Philips Hue Box Adds Immersive Lighting To Your TV Experience

Philips, after having worked on the color-projecting Ambilight TVs and the Hue smart bulbs, has decided to take it one step further and help you get a more immersive experience watching TV with the help of its lighting technologies. 

The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box hooks up the Hue bulbs in your home to the TV and, much in the same way the Ambilight system on the Philips TVs project the onscreen colors on the wall behind it, this Sync Box will do the same via the Hue bulbs. 

The Sync Box processed all the video signals that head over to your TV, it analyzes all the colors and communicates them to the Hue smart lights. You can even sync the colors with music, if you so feel inclined. 

The devices comes with 4K 60Hz and HDR 10 support, but no HDR10+ or Dolby Vision compatibility. You can still play that content but it won’t get synchronized smart lighting treatment, at least for the time being. 

Of course, if you are watching very fast-paced action films with scenes that change very often, the light show can become disorienting, but the lighting can be set from an ‘intense mode’ down to a ‘subtle mode’, which should be less tiresome on the eyes. 

Also, you won’t necessarily need a Philips TV to enjoy the experience and, according to the company, the users can connect “as many as ten Philips Hue color capable lights” via the Philips Huse sync app and the Sync Box will deal with whatever device you’ve hooked up to the HDMI ports (it has four of them). That means consoles, TVs, set-top boxes, laptops and more. 

The Hue Play HDMI Sync Box has a price tag of $230 and will launch on October 15th.