Customer Ratings & Reviews

If you are like me and own an Apple TV 4k and had it paired to the previous generation Hue Sync Box you probably had MANY issues with the previous version. Perhaps the most annoying was the fact that the screen would randomly go black for about a second and then turn back on whenever I was watching with the Apple TV 4K and the previous generation Hue Sync Box. I went online, read various forums and customer suggestions such as changing video quality settings but nothing worked. I simply gave up and plugged the Apple TV 4K directly to my tv without the previous generation Hue Sync Box and never saw the black screen come up. I patiently waited for the release of the Philips Hue Sync Box 8k to see if this issue was ever going to be resolved. Pre-ordered the new 8k Hue Sync box and boy was I not disapointed. It finally works with no issues with the same Apple TV 4k I used on the previous generation Hue Sync Box. Everything is working fine to include picture quality ans sound quality. I currently have it plugged directly into my Apple TV via the HDMI input and have the TV output from the Hue Sync Box plugged into my TV. I then have the eArc from my TV plugged into my AV receiver. I started watching movies in 4k Ultra HD and with Dolby Atmos and it looks and sounds amazing. Now I can finally use my Hue Play lights again!!! The cons is the price: This thing is not cheap! However, Philips Hue has the best light system out there when it comes to durability, compatibility, and quality. This thing makes the Goovee system look cheap. If you have the money I definitely recommend it.

Upgraded from the 4k box to this 8k box. Here are some tips for a smooth setup: 1. You will not be able to use the separate "Hue Sync" app anymore. You need to setup the sync box with the same app you use to control your lights. Add it like you would a new light. 2. My FireTV stick worked fine when I plugged it in. My Apple TV gave me issues, it was flickering. Just restart your Apple TV from the settings menu and restart the hue sync box. Worked for me. 3. If you have high output devices, consider upgrading the HDMI cord that comes with the box. I upgraded to a "Ocean 48" AudioQuest HDMI Cable that can handle 8k and is 2.1 certified. 4. 1 have a LG C1 with this. If you're having issues, check the settings on your TV such as HDMI Deep Color, Dolby Vision, FreeSync, Instant Game Response; sometimes those settings can mess with the sync box. 5. I don't have my sound bar connected to the sync box, but if you do, make sure it's in HDMI 4 on the sync box and enable eAro bypass in the hue app under settings. Hope this helps and saves you the headache.

Works great so much fun being able to have your lights in your room go to your favorite movies or video game.

Works great! So far no glitches, I will say it is a little high priced yet, but works like it should.

Works perfectly, love the sync. Had to wait for the update box because the old version didn’t work. Easy to hook up and use

The price was a bit high I wish it was cheaper but the process with the lights is amazing. It definitely took my movie watching and gaming to a different level.

I’ve tried the Govee lights that use a camera to sync lighting and it was fine but not great. The thing that separates this product from that is it receives the data directly from the source before reaching the screen over a camera that is watching your screen. Which leads to more accurate colors, brightness, and less latency. It also incorporates ALL of you Hue lights instead of just the lightstrip attached to your television. For example, I’ve got three lightstrips, 5 hue bulbs, and a candle light in the same room and it controls all of them. You can also adjust where they are located in your space including how high or low they are (height). Leading to a lot more dynamic lighting. Additionally, you can fine tune it via the Hue App (which is also how you set everything up which I appreciate as I like when everything is in the same place). Some things to note, it only works with Hue Lights and no others. It does require a Hue Bridge. It can connect up to 4 HDMI devices (don’t know the limit on the lights). And only works through HDMI. Compatible with Alexa, Google, and Apple Homekit (Homekit is hard to find). It comes with a single HDMI, you’ll have to provide the rest. But likely have from your devices already. My first setup was easy and everything just worked. But as I used it I did run into occasional bugs which made me have to hard reset everything (Apple TV, Hue Box, Sound System). I do like how there is a button on the front to change through HDMI’s. Also, through the app itself. Personally, I find the HDMI 2.1 certification (8K at 60 Hz or 4K a 120 Hz) to be huge. As I am a gamer, meaning I want 120 Hz at 4K, and I like to use Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision on a Dolby Atmos Surround System so need as much bandwidth as I can. I was albe to get Dolby Atmos, Vision, and all my Hue Lights to work at the same time through my Apple TV. Now with this guy I can add the immersive lighting component to it as well. As it is kind of crazy how much more immersion you get when all the lights are synced to the content you are watching. As it makes you feel like you are more part of the action instead of spectating it. I had a fire scene where it started on the ground and then grew and with the lights it was a very cool feeling as it was if I was in the building. But sometimes with the change in lighting it can be distracting. Especially, when on high sensitivity. Found that leaving that a bit less sensitive helped it be more gradual and less obvious. It is important to have quality “Ultra High Speed 4K HDMI cables”. As when you’re pushing high quality audio (Dolby Atmos), picture (Dolby Atmos), frame rate (when gaming) and syncing lighting (Phillips Hue) you’re using a ton of bandwidth, and if your HDMI cord is limited you will get problems. I use Zeskit Ultra High-Speed cables and haven’t had any problems (regarding the cable). Overall, my biggest complaint is that the Hue ecosystem in INSANELY expensive. Thankfully, most of the products last a long time and are rather robust. Outside of their light strips, which are cheap and break way too easily for the cost. The box itself feels solid and like a premium product. Everything is clearly labeled. Button on the front fells very tactile and responsive. On the app you can press a button to turn on and off the functions. As it overrides all your lights when activated. So if you need to turn on the lights (in a dark scene) for something then you can quickly pause it to do so, then activate it again to get back into the movie/media. My only two complaints are cost and that at times you can run into bugs which can be frustrating to sort through. But otherwise does exactly what I want it too.

