NEWS: Philips Hue adds new Play gradient lightstrip for TVs

[Andy Bassett]

Lighting specialist Signify has announced the addition of the Play gradient lightstrip to its Philips Hue lineup which is designed to light up the TV watching experience.
Read the news.

 

[mudshark]

Nice

 

[IronSoldier]

And here I was thinking this was what they could do already

 

[La Finta Nonna]

There is no accounting for taste and this is a tacky waste of money

 

[Deleted member 860272]

Slightly off topic given we're talking about an external LED strip here, but if LG provide the screens for other manufacturers, at least when it comes to OLED TVs, it would be great if Philips could offer the same with Ambilight and integrate it into the chassis of other manufacturers models.

Wishful thinking...

 

[IdoLikeFilms]

My understanding is that it does not even work with apps on your TV. So lets say you have any modern TV and use the built in Netflix or Disney app then the Philips lights will not work. You have to have the source coming into to the TV via HDMI, so you would have to plug a Firestick into the Philips HDMI box and then that box to the TV to play your Netflix etc. Seems like a bit of a hassle to be honest.

 

[MartinPalfy]

Ive pre-ordered one of these to replace the "play" lights on my tv which is due 6th of october. The play lights are a great addition to the viewing experience but can only produce one colour at a time so the fact this new strip can produce multiple colours at once the effect should be alot better.
As mentioned above it doesnt work on the inbuilt apps, it needs to go through the sync box via hdmi.

 

[TechnoDaddyHue]

I've ordered one too, I currently have 8 play bars around my 65"
3 × top
1 x L&R side
3 x bottom

Hopefully it should be the same effect I'm getting or possibly better. It will definately free up 5 of my play bars, resulting in less wiring behind the tv. Yes I agree with an earlier post Philip's are certainly advertising this as if they never already had the technology years ago to produce this gradient strip.

 

[MartinPalfy]

Ive took delivery of mine this morning and will try and get it installed tonight.

 

[leedebs]

Ive took delivery of mine this morning and will try and get it installed tonight.

be interested in your thoughts/review

 

[MartinPalfy]

Theres a few reviews/opinions been posted over in the "HUE SYNC BOX" thread on here.

Its really simple to setup (if you have experience of hue lights etc) to the app and the physical installtion to the rear of the tv was straight forward even on my curved samsung.

A few people have mentioned its not quite as bright as the hue play bar lights but thats only noticeable on full brightness.

Ive come from having 3 play bars on a 55 inch tv 1 top and 1 either side so the first thing i notice was the "flow" of light emitted around the tv.

 

[ick666]

I'm looking at getting one but only have a 43 inch TV and no room for a bigger one. Is there any way this would work on a smaller TV and still have the colours in sync with the display?

 

[Twin Turbo]

Theres a few reviews/opinions been posted over in the "HUE SYNC BOX" thread on here.

Its really simple to setup (if you have experience of hue lights etc) to the app and the physical installtion to the rear of the tv was straight forward even on my curved samsung.

A few people have mentioned its not quite as bright as the hue play bar lights but thats only noticeable on full brightness.

Ive come from having 3 play bars on a 55 inch tv 1 top and 1 either side so the first thing i notice was the "flow" of light emitted around the tv.

Did you happen to get any pics of your install?

I’ve got the 65inch Gradient and Sync Box all ready to go (trying to hold out for Christmas Day for install!) and also have a 65” curved LG OLED.

 

[mikej]

I'm looking at getting one but only have a 43 inch TV and no room for a bigger one. Is there any way this would work on a smaller TV and still have the colours in sync with the display?

I'm guessing that the sides and top of the gradient lightstrip have to line up so that the colours are displayed in roughly the right place. You might get away with (for example) using a 55" gradient strip on a 50" TV simply by mounting it closer to the edge, but a 55" strip on a 43" TV sounds like too big of a difference to me and I'm not sure if you'd get away with it. I'm also not sure whether these gradient strips can be cut to size, like the normal lightstrips.

 

[MartinPalfy]

Did you happen to get any pics of your install?

I’ve got the 65inch Gradient and Sync Box all ready to go (trying to hold out for Christmas Day for install!) and also have a 65” curved LG OLED.

Here's a pic for some idea. There's more pics on the hue sync play box thread on this forum. So might be worth taking a look over there as well.

 

[mikej]

I'm a member of a Philips Hue community Facebook group and I would advise anyone getting a gradient lightstrip to check the product works properly before you mount it on the TV. There are a lot of photos and videos of these new lightstrips working perfectly and they do look fantastic, but there are also a lot of pictures of faulty strips like these...



I'm a big Philips Hue fan and have a lot of their bulbs in various rooms around the house which all work really well and have done for years but the quality control / reliability of the lightstrips is definitely questionable and issues often arise when they need to be bent round corners. I've got two normal lightstrips - one had to be replaced due to faulty LEDs and the power supply has stopped working on the other.

 

[ick666]

I'm guessing that the sides and top of the gradient lightstrip have to line up so that the colours are displayed in roughly the right place. You might get away with (for example) using a 55" gradient strip on a 50" TV simply by mounting it closer to the edge, but a 55" strip on a 43" TV sounds like too big of a difference to me and I'm not sure if you'd get away with it. I'm also not sure whether these gradient strips can be cut to size, like the normal lightstrips.

Thanks Mike, that is what i suspected. Hopefully Philips will make a smaller one in the future... not holding my breath though.

 

[ChrisN]

Has anybody got the 75" lightstrip? Mine has blue sections in it as shown in the photos and this is part of the rather bizarre response from Hue support:

We would like to inform you that the shown behavior is not a fault in the product, as this is how it has been from production, and our developers are aware of this detail, and they are trying to take it into consideration when it comes to the design of the future products.
As the product is not defective, the only thing that you can try is to roll it clockwise, with the light part facing upwards, which sometimes works in this circumstance.

 

[Rob Brewer]

*Anyone have tips on how to keep Hue L1W A19 bulbs synced to the same color after "playing" a scene? 4 bulbs connected to the Bridge, but one bulb, after a while, is a no longer the same color as the other three.

* Is there a more appropriate thread for this bulb question?