11.10.2019

Bought 6 light bars, three for the home theatre pc and three for my main gaming PC. Initially I had almost returned the whole order but later decided to keep them. The main reason was the price, I got the light bars on a sale and still they were very expensive, the light bars with hub cost almost £300.The Software:You have to install the app on your mobile and also an app on your PC. Confusingly you have to use both, the PC app controlling mostly sync related lighting and the mobile app for setup, light positioning, timers etc. Both apps work well, but there is some room for improvement. The good thing is that Philips hue have a large client base,so the software should continue to improve and mature.The latency:In my setup there is almost no discernable lag between what is happening on my monitor and when the lights react, I would estimate around 20-50ms. I am connected directly to my router via a lan cable and I am around 5m away from the hue hub. This can very quickly turn in to a different story if you are on slow wifi or worst yet, try to wirelessly cast/mirror your laptop display onto a TV. I think most complaints about latency online is with ppl doing exactly that. I did notice an option in the software to mitigate the issue, but did not need to use it. There is no substitute for a hard wired connection.It works like this. The app on your PC analyses the screen space and calculates average light values based on your lighting setup. This gets sent to the hue hub via your local network. The hue hub then sends the signals to the lights via the Bixby wireless protocol.The light bars:These are rather small but can produce a good amount of light. Rather than the amount of light, it is the quality of the light that surprised me. The warm and cool white light is amazing and it is obvious that some attention was given to colour reproduction. They must have RGB and two different kinds of white light LEDs inside. The diffuser is excellent quality too, I am not able to discern any individual spots of light inside the bar. There is nothing quite like starting up DOOM and having the whole room go a deep red colour! Quite nice indeed.There is one annoying aspect of the light bars, at full brightness they emit an electric buzzing sound. The buzzing sound is reduced in line with the brightness setting. This should not be an issue when seated a few meters from a TV or if there is any other noise in the room, but when sat at a desk close to the lights it is noticeable. To mitigate the issue I placed the light bars as far away from my seating position as possible and have them set to around 30% brightness when doing work or just browsing the net in a quiet room. If you are using headphones or have any other noise in the room then you can't hear any buzzing even at 100% brightness. To give you an idea, it is reminiscent of some older and cheaper type monitors that emit a buzzing sound because of PWM dimming.The hub:Nothing much to say here, find a decent spot for it and switch it on, have not had any issues with it.PC performance:There is overhead associated with analysing the screen space, calculating average colours and sending the data to the hue hub. I have a top spec PC with a 2080ti GPU, and using a gaming benchmark I noticed about a 5-8% performance decrease with hue sync enabled. For me this is not an issue, but it could be an issue on weaker hardware. Hue sync can be disabled or enabled on a game to game basis in the software as profiles.The competition:Asus Aura Halo works by adding LED strips to the back of the monitor. I like Asus but they have a way of not updating their software, and when they do it will usually only work on the newer hardware. I don't trust them to improve the software or even fix it if potentially a windows update breaks it. The RGB light will be harsh with no diffuser or dedicated white leds.NZXT Hue 2 V2 Ambient, they seem a bit more invested in the tech with a v2 released recently, but again this is all controlled with their CAM software which has a terrible reputation. The same RGB strips are used with no diffuser or dedicated white lights. Since these light strips are addressable they offer a higher resolution as only some leds can be triggered to onscreen events, but this to me just seem to make them even harsher on the eye.In both cases the competitions software and features are lacking as compared to the Philips implementation. The lighting is also harsh, which is why I decided to go with Philips hue sync. With philips you can also add lighting at a later point and you are free to place the lights where you want.The lighting should add to the ambience of a gaming session, not be a distraction.UPDATE: Some months have passed since my last review and thought this detailed review could do with an update. In my living room setup I have added another light bar to my rear top left on a bookcase behind a nice Alien statue, and a E27 colour ambiance bulb to my tall lamp on the rear right. This is now my primary way of lighting the living room. I also stuck a Hue dimmer switch close to the couch so we can control brightness easily. Gaming and movies is awesome, although Netflix still does not work with Hue play. Works best with movies that have lots of colour and action.My gaming setup also got another Hue play bar for a total of 4, and a dimmer switch. I missed some light under my shelf and that has now been remedied. My lights are set to switch on via a timer on weekdays to help me get up, and they also switch of automatically when I leave the house.It is not a cheap echo system, but I would miss the ambient light during gaming if you took it away right now. During the past few months there has been one update to the sync app, validating my theory that the ecosystem is larger than the competition, and Philips is actively developing for it.