Amazing product. The lightining submerges you into the content.

About Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K provides a way to connect your movies, video games, and music to your Philips Hue lights. It is an HDMI pass through device that takes signal from HDMI inputs and then recreates the color with your Philips Hue lights. The colors are no longer confined to the border of your TV. What It Comes With The products in the box are very simple. You have a Sync Box, power cord, power adapter, and a HDMI cord. The Sync Box looks similar to a HDMI splitter. There are 4 HDMI inputs and 1 output. The power cord plugs into the back of the Sync Box and the other end to the power adapter. Note, the cord for the power is kind of short. The HDMI cord is also short at roughly 3 feet. What You’ll Need to Provide You will need to have these items to use the Philips Hue Sync Box: • HDMI Input devices such as a Game Console, Streaming Box, Laptop, Blu-Ray player, etc. The box will not work with the apps on your TV. • HDMI cables – any cable to connect the input devices or if you need a cord longer than 3 feet to go from the box to the TV. The instructions request that the sync box to TV cord be less than 3M long. You will want to use certified cables. I recommend going ahead and getting cables that are certified for 8K and HDMI 2.1. These usually have a hologram on the packaging showing that they are certified. Cheap cables will cause issues such as no signal, poor picture, or lag, and you will likely not be satisfied. • A Philips Hue Hub is required to use this. • Any Philips Hue lights that you will want to connect to the sync box. I believe that there’s a limit of 1 gradient light per sync box. A system could use a combination of a TV Gradient, Play Bars, Flood Lights, A19 bulbs, or other Philips Hue products. • TV (obviously). The App The sync box uses it’s own app called Hue Sync. Note that this is a different app than the one you use for all other Philips Hue lights. The app itself has settings for Sync Mode, Intensity, and Brightness. The app also turns the box on/off and starts/stops the sync feature with the lights. For the Sync Mode setting you can choose whether you have a movie, video game, or music. This will affect how the lights sync. The intensity mode seems to control how quick or responsive the lights are. The Initial Set-up Setting up the device really isn’t that difficult unless your entertainment setup is difficult to reach like mine. You plug the input device HDMIs into the four inputs and one HDMI cord out to the TV. Then connect the power. Download the app and complete the steps in the app. It does require a Philips Hue Hub. The box uses Bluetooth to speak with your phone, so you’ll need to be able to sync Bluetooth to set up. It asks for you to stand close to the box during this process. You also connect the device to your Wi-Fi so you’ll need your password handy. To confirm that you are setting this up, it requires you to press the button on the Hue Hub as well. Connecting the lights is the next step. You set up an entertainment zone that activates when the sync feature is initiated. This is a group of lights that you position in the app by telling it where they are in relation to the TV. There’s a simulated home theater set-up shown on the app screen. You move the lights to where they reside in a plan view. Then you press the light icon to set the elevation of each light. For elevation you have a choice of ground, TV level, or ceiling. This gives the box an idea of where each light is as it casts the color outward from the display. Results I set this box up to work with a simple 75” TV Gradient light. It worked very well. I also have the first version of the Sync Box, and I must say that this setup was smoother. The picture is much better than the previous sync box. The extension of my screen colors makes watching the TV a much more immersive experience. When added with some additional lights and home theater audio, this makes the experience Here is a quick list of Pros and Cons for the Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box. Pros *Best Biased Lighting Experience - I haven’t seen another product that does it as well as Philips * No cameras or extra equipment – I’m a little weirded out about adding a camera to my bedroom TV. Any else? Philips doesn’t make you do that. *Lots of control - several in-app adjustments *Allows for quite a bit of expansion – More lights! *Supports 8K, HDMI 2.1, eArc, and full Dolby Vision *Sync Box can update to improve Cons *Having a 2nd app – Not integrated into Philips Hue app *Short power and HDMI cords. Could cause you some issues in the set up. * Instructions are a little lacking. They don’t use words. There’s a USB port on the back, and I still don’t know what that’s for. A little more explanation could go a long way. * Has a light on the front of the box. Not a big deal, but I put this in my bedroom and now I have another light that stays on constantly. I’m giving the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K 4 stars. It’s the best version of biased lighting that I have seen. I’m already heavily invested in the Hue ecosystem, so this works well with lights that I am already using. If Philips would sell this a little cheaper and provide some longer power and HDMI cords, this could be a 5 star product. The upgrade in the picture quality makes this quite a bit better than the previous Hue sync box.

