up.

  • Open the Philips Hue app and tap on the Settings gear at the bottom right of the app.
  • Locate Entertainment Areas in the list and select that option.
  • Tap Create Area.
  • Choose the room you want to build an Entertainment Area in and tap Continue.
  • Tap all of the lights in the room you want to add and tap Continue.
  • Drag the lights to their relative position in your room based on the diagram on the screen.
  • Tap Test Area to confirm the lights are set up on the diagram correctly.
  • Tap Perfect Match when you have the lights set up correctly.
  • Download the Hue Sync app and install it on your Mac or PC.
  • Open the Hue Sync app on your Mac or PC and select Search for Bridge to connect to your Philips Hue bridge.
  • Tap the big button on your Hue bridge to complete the connection to the app.
  • Choose the Entertainment Area you want to control with the app and adjust the brightness to match your settings.
  • From here you have four options. You can use your PC or Mac to control light scenes just like the app on your phone, or you can use the app to pull from video, games, or music. The scene control works exactly the same as it does on your phone, but the other three settings have different rules.

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    Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip: Absolutely Gorgeous

    The lights? Oh man, the lights. Theyre gorgeous. Philips Hue makes some of the best, most vibrant smart lights on the market, and its lightstrips are no different. The Play Gradient Lightstrip is slightly different from the companys other lightstrips because its designed specifically to go on the back of a TV.

    As such, the style is pretty different. Instead of just a simple, flat strip of LEDs, its a fat, flexible snake of lights with a built-in diffuser. This allows the colors to weave in and out of each other as they ebb and flow with your TVs picture. The accuracy is spot on, and the way they flow with the TV is perfect. I like the Govee Immersion, but it cant hold a candle to what the Play Gradient Lightstrip can do in terms of brightness, vibrancy, and accuracy.

    While the Immersion may not be as accurate, it has one feature the Gradient doesnt: It goes all the way around the TV. The Gradient Lightstrip only covers the sides and top of the TV, so you dont get color from the bottom. This creates a bit of a disconnect with the whole extra immersion thingespecially if you mount your TV on the wall.

    Philips Hue recently announced a new $180 Gradient Light Tube that is designed to work with the Gradient Lightstrip to provide light for the underside of the TV, but that also makes an already expensive system even pricier.

    How To Get Hue Sync Set Up On Your Computer

    How to Sync your Philips Hue Lights with your TV, Xbox or PS4

    Next, head to your computer. Youll need to download software from Hue called Philips Hue Sync .

    Once the Hue Sync software is installed on your computer you can open it up and run it. The software will help you get everything set up, so just follow the instructions. Once the software is set up and connected to your Philips Hue Bridge youll again return to the app on your phone.

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    This Compact Device Does An Impressive Job Of Syncing Your Hue Lights With Your TV Without Any Detectable Latency But Its Pricey And Theres No Remote

    Top Deals On Great Products

    Picked by Techconnect’s Editors

    Not everyone wants pulsing lights around their TV screen while watching videos or playing games, but if you do, the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box is currently the best way to make it happen. Indeed, this device does precisely what it says: It syncs the images on your TV screen with your Hue lights by processing the video signals that arrive through your home theaters HDMI cables. The effect is impressively immersive given the Sync Boxs color accuracy and low latency, although youll have to deal with a somewhat complex setup process, not to mention the lack of a physical remote or any support for third-party universal remotes.

    Another issue is cost. The HDMI Sync Box itself costs $230, and thats only for starters. Youll also need a Hue BridgeRemove non-product link, which goes for about $50, not to mention an arsenal of Hue lights, including the $130 Hue Play light bar two-packRemove non-product link. So yes, getting the Sync Box up and running from scratch could be a pricey proposition, given that the components I just ticked off would set you back $410. That said, those who are already invested in the Hue ecosystem wont feel the sting quite as badly.

    Mentioned in this article

    Bias Lights Are Great For Computer Monitors

    The TV screen in your living room isnt the only display that can benefit from bias lighting. If you spend all day looking at a computer monitor, a bias light can do wonders for your eyes, particularly if youre working in a dark office. And if youre a PC gamer looking for some extra immersion, look for a bias lighting system that can sync with a desktop system.

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    How To Install Hue Lightstrips Behind Your TV

    Having light coming from the back of your TV screen is a great way to create a soothing effect when not in use, or having it add an extra dimension to your viewing when the TV is in use with the color matching the on screen action as you watch.

    Using Philips Hue Light Strips we show you the best way to attach h them and how to set it all up.

    How To Setup Philips Hue Play Hdmi Sync Box

    How to Sync your Lights to your TV – Philips Hue Play Bar Smart Lights

    Philips Hue Sync Box connects Philips Hue lights to your TV to create immersive media experiences, with a simple HDMI set-up. This means that anything HDMI compatible can be connected to Philips Hue Play Sync Box, including games consoles, DVD players and laptops. With this new feature you can take your movies, music, TV series or video games to the next level and enjoy interactive experiences that react to action in real time.

    Simply plug in the Philips Hue Play Sync Box via HMDI into you TV. Download the Philips Hue Sync Mobile app to control it. Pair the Philips Hue Sync Box to the Philips Hue Bridge. Then connect up to four HDMI devices to stream content from Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, game consoles, laptops or Blu-Ray players, and your Philips Hue lights will sync with the media content to create an exciting and interactive experience in your whole room.

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