The Philips Hue Sync TV app lets owners of a newer Samsung TV seamlessly synchronize Philips Hue lighting in the home to the action on-screen. But it is not cheap.
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Philips is still the only TV brand to offer built-in mood lighting with Ambilight but a new paid app brings something similar to Samsung TVs. It will work with anything you watch or play on the TV, and it supports all video formats including 8K, 4K and HDR10+.
What We Think About $129.99 Apps
First, let’s talk about the Philips Hue Sync app itself. It is $129.99, a whopping price for an app no matter what it does, but that’s a step up from the App Store version that also needs a $249.95 box to synch your lighting system to your TV programs, not to mention than bulbs for your lighting system that could cost you hundreds of dollars more if you want to get the top of the line ambient light experience. Having said all that in what may sound like a snarky tone, Philips’ app is considered pretty good at what it does, the best of the best (there are other products in the category from companies like Nanoleaf and Govee).
Which brings us to the point of integrations like this – who knows. There is probably a market for the Netflix and Chill luxury tier. You don’t need any hardware with the Samsung TV and Philips Hue Sync combo so, your streaming apps reap the benefit. On the other hand, CES 2023 seems to have been full of luxury TV viewing experiences masquerading as life transformations and that seems a bit tone deaf considering what is an actual realignment of priorities among consumers facing economic uncertainty. The only counter to that point is that luxury sells through recessions and maybe that’s the upside to selling to the box seat crowd.