The new Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K​ came out recently promising fixes and improvements over the previous generation, as well as future proof technology for when 8K content becomes more available. I already had the Hue Bridge for other lights around the house but I held off on a proper TV light strip until now. I setup the Philips Hue 75" Smart TV Light Strip on the back of my Sony A95L OLED TV to go with the new Sync Box. What a difference that makes in how much more expansive the image becomes, immersing you into the action, whether you are watching a movie or playing a video game. The setup itself is pretty straight forward. The Sync box has to be installed in between the video source like a 4K UHD Blu Ray player and your TV HDMI input. It is not designed to work with the built-in TV apps. I’ve hooked mine up to a Panasonic 4K player, a 4K Roku and a 4K Fire Cube and they all work great. There may be some quirkiness with some devices, especially when it comes to turning other connected devices On/Off via HDMI CEC commands from a single remote. For some reason my Denon receiver turns on fine, but no longer turns off from the Fire Cube remote, since the Philips Hue 8K Sync box was installed in-line with it. I may have to get newer HDMI 2.1 certified cables, tweak more settings or wait for a firmware update. As for the App setup, it was easy, discovered on the network, then had to scan the QR code to pair it, after which it performed a firmware update which took several minutes. There are many settings available from TV/Audio mode, to Intensity and Brightness settings (for the gradient TV lightstrip), Automation, etc. You do have to hit the Sync button in the App to enable the signal to pass through, otherwise your light strip or other lights you may have assigned to it will not synchronize with your video or audio signal. This setup that includes the required Hue Bridge, the 8K Sync box and the longest gradient TV lightstrip will easily cost you over $700, but it is a lot more responsive and accurate than other cheap brands that rely on a camera looking at the screen trying to sync the lights with the image. If you have a high-end setup and don’t mind spending even more to expand your setup with a perfectly synced ambient gradient light option, then this Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K is your best option.

Setup for the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K was an absolute breeze. Using the included HDMI cable, I simply inserted the Sync Box between my receiver and projector—no hassle at all. As an existing Hue user, the Hue app made integrating everything second nature. My setup includes a Hue Gradient Light Strip under my home theater cabinet and a couple of Hue Play Bars behind the front speakers. I do plan to expand by adding more Play Bars or upgrading to gradient strips for even better light coverage, and I might even tackle hiding some Hue strips behind my projector screen (once I work out the electric setup). Now, I’ll be honest—I was initially worried the lights would feel distracting or just plain gimmicky, but I’m happy to say that isn’t the case. Mostly. For fast-moving action scenes, especially with high-intensity syncing, it can occasionally be a little too much. Where it really shines is with animated movies or films with vibrant, mood-setting color palettes. Watching Inside Out with low-intensity settings was a whole new experience as the colors matched the emotional tone perfectly. Avatar was another good one. The deep blue tones pulled me right into the movie without ever feeling overdone. One of the unexpected highlights has been using Hue Sync with music. I often stream songs through my Apple TV and I've enjoyed setting the lights to Video Mode at a low intensity for a mellow, mood-enhancing vibe. Alternatively, switching to Music Mode gives a fun, EQ-like light show, but for someone whose music taste leans toward the mellow side, I prefer subtle. Performance-wise, I couldn’t be happier. Even with my HDMI setup running through a Cat-6 to HDMI converter box over a 30-foot Cat-6 cable to my projector, the Sync Box hasn’t skipped a beat. That’s saying something! I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking to take their home theater or entertainment system to the next level, but be warned: with the ability to connect up to 10 Hue lights, this setup can become a “gateway drug” to future Hue purchases!

Unfortunately my hue sync app won’t connect to it for setup (tried multiple times and bluetooth is on). Ended up switching back to my last generation Hue Sync Box.

Most people who want the most out of their home movie/tv/sports/gaming setup know that to get the most out of it you need a great picture and great sound, but Philips took it to the next level a few years ago when they introduced the Sync Box - and now they have taken it to another elite level with the 8K sync box that brings some elite, high level features to your home viewing experience! PROS: - Unboxing this, the Sync box looks beautiful! It’s very slim, minimalistic and does not stick out too much which is exactly what you want with a product like this. Looks really high end but also can be hidden away! - On top of how it looks, it has 4 HDMI inputs which is so great! I love how Philips is forward thinking and does not limit you to just a few inputs. - Setup is made very easy with the Philips Hue App. It’s crucial you have this as this will help take you through the light placement and setup so that the Sync box knows which light is where. - Spec wise, the biggest selling point for this box is that it supports HDMI 2.1 and 8K at 60 hz and 4K at 120hz. This is huge as this is the high end standard for all gaming consoles and for the best streaming devices you can get. All in all what it means is, your picture quality will not degrade whatsoever from going through the Sync box and will instead maintain the peak quality that you can get from the highest end TVs on the market! - Using this is simply a joy! It makes your TV setup feel even bigger as your experience with what you are watching or playing does not stop at the TV but extends to fully encompass you in your entire room. The light syncing with color and intensity just makes you feel so alive with everything! And gaming is so much fun with this and that is really when the Sync box shows off its high end performance. - Lastly, the app gives you a lot of functionality to tweak what you are doing to your needs. Whether it is Movies, TV, Sports, Music, or gaming, I can’t stress enough how great the Philips Hue App is! CONS: - You still need a Hue Bridge to work with the Sync box. Seems kind of weird that a Bridge is not just built into this automatically? BOTTOM LINE: - For those who want the most out of their home streaming / gaming experience, the 8K sync box is simply what will take you there. It’s a breeze to setup, has 4 HDMI ports, and really elevates your TV to a whole other level! It makes content so much fun to consume at home and really pushes the limit on what smart home tech can do to bring more creativity and fun into your life. This is a great buy and I think a lot of people are going to love it.

