In case you’ve acquired cash to spare, or should you’re already invested within the Hue ecosystem, this HDMI-based choice presents the smoothest, most nuanced lighting results we’ve seen.
In case you’ve already gone hog wild on dear Philips Hue smart-lighting gear — that’s, should you’re like me — or should you’re prepared to pay much more for higher outcomes, the Philips Hue Play Sync Field 8K is essentially the most spectacular, correct, and granular lighting setup round. It has the value tag to match: It’s usually $400, which doesn’t even embody lights (although Philips does promote a package together with its TV backlight set). However whereas Govee and different producers restrict you to a selected LED backlight strip and some equipment with their containers, this Hue system enables you to add any Hue-branded mild to your TV setup.
In reality, hypothetically, should you actually needed to, you might sync each Hue mild and bulb in your own home to the motion taking part in in your TV. I wouldn’t advocate doing that, however I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I hadn’t tried it. (Spoiler: It seemed like my house was haunted.)
I related the Hue Play Sync Field 8K with a Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip (which lists for $300 however is commonly on sale) and threw in a Hue Good Play Lightbar for lighting under my TV ($80). I additionally synced up my current assortment of Hue good LED bulbs (which promote in units of three for about $150) that I exploit in my lounge for ambient lighting. Earlier than I even realized what was occurring, I had configured a lighting system with a price ticket of round $1,000, or almost the identical value because the 55-inch model of Wirecutter’s 4K OLED TV choose. And I’ve to emphasize as soon as once more that the Hue Play Sync Field 8K requires an current Hue Bridge (which you need to have, if you have already got Hue lights in your house).
However when you have the requisite gear, you’re in for a deal with. No TV backlight techniques immediately shift based mostly on what’s in your display screen — there’s at all times no less than a little bit of lag in what you see and what the lights do (for the reason that {hardware} between your TV and the sunshine package has to speak). However Hue’s Play Sync Field 8K, mixed with Philips’s latest Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip, got here the closest to a seamless transition from my display screen to the wall behind it; its colours had been additionally the closest to what I used to be seeing on display screen. The impact is putting, immersive, and actually, actually cool. Films like Spider-Man: Throughout the Spider-Verse and Physician Unusual have shiny, screen-spanning coloration palettes which might be a thrill to see splashed in excellent replication throughout the wall behind your TV. And the Hue Play Sync Field 8K additionally cuts out lights for black edge areas (whereas correcting for content material with side ratios wider than 16:9, which provides black bars to the highest and backside edges of your show), producing an much more seamless presentation.
Nonetheless, even when you have that sort of cash to spend, it isn’t a complete assure that the Hue system will work precisely the way you count on on a regular basis. I’ll admit that my dwelling theater setup is difficult. I’ve an Apple TV, a 4K blu-ray participant, an Xbox Sequence X, a PlayStation 5 Professional, and a Nintendo Swap 2 — already too many units for the 4 HDMI inputs of the Hue Play Sync Field 8K — related to an 8K-compliant AV receiver with a Dolby Atmos setup. I gained’t get into every part right here, however the video operating out from my receiver to the Hue Play Sync Field 8K to my TV generally wouldn’t handshake appropriately. It was an issue that I may troubleshoot, however I nonetheless haven’t gotten issues absolutely and persistently ironed out, even utilizing numerous tips and suggestions from the Hue fanatic group. (To be honest, this is a matter current in different HDMI 2.1–appropriate lighting merchandise.)