27.7.2019

Ignoring the price tag of these lights they are very nice to have. I use them to backlight my monitor and reduce eyestrain in the evenings. The lights are quite bright and coming in pairs allows them to completely flood the area that I want to be backlit.The lights come with a variety of useful mounting options being able to stand vertically, horizontally, resting on a surface or stuck to a surface meaning they can fit in and look good or be hidden in most scenarios. I do wish that the mounting plates were a little more integrated. I didn't use them initially and it didn't take long to lose them.The lights have the usual Hue customising options with a huge gamut of colours to choose from and relatively infinite adjustability in brightness.

11.4.2021

I bought the two light Play pack when it was bundled with the Play extension in three light bundle ob offer for £136. It is utterly brilliant and transforms the way you think about lights. It is not cheap but it is well worth it in my opinion.When I was researching this I took a gamble in how I thought they would work was correct. It turns out I was right and so I repeat these points below to prospective buyers.1. To get this pack to work you also need a Philips Hue bridge. This small device plugs into your wifi network and the bridge speaks the the Zigbee protocol that the lights use and it "bridges" between wifi protocol that your phone uses and the Zigbee protocol that the lights use.

21.9.2020

I bought my first OLED TV recently, the new LG CX and decided to get those Hue Play bars after seeing some videos on YouTube and Reddit, I thought it looked really cool.You will need the Hue Sync box to get it synched with your TV's content and it's very expensive but in my opinion if you have already invested in an expensive TV you can make the experience even better with the Hue Play lights.The setup is fairly easy, you need to connect them to your current Hue hub if you don't have one then it's something else that will add up to the costs unfortunately.You also need to download the Hue Sync app where you can setup your Hue HDMI Sync box and manage the Play bars brightness, intensity etc.

9.8.2019

Purchased these on Prime Day for some extra ambient light in my living room to the side of my television. I originally planned to use the lightstrips on the rear of the television however I've seen equal amounts of good and bad executions and was unsure how it would look as my television is quite a flush fit to my wall.The light these output is fantastic - not only is it capable of great brightness but the colour pallette is extremely vivid and has a great spread. On top of this, the light unit itself is not obtrusive. I don't like to have the source of the light itself visible, and this really suits me. I currently have a GU10 in a modified wall bracket placed on a sideboard behind an ornament to illuminate the wall there.

9.10.2018

This is quite a neat little light that really aids in ambient lighting. It has its pros and cons and isn't perfect but it is certainly a worth while buy for any Philips Hue advocate.Firstly don't be fooled by the size. By the images, I actually thought it was going to be a little bigger. But it's actually just a little larger than a fully grown banana. It has a angled base to allow you to position the unit upwards at an angle.It came with a plug that has three ports to connect three Hue Plays. So I don't actually waste another plug socket which is nice. It also has a couple of stands you can attach the Play to which can let you position the unit in ways not previously possible.

2.12.2020

A-MA-ZING!!! I had my eyes on these for a long time but I'd been postponing due to the price. Got a nice deal on Black Friday £137 for 3, so I thought "OK, these do worth £45.66 each to me". They certainly do! Don't think about these just as "lamps". A lot of money goes into software development as well, and that's what makes these unique!It took me about 5 minutes to set up 3 of these Play Bars. I had watched some review videos on YouTube before receiving them, which certainly helped me speed up my setup process.I use them with my 34 inch ultrawide monitor which is connected to my PC. To be honest, I wasn't impressed in the first couple of minutes because I had VERY high expectations.