The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K is a premium addition to any high-end home theater setup, transforming how you watch movies, play games, and listen to music by adding an immersive layer of dynamic lighting to the experience. As someone already using the Hue Bridge for smart lighting throughout my home, integrating the Sync Box into my existing Hue ecosystem was straightforward and familiar through the app. The Hue app makes customization easy, allowing you to switch between the 4x HDMI inputs on the Sync Box, adjust the brightness and intensity of the lights, and select different modes. Movie and Game modes synchronize the lights to match the brightness and color of the on-screen content, while Music mode uses audio cues to create dynamic lighting effects. Additionally, the app lets you toggle Sync mode on or off, giving you full control over when the lighting effects are active. The sync functionality works by analyzing the incoming HDMI signal from your connected devices and adjusting the light strip (and any other synced Hue lights) to match the colors of the content in real-time. I was particularly impressed by how smooth and latency-free the experience was. The color accuracy is excellent, and the lights feel like a natural extension of the screen, expanding the visuals into the surrounding space. Game mode was a standout feature for me. In fast-paced games, the lighting effects were especially immersive. While playing a shooting game with heavy muzzle flare, the bursts of light caused not only the gradient TV light strip to pulse but also the other synced Hue lights in the room which enhanced the action and made the experience as a whole feel more cinematic. It’s worth noting that the Sync Box only works with external HDMI devices—the lighting effects won’t sync with content from built-in smart TV apps, since the signal must pass through the Sync Box via HDMI for processing before reaching the TV. To get around this, I used a Chromecast as my input device, which allowed me to run all my streaming apps through the Sync Box and enjoy the full lighting effects without issue. Overall, the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K delivers a seamless and highly immersive lighting experience that enhances movies, games, and music. Its integration with the Hue ecosystem, impressive color accuracy, and responsive performance make it a standout addition for anyone looking to elevate their home entertainment setup.

Unboxing: This Phillips high speed 8K lighting controller is well packaged with AC adaptor. It has four video inputs to one output. The 4th input supports ARC/eARC which could be more clearly called out in the labeling. Connecting: Connecting this could not have been simpler - I have an in wall bus box behind our new TV and one square of industrial Velcro later - voila - attached. We chose to connect the input for a PS5, a gaming PC, a Blu-Ray played and our HD Fiber box. All four of the devices pass through without issue to the TV. Setup and Adjustment in the application was simple - the device is recognized and then linked to our hub. The hub controls the three piece light strips installed behind the tv and two smart bulbs in ceiling cans at the other end of the room. It works perfectly and exactly as expected whereas the colors shift and match perfectly with the screen displayed. We were even able to easily orient the rear bulbs so they are correctly in-phase with what is being displayed. I can tell you with brutal honesty here that a few years ago - if you said we would be wiring up our new entertainment room with high speed matching lighting; I probably would have laughed myself silly. However I experienced a similar setup at a friend's house gaming then watching a movie and that was all it took - I was hooked ! The ambient lighting effects just make games, films or tv watching more intense. I actually plan to add two more lights to the rear corners of the room to even out the effect. Formats supported: -4K120Hz 8K60Hz -HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision -HDMI Forum VRR -ALLM -40gbps FRL -ARC/eARC (On Input 4 only) -DTLS Limit = 16 Lights controllable at high speed What I love ! It connects easily when setup to the homebridge Easy to customize effect levels Zero delay / very fast ! Room for improvement Wireless only - no ethernet

