Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K review

Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K: Introduction

Leakier than a wet weekend in Wales, the much anticipated next-gen Hue Play HDMI Sync Box finally landed in September and, as the rumor mill suggested it would, added support for resolutions up to 8K.

The new Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K is a major upgrade to Signify’s popular smart lighting accessory, designed to elevate your home entertainment experience.

Costing $350 / £300, which is $50 / £70 more than the original Hue Sync Box, the 8K option is designed to harness the power of the latest gaming consoles and streaming devices, with support for HDMI 2.1, allowing users to enjoy the highest quality video and gaming content with ultra-fast refresh rates.

The likes of Govee and AiDot also have sync boxes on the market now, at much smaller price points, but Hue has a loyal community and, as with all its launches, Signify will be hoping people are willing to pay the premium.

Read on, for our full Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K review to find out if they should.

Design and setting up

• Four HDMI 2.1 ports
• Needs a Hue Bridge
• Works with multiple Hue lights

Like the original, the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K is a small, black box, about twice the size of an Apple TV. It’s actually a touch bigger at 249 x 183 x 72mm, but if you’re switching it out for its predecessor, it’ll no doubt slot straight in where you had it before.

The Sync Box is essentially an HDMI switcher, and works by being the command center for all your HDMI connected gadgets – so it can tell your lights what your TV is doing.

That means that it only works with HDMI inputs and therefore not the native apps or channels on your TV. Hue does offer Samsung TV users the ability to do this with an app though, but that’s separate to the Sync Box.

Like the original Hue Play Sync Box, there are four HDMI inputs and one output, so you have plenty of scope to get various set top boxes, consoles and streaming devices involved. However, as I’ll explain in a bit, these HDMI ports are more powerful than those found on the original.

I plugged the Sync Box 8K into the back of my Samsung TV using the HDMI out port and then plugged a bunch of streaming boxes and dongles directly into the Sync Box’s four HDMI 2.1 input ports; an Xbox Series X, a Fire TV stick, the latest Apple TV 4K and my Sky Stream puck.

If you’ve got limited HDMI ports on the back of your TV, it also doubles up as a handy extender too, as one becomes four.

You can set it to switch automatically based on which port is receiving power… i.e. which set top box is turned on and streaming, and you can also choose a default or switch from within the app.

You can even, if you like, train your TV or set top box to control the switching element as the Sync Box 8K has an IR receiver on the front.

The way it works is it takes the signal it receives over HDMI and relays those colors as lights around the screen. There’s no need for a camera pointing at the screen as there is with some rivals.

As with all things Hue, however, it’s not cheap. Aside from the box itself, to get the most out of it you’re really going to want some of the dedicated Hue Play lights in place to create the dramatic atmosphere that you’re after.

The likes of the Hue Play light bars are designed to be set up around your TV screen, and there’s also the excellent  Hue Play Sync Gradient lightstrip, which makes everything a bit easier.

For my setup, I have a lightstrip around the back of my TV and a Hue Play Gradient Tube above the AV unit for extra effects. I also experimented with some Bloom lamps pointing sideways but that was overkill.

The Sync Box is actually compatible with any Philips Hue white or color ambiance bulbs or fixture, and you’ll also need a Hue Bridge in place too.

All in, you’re looking at a minimum $500 / £500-ish investment. In the world of home theater however, that’s pocket change.

Once you’ve decided what lights you want included and got them all in place, you go through the entertainment area set up process in the Hue app.

This is a fairly technical – but easy – process that involves telling the app where the lights are situated in the room in relation to the TV and what height they’re at (ground, TV height or ceiling).

It’s all done on an interactive map of your living room and the lights you’re positioning blink so you know you have the right ones. Finally, the lights blink in sync with the colors currently on your TV to show it’s worked, and you can ask it to self-adjust if it’s not quite right.

You can use up to 10 lights per entertainment area and have multiple areas.

Features

• Numerous modes
• Intensity and brightness can be configured
• HDMI eARC on offer

With the updated Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K you can get your smart lights to sync with any content on your television screen – as long as it’s piped in through an HDMI cable, as mentioned.

Plug this small, sleek box into your TV, sync it up with your Hue lights and sit back and enjoy the home theater/immersive gaming experience of your dreams as your lights magically sync with anything you desire.

