New Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K enhances immersive entertainment experience

The rumored Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K has been officially announced and is now available to buy. But it will cost you $350 – which is $50 more than before first generation modelHue promises that this version will deliver even more immersive music, movie and gaming entertainment with no lag and ultra-fast refresh rates.

According to Philips Hue, the new sync box adds support for the HDMI 2.1 video standard and can handle resolutions up to 8K and refresh rates up to 120Hz. For video content, it supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus content up to 8K at 60Hz, and 4K at 120Hz for console gaming.

The sync box uses the HDMI inputs to sync your Philips Hue lights with the content on your screen, pulsing them around your living room in a shower of colourful light. The box works with all of Hue’s colour-changing smart lights, and you can adjust the brightness and intensity in the Hue app.

It’s a pricey upgrade, but it’s one of the simplest, least intrusive solutions for syncing your smart lights with your TV. While options from companies like Govee and Nanoleaf that achieve similar results use cameras pointed at your TV, Hue’s sync box pulls data directly from the source.

The downside of the HDMI-tethered input is that the box can’t work with content coming directly from your TV; it only works with devices connected to it via HDMI—like streaming boxes and game consoles. Hue has an app version of the sync box that only works with newer Samsung TVs. That costs a whopping $130, or a slightly more reasonable $3 per month.

The Hue app also gains the option to add multiple bridges without having to create separate accounts for each bridge. This feature could be useful if you want to add a lot of lights to your living room to work with the Sync box — since each Hue bridge can only support about 50 lights.

This new option lets you create multiple homes in the Hue app and add multiple bridges to them — up to 10. The app can then view all the rooms, devices, and sensors associated with each bridge in a single view, so you can control and edit them without switching between accounts. You can also add multiple homes to the Hue app.

Devices on separate bridges can’t cross-communicate — so a sensor on one can’t trigger lights on the other. However, some functionality, like Hue’s security cameras triggering all your lights to flash, can work across bridges because commands are routed through the cloud. The multi-bridge feature is currently in internal beta testing, but is expected to be available later this year.

Philips Hue Secure cameras will soon work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. This will allow you to stream your camera feed to a smart display like the Echo Show or Google Nest Hub. The company’s lighting and camera-based security system is also getting some software upgrades, including the option to set up routines to arm and disarm the system.