BACKGROUND I really wanted to love this successor to the Hue Play HDMI sync box. It has everything I have been looking for in both an HDMI switch and a Hue product. On the switch side, you get 4 HDMI 2.1b ports which support HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, HDCP 2.3, Dolby Atmos, VRR, ARC/eARC passthrough, 4K 120hz, 8K 60hz, and almost anything else you would want from a modern HDMI device. On the Hue lighting side, once you set-up your entertainment area, the box will take the HDMI inputs and map them to your entertainment space to lighting effects line-up with your media, be it movies, TV, gaming, music, and more. By itself, the box is small, simple, and connects to the Hue Bridge and ecosystem seamlessly, like you would expect from a Hue product. Also, like a premium Hue product, it is on the pricey side for what is ultimately a HDMI switch with color mapping capabilities. You need separate hue color lights (like the 75” Hue Gradient Lightstrip I have), in order to really make use of this box, and so if you are not already in the ecosystem, you may have a pricey upfront cost to get interactive lighting with your media. For dedicated home theater nerds like me, I am the target market for something like this. I have a lot of HDMI 2.1 devices, a big TV, I am already in the Hue ecosystem, and I love building out my home theater with even more fun toys. Which is why, I personally have a hard time recommending this box, as even for me at the moment, the experience has been equal parts fun and extremely frustrating, even if some of the frustration may be out of the boxes’ control. MY EXPERIENCES To start with the positives, on the light syncing side, it works amazing. The main purpose of this box is to sync your lighting with your media (sync is in the name afterall), and it is almost flawless in doing that. As mentioned previously, I have the 75” Hue Gradient Play Strip behind my TV, and the box perfectly syncs my games and movies with the lightning of the TV. You can adjust the intensity of the light (e.g. how quickly it responds to content on screen), and the brightness of the light, as well as the type of content you are viewing. All of these work with incredibly low-latency, and are very customizable to your viewing environment and preferences. In gaming, I prefer a bit of a faster response to react with my movement, while in movies and TV I prefer a lower intensity and brightness so it compliments the picture, instead of distracting from it. If you want a heavier-handed look, you can crank things way up, but if you are trying to balance everything, you can also just as easily scale things down, and it still works perfectly. I found it adds a nice level of interactive bias light to the content I am watching, without detracting from the picture. Almost like the picture is bigger than it is, with the TV screen in focus and the background out of focus. It is a lot of fun playing my favorite content on it and tuning it to my preferences. Colors also tend to match surprisingly well, and while not perfect (particularly with HDR content), they often get surprisingly close to the colors of the screen. The brightness also varies a bit based on the brightness of colors on screen, so an explosion for example may light up an area behind your screen brighter than say a light against a night sky on the other side of the screen. It is a really cool touch and gives the experience more of a “3D” effect. This is really class leading light syncing. Unfortunately, this is where I need to start with the negatives, because I had many, some of which I was able to fix myself and others which are still present after a week of troubleshooting. The primary issue I have had is with my PS5 and flickering and connectivity issues. Whenever I play games with my LG OLED, I get frequent flickering where the screen almost looks like it is “resetting”. Sometimes this will last 30 seconds, and sometimes I lose picture completely and need to switch to a different HDMI and back again to get it to reset. Then, I will go through long stretches where it works flawlessly, for no reason, only to start again or repeat once I turn the PS5 off and on again. I have tried swapping cables, resetting the box, switching ports, turning off CEC and Hot-Plug Detection, trying different configurations with my TV and PS5 settings, and nothing seems to work. It is very inconsistent, and I consider myself to be quite tech savvy, especially when it comes to home theaters, but this has continued to baffle me in terms of a fix. Likewise, I had my PC hooked up to a different port and experienced even more severe image flickering and distortion, which I was able to resolve with a different HDMI cable, even though I was using the one included in the box. Perhaps the box is sensitive to high-bandwidth cables, but high-bandwidth inputs really seem to stress its capabilities, and I have been using good cables since I got it, despite issues persisting. Reducing video transfer rate on my PS5 seemed to help, but this also limits the ability to do 4K 120hz for gaming, which defeated the purpose of the box for me. Thankfully, the Apple TV and Blu-Ray player both work without issue and with the correct formats. Although another issue I had to resolve was that the Apple TV would constantly turn on with CEC, and the sync box would then switch to it, cutting off whatever else I was doing. This may be more the fault of CEC and the TV, but I did have to disable CEC and HDP on the Apple TV HDMI port through the sync box to avoid this behavior, and having the Apple TV mess with my other devices. Likewise, since the Hue Sync box doesn’t come with a remote, you need to switch inputs with the app, which can get annoying quickly if CEC isn’t working to automatically switch devices correctly for you. I built custom shortcuts on my iphone which I store with a widget and makes it much less frequently that I need to open the app, but still I wish it came with even a basic remote to do things like power it on/off and switch inputs. You can use an IR remote to control the box if you set it up, but I tested this with my universal remote and could not get it to work with the box. Maybe my remote isn’t supported, but I could not get it to correctly program a button for the sync box. Another issue I had that I resolved was not being able to actually connect with the box through the app. Set-up went fine and the connection was great for a few days, but one day it just stopped letting my phone connect to the box to change any settings or inputs. I discovered that because the box needs to be on a 2.4gHz wifi connection, my dual-band router with auto band switching had my phone on a 5gHz connection, and so it could not connect to the box despite actually being on the same wifi. To fix this I had to disable the smart band switching on my router and create two separate bands, so I could manually connect my phone to the one on the box. Again, not specifically a sync box issue per say, but annoying given it worked fine for set-up and for a few days in the same position with the same phone, but then just stopped working one day and gave no indication it needed the right band to begin with. This is the first smart home device I have needed to disable my router configuration for, and it is strange how all of my other Hue products never had an issue, but the sync box did. CONCLUSION The moral of my story with the sync box is that it has the potential to be great, but at least in my case, if far too marred with bugs and user experience issues for me to be able to recommend, especially for the premium price. Maybe firmware updates can make it better, but for something that is already a luxury product by most people’s standards, I expect it to work far better than it has for me. Maybe others mileage will vary, as there is so much complexity in the chain of technology tied to this box that could make it work better/worse, but I did a lot of troubleshooting and reading online, and have found I am not alone in the issues I have experienced. I am going to keep testing, but for the time being I can’t really recommend this to most folks based on my experiences, unless you know what you are doing, have a fairly straight forward set-up, or are willing to experiment and expect possible issues.It is certainly a fun toy to have in your home entertainment area, and when & where it works it is great. But for me, the faults have begun to outweigh the pros, and it has become quite a high maintenance device to use regularly in my set-up.

