Jiří Filip A few days ago, a very interesting gadget from the Philips workshop arrived for testing. This is specifically the Hue HDMI Sync Box, which can do very interesting things with lights from the Hue range. So if you are their users too, you should not miss the following lines. In them, we will introduce you to a product that can fundamentally change your consumption of music, television or video games.
Technical Specifications
Due to its design, it is not difficult to confuse the Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box with a set-to box for DVB-T2 reception, for example. It is an inconspicuous black box with dimensions of 18 x 10 x 2,5 cm with a design similar to Apple TV (respectively, with regard to the dimensions of the product, it is more like two Apple TVs placed next to each other). The price of the box is 6499 crowns.
On the front of the Sync Box you will find an LED indicating the status of the device along with a button for manual control, and the back is decorated with four HDMI input ports, one HDMI output port and a socket for the source, which is included in the package as well as the output HDMI cable. Thanks to this, you avoid investing in other necessary accessories, which is simply nice - especially at a time when this behavior is by no means standard for electronics manufacturers.
The Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box is used to synchronize lights from the Philips Hue series with content streaming from, for example, Apple TV, game consoles or other devices via HDMI to the television. The Sync Box thus fulfills the role of an intermediary that analyzes this data stream and controls the colors and intensity of the Hue lights that are paired with it. All communication with them takes place completely standardly via WiFi, while, as with most Hue products, it still requires a Bridge ensuring the connection between individual products. I personally tested the entire system of lights and their synchronization with the content on the TV on a 2,4 GHz network and, as expected, I did not have the slightest problem with it. So if you are still driving this older standard, you can be safe.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Sync Box doesn't offer HomeKit support, so you can't count on controlling it via Home. You will have to make do with the Hue Sync application, which is specially created for its control, and it must be noted that it fulfills this task perfectly with an asterisk. On the other hand, it is perhaps a bit of a shame that it is needed for control at all and everything cannot be solved either via the aforementioned Home, or at least via the Hue application. In short, this is how you "clutter" your phone with another program, the usability of which may be quite small as a result - considering the nature of the product. However, nothing else can be done.
First connection
Connecting the Sync Box with the TV and Hue smart lights from Philips can be done without exaggeration by absolutely anyone, even without instructions. Everything is incredibly intuitive and fast, thanks to which you don't even have to take the instructions out of the box. Just unpack the Sync Box, plug it in and then connect it to Bridgi via the Hue app. As soon as you do so, the Hue application itself will guide you to download Hue Sync, in which you can complete the entire setup within a few tens of seconds. Here you will find, for example, the naming of the individual HDMI ports - to which you can easily connect the products at this point - for better orientation when switching, and then the placement of your Hue lights in the virtual room in the places where they are in real life. Then you flash the lights a few times to check the sync status, and once everything fits exactly as it should (at least according to the on-screen tutorial), you're done. In short, a matter of a few tens of seconds.
Testing
Virtually any light from the Hue series can be synchronized with the Sync Box. However, since, in my opinion, this product has the most suitable use, for example, as a specializer for watching TV, the vast majority of you will probably reach for either the various Hue LED strips or - like me - for the Hue Play light bar lights, which can be very easily set up, for example behind the TV, on the shelf or anywhere you can think of. I personally set them up for testing purposes on a TV stand behind the TV and turned them towards the wall to illuminate it.
As soon as you turn on the Sync Box, the lights always turn on automatically and immediately react to the content streaming to the TV via HDMI, not only audio but also video. If this lighting bothers you, it can be deactivated very easily via the Hue Sync application and activated again when you feel like it - i.e. when playing a video, music, or in other words when playing on a game console. It should be noted here that deactivation is unfortunately only possible with the active Sync Box via the Hue Sync application, although the Hue Play light bar lights are fully compatible with HomeKit and you can therefore also see them in the Home application. However, in this case it is not possible to control them, which in my opinion is a bit of a shame.
Via the Hue Sync app, you can set the Sync Box to a total of three different modes – namely video mode, music mode and game mode. These can then be further adjusted either by tuning the desired intensity, or by setting the speed of the color change in the sense of fluctuations, when the colors can either stick more or less to one shade, or they can "snap" from one shade to another. It is certainly good not to neglect the use of individual modes, because only with them does the Box with lights work perfectly. On the other hand, if you use an inappropriate mode for listening to music, for example (i.e. video mode or game mode), the lights will not understand the music very well or will not even flash according to it at all.
I connected two devices to the Sync Box's HDMI ports - namely an Xbox One S and an Apple TV 4K. These were then connected via the Sync Box to a Smart TV from LG from 2018 – that is, to a relatively new model. Even so, it did not cope perfectly with this black box from Philips, as we were not able to switch between the individual HDMI leads from the Xbox or Apple TV via the classic controller, even though I saw them in the source menu. To switch, I always had to use either the application or get up from the couch and switch the source manually using the button on the box. In neither case is it anything complicated, but the possibility of switching via a classic TV remote control would be nice. However, it's possible that this problem only affected me and other TVs handle switching better.
The most important function of the Sync Box is, of course, its synchronization of content flowing through HDMI cables to the TV with lights. It should be noted that this little box handles it very well. The lights react perfectly to all the content on the TV and complement it perfectly. Thanks to this, you as a viewer, music listener or player are drawn into the story much better than ever before - at least that's how the light show behind my television looked to me. I especially fell in love with the Sync Box when playing on Xbox, as it complemented the game almost unbelievably with light. As soon as I ran into the shadows in the game, the bright colors of the lights were suddenly there and there was darkness everywhere in the room. However, all I had to do was run a little further into the sun and the lights behind the TV turned up to full brightness again, making me feel like I was drawn into the game far more than ever before. As for the colors of the lights, they are displayed really sensitively with regard to the content, so you don't have to worry about the lights shining differently than they should according to the content on the TV. In short, everything is adjusted perfectly, whether you're playing games, watching your favorite shows on Apple TV+ or just listening to music via Spotify.
Summary
Philips Hue lovers, break out the piggy banks. In my opinion, Sync Box is something that you simply need at home, and damn fast. This is an absolutely wonderful gadget that can make your dwellings very special and in a really smart way. Sure, we're not talking about a bug-free product here. However, there are so few of them in his case that they definitely shouldn't deter you from purchasing it. So I can recommend Sync Box to you with a clear conscience.
can it pass through Dolby Vision / Atmos?
This is about nothing guys ;) I built this myself a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIRJhc-JHE&t=2s I have to laugh at this Philips box ;) it's scary.
hey, do you have any info? it looks good.
But does it also work on HDMI input? According to the description, the Philips app must be running in the background, so you may have installed it, but it doesn't do the same thing
and you forgot to write that it costs 6000 and it only does the synchronization of your Hue light system with sound or image. that is already a large part of the price of a Philips Hue compatible TV.
oh ...
I read the whole article and how much does it cost? And here is the end of the article and the price is nowhere, only a link to the e-shop... and for 6500 Kc it is super expensive. I would see this for a maximum of 1000Kc per HW. The free app from Philips for windows always does exactly this functionality for their lights and the gaming experience is really great, but for the money it's nonsense. It's always more expensive than a multifunction apple tv...