The Hue Sync Box 8K upgrades its HDMI ports to 2.1b with HDCP 2.3, and boasts compatibility with HDR10 8K video at 60Hz, perfect for movie buffs looking to stream the highest resolution content, as well as 4K at 120Hz for gamers using next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos are all supported.

Bluetooth connectivity is now 5.0, and the USB port has been upgraded to USB-C. The device also boasts improved power efficiency, with lower standby and maximum power consumption.

As mentioned, it works with a range of Hue bulbs – you configure the layout in the Hue app – but the best experience (in my opinion) is when you throw a Hue Gradient Lightstrip into the mix.

There is no remote because it automatically switches between inputs, assuming you have an HDMI-CEC compatible set (which, if your TV is less than 10 years old, you probably do). You can also press the button on the front to manually switch.

Port 4 is an HDMI-eARC port, which lets you hook up any sound bar or you can enable an ARC bypass if you need to connect the Sync Box between an AV receiver and the TV.

I actually have my Sonos Arc going straight into the eARC port of my TV so didn’t have to do this but, as with the original, I did experience some HDMI handshake issues with the Sync Box.

Some days, we’d just have no sound on our TV. A power cycle reset in the correct order sorted this, but it was still annoying. I think this is more a Sonos eARC issue more than a Hue problem, but it’s something to be aware of.

Thankfully, other issues I had with the original Sync Box – mainly 4K issues with certain apps through Apple TV – are all sorted with those super-powerful HDMI 2.1 options.

There is voice control with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri (through Siri Shortcuts, there’s no direct HomeKit compatibility with the Sync Box).

Voice commands you can use include starting/stoping light sync, switching inputs, changing modes (from game to video), switching intensity, and adjusting brightness. I found it easier to create a Movie Time Alexa Routine that set everything exactly how I like it with one simple command.

In use and performance

The good news is that there’s no need for a separate app any longer, Signify rolled the Sync Box options into the regular Hue app last year, so no more jumping between two apps.

With the ability to fine tune how your lights respond, from subtle to intense, along with three modes – Video, Music and Game – the app makes it super simple to get up and running in no time.

For those who love to fine-tune their experience, the Hue app offers full control over brightness and intensity, allowing for personalized setups tailored to individual preferences.

Once the Hue Sync Box is setup and you’ve got it all “synced up” with your lights and set-top boxes the actual experience of using Sync is pretty freaking awesome. My first test movie was the the latest Avatar nonsense, which is a pretty terrible movie, but looked fantastic with the extra Hue lighting.

We also did the full Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy with the kids on successive weekends and the light certainly added a huge wow-factor for us all.

The Box emulates the colors on the screen, shifting around the room in time with the action and lighting effects of the movie totally seamlessly, and there was no lag at all. The lights dance, change color, flash, dim and brighten in perfect harmony with what’s on the screen.

However, in some scenarios the bright, flashing lights can be distracting. I found that depending on what we were watching, adjusting the intensity was essential.

At the highest intensity you really notice the lights cutting in and out and whirling around you – good for the blockbuster action movies, but not so much for lighter action things like Poor Things.

For these scenarios, I prefer to have the brightness set at around 60% and the intensity set to stage 2 of 4 of the intensity scale. I find this makes for a superb ambience for things like nature documentaries, with the colors and shades shifting naturally with the action, as demonstrated below…

Obviously, for more a more intense viewing experience, you can just whack the brightness and intensity to the maximum level and it really is quite staggering just how immersive and powerful the effect is, on the visuals on screen.

Gaming at 120Hz with 4K is also pretty amazing, although – again – perhaps overkill for sports titles and retro platformers.

Watching regular TV with Sync on – such as news and sports – isn’t a great experience though. Anything with ads in just becomes really jarring and bright, even on the subtle setting.

Final thoughts

Yes it’s pricey and no, you don’t really need one, but the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K is a lot of fun. Without doubt it enhances a viewing experience and you can tailor its settings your heart’s content in the app.

If you’re already heavily invested in the Hue ecosystem it’s an easy upgrade, although the original Sync Box is still on sale for a cheaper price-tag, so make sure you need all the bells and whistles of the 8K model before splashing the cash.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Smart devices usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a device for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide on how we test to learn more.

FAQs

Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K: Specifications