The Philips Hue Play Sync Box 8K is something I've been waiting for - for a long, long time. I've been a Hue fan for years with multiple Hue lights set up in our home, concentrated around my desk and my wife's desk. I've wanted to extend the Hue Sync capability to our home theater but the previous Sync Box didn't work at 4K/120hz so it was difficult to justify the cost when it would really only work for movies and require some imaginative setup to get it working. Getting a chance to review the 8K version is a dream come true. #Unboxing and initial setup# The Hue Sync Box 8K seems like it should be relatively easy to get working - the instructions are basically to connect your components, power it on, and then do some quick setup in the Hue app for your smartphone. There are 4 HDMI inputs on the back, all with the same HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, a USB-C port for optional power detection, plus a single HDMI out. Sadly, there is no ethernet port. A huge miss in my opinon is that the single eARC capable port (HDMI4) is not labeled as such, and the tiny instruction pamphlet does not tell you this either. I ended up finding out about that on a Reddit post. The picture of the back of the SB8K in the pamphlet makes it look like they originally intended to have a clear separation via a vertical groove in the plastic around the HDMI ports, but in the production unit I received there is no way to know that HDMI4 is any different from the other ports. When you first power it up (or when you hold the single button on the front of the SB8K for 10 seconds), your phone is able to connect to the SB8K via Bluetooth to connect it to your wifi network. In the Hue app, you set up an entertainment area to Sync (in my case, a Hue Play 65" TV light strip mounted to my TV and 2 Hue bulbs behind my couch) and connect the SB8K to your wifi and the Hue Bridge. I had no problem connecting the SB8K initially - on the first try it worked immediately and I went straight to watching a movie to test the different sync settings. Unfortunately, some trouble started once I really started using the unit, and I'll cover that below. #Using the Hue Sync Box 8K# The components in my home theater setup are: -Onkyo TXNR6100 AVR -LG 65 B2 OLED TV -Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019 model) -Xbox Series X -Gaming PC with HDMI 2.1 output Prior to the SB8K, I ran my Xbox Series X and Shield TV Pro through my AVR and into HDMI3 on my TV (the eARC port), and connected my gaming PC to HDMI4 on the TV, as I was having dropouts occassionally with it connected to the AVR. I initially set up the SB8K between the AVR and my TV (AVR into port 1 on the SB8K, my gaming PC in port 2, and out of the SB8K into port 3 on the TV). This seemed to work, but I did not have any audio coming out of the TV when using the built in streaming apps (which I never use in practice, but I do test things) nor did I have control over the volume from the TV remote. It was here that I searched online and found some Reddit posts indicating the AVR has to be connected to HDMI4 on the SB8K for the eARC bypass setting in the Hue app to work. My first movie/scene to try with the SB8K was my go-to HDR demo scene - Encanto's "Waiting on a Miracle" scene with the incredible HDR effects for the camera flash and fireworks. Here the Hue Sync experience was absolutely astounding. The lighting from both the Play Sync light strip mounted to the back of my TV plus the lamps just behind me brought the fireworks to life. More than just a single HDR 2% window peak, the fireworks momentarily brighten the entire room. If Hue used this as a demo for every potential customer, they would sell a lot of units. It's very impressive. Video here: https://youtu.be/Y3879Rb9vx4 My second demo was to do some gaming on my Xbox Series X. I used The Witcher 3 first, and again was blown away by the lighting effects. My Geralt is currently in Novigrad and when I fired it up, the golden sunset over the buildings in the city matched perfectly with the light coming from my Hue setup - the gaps in the golden light on the Play strip even followed the buildings blocking out the light as I turned around. Again, this is incredibly impressive stuff. Unfortunately this is where things went off the rails. After about 15 or 20 minutes on these first tests, the Hue lights stopped syncing. They continued to periodically lose sync every 5-10 minutes or so for the next few days. Sometimes they would start syncing again on their own, and sometimes I would need to go into the app to get them to start back up. This happened across any video source and multiple resolutions/color settings (HDR10, Dolby Vision, standard 1080p). I noticed in the app that the SB8K would be unresponsive at times or give me a warning that it didn't have a connection to the Hue Bridge. I made multiple changes to my home network, such as: -using the Deco "IoT Network" that allows you to set up a dedicated 2.4ghz only SSID -Using the Deco app to set the SB8K to only connect to one AP, and then connecting the Hue Bridge directly to that AP -moving the SB8K to be directly next to the AP -buying a wireless extender and setting it up with its own SSID, connected to my Deco network, and then connecting the Hue Bridge to the ethernet port on the extender I tried these over the course of probably 6 hours of work spread over multiple days, and just never got the thing to work consistently. I then got a replacement unit sent to me, and it suffered from the same problems. I was getting very discouraged - not just because I wanted to write a fair review without technical glitches on my end, but also because I personally was very excited about this product. As a last ditch effort, I went with what is pretty much "the nuclear option:" I set up a network just for the Hue Sync Box and my Hue Bridge, and dangled it off my fiber gateway directly rather than through my Deco home network. A little known feature of the gateway I have is that it can still do its own routing with IP Passthrough enabled, so it essentially is functioning like a VLAN from the rest of my home network. I can still route traffic from my local devices to reach (and control) the Hue setup but they cannot connect directly to the rest of my network. Since doing this, the SB8K has functioned flawlessly. I'm left with two theories on why this is - either the Hue Sync Box has firmware issues that cause it to lock up when on a very busy home network (I have over 60 IPs at any given time, and I have another "smarthome" device that has this problem), or there's just a general incompatibility with TP-Link Deco networks. Another important point that I want to mention here is that I opened a ticket with Hue support and never got a reply, so I did all this on my own with some notes taken from different Reddit and forum posts. #Final thoughts# Once I resolved the network issues, again after WAAAAAAY more effort than I normally would put in before returning something, the Hue Play Sync Box 8K has worked flawlessly. It's only the fact that I think the lighting effects provided by Sync are that impressive that I can still give this product a 4 star score in good conscience. I think the kind of customer who is looking at this is a little more tech savvy than average, and I think that it's likely the incompatibility lies with either some other device on my crazy home network or with the total amount of traffic on my network. With that in mind, I think this would be an incredible product for anyone with the right setup to try.