4.4.2019

I have fully invested in the Philips Hue lighting system.My house is full of bulbs, switches and also IR motion sensors.Having finally decided to put our 55inch TV onto the wall I wanted some lights behind it.Originally planning on using a Hue lightstrip behind I changed my mind and ordered 3 x Hue plays.Attaching the plays behind the TV was very easy using the included plastic brackets and 3m tape.I chose to put the lights to face outwards rather than directly at the wall as this gives a better "spread" of light.Although each play has its own power lead they can all attach to the 1 included plug which is great as I have limited sockets behind the TV.Linking everything to the PC/Laptop program

28.10.2019

Worked for all of a day with the Echo Plus which caused a bit of consternation trying to get connected. Think I completely misunderstood how these things work and ended up biting the bullet and bought a Hue Bridge - which really changed my whole perception. With the Alexa app, it just gives you basic control over lighting, which to be fair, is probably how they're able to provide an all round consistent set of functions with all the smart devices available today. The Bridge really does offer a great deal of functionality over and above what Alexa gives and I'd highly recommend, if you're looking at this and don't own one,

2.2.2021

I have always used Phillips hue products and never had an issue and the okay bar is no exception.The play bar comes in a box with multiple attachments to have the bar mounted portrait or vertical or you could just lie the play bar on its side due to the angles edges. In the box you will also find two sticky pads to stick to walls or behind TVs and finally you will get the power supply.The play bars themselves come in black and are very minimalist and hide easily behind furniture. I have used the landscape holder and placed them to the back of my tv, just ensure when you are using the sticky pads you are certain as there is only one set of these.The play bars connect quickly with Phillips Hue bridge which is needed if you are going to use these lights,

30.1.2019

My lights and bridge turned up today. The hardware is good quality and simple to put together - so much so that you should have it installed in no more than 15 minutes. However, then the fun starts. Put simply, the Philips software is lousy if you want to do anything other than project colours on to a wall. If like me, you want to sync your PC's display with the lights, the Philips Hue Sync software just isn't up to the job. Don't waste your time trying. After a bit of research, I found a different piece of software - HueDynamic - on the Windows store which cost a few pounds but worked instantly. Surprisingly, there's no lag - the lights project the colour as quickly as the PC can display it and there's no performance overhead (CPU and RAM)

30.12.2019

Continually expanding my Phillips Hue collection, I bought this Hue Play pack to try and light up some of my walls more fully. Previous iterations I've used with bulbs and floor lights just haven't been bright enough - though this was about to change.First impressions were good as these lights are sturdy and can be orientated either way thanks to a provided stand and a couple of screws. Potentially slightly annoyingly for some, while the two can be controlled individually only one plug is provided which up to three can go into but means they can't be too far apart.The real benefit though of these versus some of the previous editions is that they are much brighter and can be used more to "paint" the walls.

5.11.2019

If you've already got a Hue lighting setup, these little guys are a great addition. We bought a pair in the black friday sale and after a week bought 3 more of them.At 530 lumen, these are obviously designed as ambient lighting, so if you're looking for something that will light up your whole room, these aren't for you. For pops of colour or warmth behind your tv or computer, they're perfect.Positives:- Wonderful diffused, ambient light source.- Ample light for such a small size.- Great design that allows all kinds of positioning to best suit your setup.- Comes with mounting attachments and adhesive stickers.- Can be paired to your computer/games console- Easy to install or add into your current hue setup- Feels exceptionally well madeNegatives:- comes with one plug,

22.6.2019

This is a great addition to the Philips hue lights family, it's exceptionally easy to pair with the relevant bridge, (brought separately) As you would expect from Philips the build quality is very good and there's a multitude of colours you can have displayed each lamp can be set to show a different colour or the same. The ambient light isn't bright enough to read with or to have as the main light in a room; its more of a mood light/accent lighting. The reason it doesn't get 5 stars all round is due to the cost of the Hue ecosystem, whilst I have personally found them to be the most responsive, brightest and best available that doesn't negate the exceptional high cost of Philips hue products.

9.9.2020

These things are great! I love all the Philips Hue range of light - but these are really cool. Full spectrum colour fittings, with awesome control capabilities. Can be used in so many settings and locations. I currently use them as a back light behind my computer screens (helps reduce eye-strain). This allows me to vary the brightness to get it just right. Also allows for some ambient lighting depending on circumstances, with the ability to choose just about any colour you like! :DThey're not cheap - but they're just so good. The physical design allows for a variety of mounting options. Stand them up, lie them down, attach them to the rear of your telly (especially if used in conjunction with the Hue Sync box)

Philips Hue White and color Play Lightbar Set of 1 - Reviews

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