It was advertised as a feature that could give users better control of their TVs even if they aren’t using Android TV. Google started rolling TV controls out to the Home app in late 2022 and officially launched the functionality about a month ago. If you happen to own a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync box, Google Home also just became the best app you can use for quick controls.ĩto5Google has a rebooted newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and other tidbits. Although it's a minor grievance, there's a lot of manual changing and switching when you use the Hue Play Sync Box and we can only hope this changes in the future.The Google Home app has been undergoing a reinvention in over the past year, and one of the best new features is improved control over TV devices. If you use your console to play games, stream videos, and listen to music, you'll have to manually change the preset. The Hue Play Sync Box comes with presets allowing you to change the preset lighting effects (Video, Music, or Game) for a certain input, and remembers the last used preset, but won't automatically change according to what's being played. When you also want to switch between two active sources, you have to either use the app on your phone or press the button on the front, which is bothersome when you're juggling multiple remotes and trying to decide what to watch. There's no workaround the design requires that you plug a source into it. Further, everything needs to be plugged into the box, so if you have a smart TV and rely on the apps built-in, the Hue Play Sync Box won't work. There-in lies one of my biggest complaints. I would love to be able to set up certain inputs to automatically sync lights. Source: Nirave Gondhia / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Nirave Gondhia / Android Central) Philips Hue Play Sync Box What I don't like about it It's also possible to change the source using the Hue Sync app, which you'll need to open every time you want to start syncing your lights to the content on screen. It's largely reliant on the source itself so the Apple TV is faultless at auto-switching, while the Xbox often has me reaching for the TV remote. I've got an Xbox One, Roku TV, and Apple TV 4K plugged in, and it handles the auto switching fairly well. Instead it auto-switches between the different sources you've got plugged in. The Hue Play Sync Box doesn't come with a remote, and isn't compatible with universal remotes like the Harmony line. I do wish Signify, the company behind Philips Hue, made a version of the LIFX Beam (opens in new tab) that I enjoy so much, but overall, there's a lot of ways to get Hue lighting into your entertainment area. There's also the Signe Hue range (opens in new tab), which gives you incredible amounts of light and enables endless creative possibilities. I've currently got three Hue Play bars set up beneath my TV beaming light up behind the TV, but these can be mounted in numerous different ways. The Hue Play Sync Box is so good, it's replacing the LIFX setup behind my TV. This is where the Hue shines: You can connect up to 10 lights to the Hue Play Sync Box, allowing you to build your theater area exactly how you like. If you have lighting on either side of your theater area (I do on the right in my kitchen), you can also get really creative. There's a large variety in the way the lights adjust to what's on screen, and the effect is mesmerizing and much more immersive than anything else I've tried. Watching it in 4K is great, but watching it in 4K with lights constantly adjusting around it is on another level entirely.
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