The Sync Box 8K works really well and is pretty much a no-compromise way to sync up your Philips Hue lighting with your HDMI devices. It’s a bit spendy and it doesn’t work with built-in smart apps, only HDMi devices, but it makes gaming and movie watching a much more immersive experience. The box includes the Sync Box, a 3ft HDMI cable, and a power adapter. You get 4 HDMI inputs that all support 4K, 120Hz, VRR, and Dolby Vision/HDR10+, so pretty much anything you connect to this should be able to run at full bandwidth. You will need an existing Hue Bridge and lights to utilize the Sync Box. The setup happens over Bluetooth with the Philips Hue app and I did have to dig around a little bit to find the setup for the Sync Box, but once I found that and updated to the latest firmware it was pretty seamless. From there, you just need to setup an Entertainment Area with the lights you want to sync with your display and position them in the app relative to where they are next to the TV. You can set the sync to happen manually or automatically based on an input detecting a video signal. I set up the Sync Box with my projector and synced it to the light strip I have running along the wall. It’s a pretty rudimentary setup right now and I plan to incorporate some Play Light Bars that I’m currently using on my PC at some point, but even with my single color light strip it added a lot to my viewing experience and the extra light helped to reduce eye strain without distracting from the picture. The lights react very quickly to the images on screen, even fast-paced games. And the Sync Box turns itself on and off with your devices using CEC. The Sync Box 8K is quite an investment and it adds a bit of complexity to my entertainment setup for something that can only be utilized with HDMI devices. I know there’s a Philips Hue app for Samsung TVs and I wish they’d make one for Google TV too. Overall though I’m very happy with it. It does exactly what says it does and it does it without much fuss.

