Hue Sync App Released for Mac & PC
Philips Hue on the 31st May 2018 launched the “Philips Hue Sync” app for Mac and PC computers. Using the app, users can sync their Hue lights to films, music, and games that they’re watching or playing, making it a more immersive experience.
Philips Hue Sync App
Hue Sync will be an app for for macOS High Sierra and Windows 10 device, and is expected again in Q2 2018. The Hue Sync app will let you create and customize your hue lights for games, movies, and music played on a Mac or Windows computer.
“Running in the background, Hue Sync will analyze anything displayed on your monitor in real-time and create light scripts to compliment your content. Philips has built algorithms that analyze the tempo and rhythm of your music to determine the track’s style, and adjust lighting accordingly. The intensity of these lighting effects can be adjusted by the user.”
Download Hue Sync from Philips here for both MacOS and Windows.
Hue Sync – What it is?
Hue Sync is a software app that you can download and install on your Windows or Mac PC, the app will then be able to transfer on screen color information to your Hue Lights. A simple example is when gaming, it maybe dark on screen, however there is then an explosion of bright light, your lights in that room will suddenly light up too. This same thing can work with watching movies, YouTube videos, or looking at photos, your lights adjust to the color on screen.
When setting up entertainment zones, you can set where your lights are in the room in reference to your TV, so if there is a bright red light on the side of the screen in the film you are watching, your light to the right of the TV will go red, the screen goes bright blue, your lights go bright blue to reflect this.
You can use Hue Sync to:
- Sync Videos to your Hue Lights such as Youtube, Netflix, Movies etc
- Sync Hue lights with music and audio
- Sync Hue lights with games played on Mac and Windows
Hue Sync will work with all Hue bulbs and lights, however your do need a second gen Bridge. Bulbs that work really well with Hue Sync and a must for any home entertainment setup:
Philips have also released the Philips Hue Play, light bars that are designed with Hue sync in mind.
How to use Philips Hue Sync with a TV
If you hook up your laptop to a TV or mirror your screen to a TV, then you can sync your lights to your larger TV screen. Connecting your laptop to your TV via HDMI or Airplay allows Hue sync to take the colors from your laptop and sync with your Hue lights around your TV. Set up an entertainment area via the Hue app, load Hue Sync, select this entertainment area and sync with your screen.
Using Hue Sync with XBox
There is no simple way to use your Xbox with Hue sync, hopefully there will be a quick download to make this work, however at the moment you have to take a few extra steps to make it work.
This video shows someone who got it to sync by downloading and using the Xbox app on a Windows PC using Hue sync and streaming it.
Hue Sync with NetFlix
At the moment you cannot get this to work with Netflix and stream it to your TV, however you can watch it on your Laptop and hook it up through HDMI to your TV.
Hue Sync Set ups & Examples
Editors Thoughts
Hue sync is a very nice and polished app, it is very easy and intuitive to use, quick and simple to understand. The design is in keeping with the latest Hue app for mobile devices using the same UI and design elements which look great. Hue sync is very responsive and from testing so far, no latency issues at all.
The video modes are great and the ability to fine tune is a great feature, for music there are some great third party apps already out there which are a lot better then the music sync option. The syncing of music seems a lot more basic and I feel the ability to select your own color palette is missing although there are already some preset ones there.
This is a great start and a great platform to build on, now we just need a tvOS app and it working with PS4 and XBOX to maximise its true potential. Hopefully this is the springboard for this as the demand is certainly there.
What we would love to see
With Hue entertainment released this app will link the two together with PC’s and Mac computers, however we would love the link to be made to TV’s and gaming consoles too without the need for the computer having to be used. It would be great to see this work somehow with gaming consoles such as PS4 and Xbox, as well as Apple TV and Netflix.
Founder & Editor
Mike is the founder of Hue Home Lighting, a huge Hue fan with far too many lights, covering home and garden. A smart home gadget addict and also enjoys the odd bit of DIY
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Sami Kettunen
Hi! I can’t install Hue Sync. I cancelled the installation during it in order to change the hard drive in which to install it. Now when I try to install it again, it gives me the following message: “One or more newer versions of the product are already installed. An upgrade is no applicable.”
I have manually deleted all the files regarding to Hue Sync but it still gives the same message. How can I install it properly?
James
Did you ever figure this out? I’m having the same issue.
Fabian
i have the same problem. did you solved it?
Marco
I’m also having the same problem. Extremely frustrating. Hue Dynamic from the Windows store is the next best thing, I guess. Downside is that you need to have it as an active window for the audio response to work as well as this product. The lack of support from these devs make it just the more unbearable. GL
richard
Has anyone gotten the PC to distinguish between top and bottom yet? I’ll watch a scene with a red bottom and blue top and it still shows the same color for my bottom and top strips.
Hue Home Lighting
There is no way to set lights vertically via the Hue app, you can use DreamScreen which would work better.
Michael Bona
cannot set it up to sync with music on Mac. Allowed it in privacy settings now will not show up. Movies and other options will not work. Disappointed!!
Smurfy
When will it work with Netflix and PS4?
jowi
I’m already using the iOS app, and tried to add this OSX app. I’ve already added rooms in the iOS app. After the difficult OSX install, i need to connect the bridge, but after that, it says ‘cannot find areas’ and the app just sits there. No buttons, nothing to choose from? No opitons? The only thing you can do is quit the app…
Tim Stacy
I’m having problems with – when trying to sync Hue box, it want connect with entertainment area. Tried numerous times and is there a way to select a different Wi-Fi after replacing a Wi-Fi extender