Philips Hue Lighting - owners thread

[sealtt]

OK thanks for the tips. Well I have taken a chance and ordered 6 of them from Amazon. They were sold by Amazon themselves so hopefully new stock and will fit. We shall see tomorrow!

[BaldOldMan]

sealtt said:

..... They were sold by Amazon themselves so hopefully new stock and will fit. We shall see tomorrow!

Amazon were certainly selling both a couple of weeks ago - scroll back to 22 Nov

However, Amazon are good with returns if you don't like what you receive......

[sealtt]

BaldOldMan said:

Amazon were certainly selling both a couple of weeks ago - scroll back to 22 Nov

However, Amazon are good with returns if you don't like what you receive......

Thanks read back and saw that discussion. Is there any difference other than the size? If they fit then I presume it won’t matter if they are old or new.

Meanwhile has anyone seen deals on the Hue tap button? I feel like I can do better than £50?

[JimbobVFR]

sealtt said:

Thanks read back and saw that discussion. Is there any difference other than the size? If they fit then I presume it won’t matter if they are old or new.

Meanwhile has anyone seen deals on the Hue tap button? I feel like I can do better than £50?

The old ones were:

A different size, longer than standard GU10s
Less capable at producing certain colours, for example green was particularly insipid and more of a washed out colour than pink or red
No Bluetooth

So quite different (ignore the BT as it's pointless when used with a bridge)

I should probably put 1 of the old ones back in and take some comparison shots but it's defenitely a noticeable upgrade.

[sealtt]

JimbobVFR said:

The old ones were:

A different size, longer than standard GU10s
Less capable at producing certain colours, for example green was particularly insipid and more of a washed out colour than pink or red
No Bluetooth

So quite different (ignore the BT as it's pointless when used with a bridge)

I should probably put 1 of the old ones back in and take some comparison shots but it's defenitely a noticeable upgrade.

Thanks for the info, that sounds worth holding out for new ones. Is there any way to tell when they arrive which ones they are from the box, barcode or part number or similar?

[Heartworm]

sealtt said:

Thanks for the info, that sounds worth holding out for new ones. Is there any way to tell when they arrive which ones they are from the box, barcode or part number or similar?

The old ones have a semicircle indent saying phillips hue on the side that the new ones don't.

edit:

Like this:

https://www.toolstation.com/philips-hue-white-and-...

[sealtt]

Great thanks, just arrived and seen the box says Bluetooth and no indent so new ones it seems. 3 for £80.



Very cool! Bet I get some brownie points from my wife for this!!

Edited by sealtt on Wednesday 18th December 17:51

[SlimJim16v]

Hue Sync arrived today. It uses the same power supply as the Play, which is handy. Now to set it up.

OK, not overly impressed so far, will have to try watching a film on the big TV.

There's an alternative view, that having just a low level daylight/6500k back-light helps improve the contrast when watching in the dark.

OK, still at the testing/learning stage. I only have one Play behind the small TV at the moment. You really need a light at each edge of the TV. More lights needed, might wait until the sales.

Edited by SlimJim16v on Thursday 19th December 19:07

[JimbobVFR]

Heads up, white ambience bulbs (E27, B22 and GU10) are currently on offer on Amazon at 39.99 for a 3 pack.

[DoctorX]

Santa brought me the strip lights (no doubt he spotted the deal on Amazon) which meant the play bars could be relocated. Not sure where to put these so stuffed them under a sofa. The strip is way brighter (although not as bright as it looks here) and recommended for behind a TV.

[Blink982]

Anyone got any of the outside porch lights? I have a standard white hue light at my front door and fancied something a bit more stylish than the rectangular lump of plastic. I don't know whether upgrading the actual fitting to a non-hue light with hue bulb vs hue light fitting would be the better way to go.

[C2Red]

Iike this: https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Hue-Outdoor-Require... ?

We have one, nice modern feel, and good colours

[BigBen]

I use Hue with Google Home.

What I would like to do is pair specific lights with specific Google Home devices. I.E. saying "lights off" in the spare bedroom would switch off the lights in only that room rather than the whole house / whatever random st Google decides to do.

Anyone got any thoughts beyond setting up each room as a separate 'Home' ? That would be OK for upstairs probably but would deny me home wise music downstairs.......

Ben

[Mattt]

The Hue outdoor lights are just a regular (some say low quality) fitting with a Hue bulb inside.

Better to find a fitting you like and stick a Hue bulb in.

[Blink982]

I have plenty of spare hue white bulbs. I actually like the look of the hue outside bulb linked to above and is the one I was looking at. It has plenty of good amazon reviews but it's dear at £120!

Edited by Blink982 on Sunday 29th December 09:15

[JimbobVFR]

Mattt said:

The Hue outdoor lights are just a regular (some say low quality) fitting with a Hue bulb inside.

Better to find a fitting you like and stick a Hue bulb in.

Not all of them are, the earlier ones seem to be just a Hue bulb in a fitting bit the newer ones like the square one linked above are integrated LED and not separate bulbs. For a fitting that will be visible a nice even light looks much better which is much harder to achieve with a Hue bulb.

[JimbobVFR]

BigBen said:

I use Hue with Google Home.

What I would like to do is pair specific lights with specific Google Home devices. I.E. saying "lights off" in the spare bedroom would switch off the lights in only that room rather than the whole house / whatever random st Google decides to do.

Anyone got any thoughts beyond setting up each room as a separate 'Home' ? That would be OK for upstairs probably but would deny me home wise music downstairs.......

Ben

This is exactly how Google home works if you've organised your rooms properly so both your bulbs and Google device for that room are correctly assigned.

Additionally if you just use the command lights on or lights off the speaker responds with a muted tone bit of you ask for a specific room it will confirm with a voice response telling you what's happening.

[BigBen]

JimbobVFR said:

This is exactly how Google home works if you've organised your rooms properly so both your bulbs and Google device for that room are correctly assigned.

Additionally if you just use the command lights on or lights off the speaker responds with a muted tone bit of you ask for a specific room it will confirm with a voice response telling you what's happening.

It's more like how it sort of half works IME. It certainly doesn't do the latter confirmation bit.

Not Hue related but whilst I am at it how do I stop it responding to 'switch off' with 'switching off hot water' instead of the more obvious switching off the music.

[anonymous-user]

I’ve got all Alexa controlled devices at home but got some free google nest minis through YouTube and it’s interesting seeing how they work compared to Alexa.

You can have them both obviously as they have different wake words, Neither are obviously better and I’m certainly not going to get rid of my Alexa devices.

I’d say the google one is better for my tv voice control but saying “hey google” generally seems a bit less natural than just “Alexa”

I suppose it depends on what you’re used to and which music services etc you prefer.

[JimbobVFR]

BigBen said:

It's more like how it sort of half works IME. It certainly doesn't do the latter confirmation bit.

Mine does, daft question I suppose but are you sure your devices are assigned to rooms correctly.