I've tinkered with Philips Hue for awhile as its one of the oldest, but also best names in smart lighting. The main knock against it is the price and the fact you need a hub to get the system working, but for those who take the plunge, most would agree it is the best supported, most flexible and most impressive smart lighting system. I hadn't yet taken the plunge on the Smart Gradient Backlighting because it also required a Sync Box, so all told you were looking at $600-700 to get this high quality bias lighting to work with your TV. And, the old version had a lot of complaints because it couldn't support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and the ability to display 4K/120Hz consoles and other higher bandwidth requirements, like Apple TV 4K HDR10+ and Dolby Vision properly. My experience with the Sync Box 8K and the 75" TV Gradient Strip was also hit or miss unfortunately. There are definitely still some bugs and quirks that need to be ironed out and I don't think all of it is the fault of Philips as there are so many hardware vendors out there. My advice before you begin is to make sure you have good quality HDMI 2.1 48Gbps HDCP 2.2 capable cables from a reputable company and read the reviews. You don't need to spend $100 on a cable, but spending less than $10 per cable is asking for trouble. Also, if you have your TV mounted with the cables hidden, you may want to get some extra HDMI cables in advance bc your wiring may change. The biggest issue is that the Sync Box relies heavily on HDMI-eARC for audio and CEC for communication and automation between your TV and other devices, like consoles, streaming devices, and sound bars. eARC is an audio return channel that allows the TV to route sound back to an external speaker, like a sound bar or back to your AV Receiver. This is mainly important if you want to be able to stream audio from Apps on your TV from your TV to your sound bar and you have multiple devices plugged directly into your TV and don't have a receiver. So you can have multiple devices going into your TV and 1 HDMI cable can be both input and audio return back to your sound bar. The good news is that the HDMI Sync Box also has 4 inputs so you can theoretically just replace all the inputs going to the TV and instead, just plug them into the Sync Box. Then the HDMI on the Sync Box can go directly to HDMI input on your Sound Bar and pass only video to the TV and not pass through audio and just play it out the Sound Bar, so no eARC needed. Alternatively, you can still go from the HDMI Sync Box to the TV, then run an HDMI eARC cable back to the sound bar that carries only the audio from eARC. Make sure to check with your TV which output to use for eARC, on my Samsung OLED it is HDMI3. Unfortunately for my setup, it does not appear that the CEC signal for audio from the Sync Box is being passed to the TV and then back to the Sound Bar. I can turn on power from my Apple TV 4K and the picture and input is detected right away, The audio is also being passed correctly (I've checked all the settings in the Hue App such as HDMI eARC passthrough, using input 4 for eARC as recommended in the App), but my LG S95TR SoundBar defaults to HDMI IN even though there is nothing plugged in to HDMI IN. When I use the ThinQ app or the SoundBar remote to switch inputs to eARC/Optical, the sound plays right away. Also, if I power on my Apple TV 4K and set my TV to launch last app, the Apple TV 4K comes right up but the S95TR sound bar does not power on. I have a hacky workaround right now where I set the Apple TV 4K remote to control the Sound Bar with the volume controls, which then wakes up the Sound Bar and then allows sound to play. This is still not what I would expect as normal behavior, but at least I don't need to fumble with another remote or change inputs manually. I can't actually get my PS5 to work right now through the Sync Box but I do believe that is because I don't have a good enough HDMI cable yet, I'm not knocking points off for this yet because I do believe HDMI 2.1 48Gbps cables will fix at least the video issue, the sound issues are probably still going to be an issue. Beyond the physical connections and wrangling inputs between physical connections, the App is easy to use but still requires quite a bit of trial and error and configuration. You'll need to set up an Entertainment Area with the lights you want to combine and control with the Sync Box effects. There's a ton of controls for the Sync Box that you can toggle using the ... ellipses in the top right corner of the app. You can configure the Sync to automatically start when video is detected (this should be default imo), or you can hit the little circle (-) icon in the bottom middle of the app. Pretty straight forward once you see everything but when you are setting things up the first time it can be a bit overwhelming. In terms of the effect of interactive lighting, its really quite impressive and really adds to bright, colorful video content. Watching dark shows is really muted and less impactful. I watched Yellowstone and it looked amazing with the mountains and valleys as the backdrop, while Aliens Romulus didn't look very impressive at all since the backlighting was just white and very muted in comparison. Video games also look great. I didn't get the PS5 working yet, but the Switch looked amazing with really bright, clean colors adding to the gaming effect. Also, for the best effect you do need to have some distance from your TV off the wall. Having a flush mount TV, like the Samsung Slim Mounts won't cast as much against the wall. You also need some distance wide off the TV and white or a matte lighter color will also help for maximum impact. My TV is a little large for the space on my wall, so there is only about 4" on the left side so the lighting effect on that side is not as impressive as the top and the right of the TV. I really like the Philips Hue Play Sync Box and I do feel it adds a lot to immersiveness and video gaming. The bias lighting can also be easier on your eyes over time as it eases the transition of colors, and also helps frame and brighten content for higher contrast TVs like OLEDs. The only real negatives are the massive price tag, in fact, the entire system could easily cost as much or even more than your TV when its all said and done with around $700-800 for the Gradient Strip, Hub and Sync Box. The other major issue is that setup and compatiblity can be super hit or miss and may frustrate people who don't like to tinker/troubleshoot or are not that technically inclined. If you already have Philips Hue and enjoy it, then you're probably more likely to buy into the system and add the Light Strip. One other point to make is that the Gradient Light Strip itself is somewhat physically fragile. Mine came damaged where one section of the lights was not lighting up correctly, so I had to return it for a replacement. It sounds like this is a very common issue because the strip can't be bent and also has little wires that carry the electric signals to light the different color LEDs. I'm planning to contact both LG and Philips to see if they can change the firmware to fix my CEC issue. It could be either of them at fault, but LG could fix this if they allowed me to "Force" the SoundBar to turn on with the TV and ALWAYS take input from eARC/Optical instead of HDMI. Or check with Philips to make sure the Sync Box is correctly passing the CEC bits to turn on the Philips Sound Bar and also enable the eARC input on the Sound Bar. We'll see. For now I'll wait for the new HDMI cables to arrive for the PS5 (it works perfectly going right to the TV) and update if I get it working.

The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K is an interesting device that can add to the immersive experience of any gaming or entertainment space. By running your HDMI video sources into the Sync Box, you can use compatible Hue lights to color match with the content of the video. Movie night and gaming has never been so cool. I use the sync box with 2 color lamps and 2 Play lights behind my TV. After configuring the Sync box and setting up the entertainment space, I was ready to go. Keep in mind that placement and height is very important when configuring the space. The box with adjust lights according to the physical location of the screen and the lights. As far as video quality goes, the Sync Box can handle up to 8K at 60Hz, and 4K at 120Hz. Awesome for future proofing a bit. Additionally, it supports 4 HDMI 2.1 inputs and HDR10+, Atmos, Dolby Vision. If you’re like me and have a more complex TV setup, inline placement is important. If you use a A/V receiver you’ll want to place this in the outbound video signal from the receiver. In this scenario, you’re only going to be using a single HDMI input, but that shouldn’t be an issue. Although I was happy with my overall experience, I think the Sync Box is best suited for use with the Hue Gradient Ligh Strips. Having a constant array of lights around the TV would create the most immersive scenario. That being said, I was still very happy with my setup and my overall experience.