Philips Hue Lighting - owners thread

[HRL]

usn90 said:

I don’t have a single hue gadget, however what do I need to buy to have the reactive lights on the telly for gaming etc, do I need the starter kit?

Deep pockets for what it is.

You'll need a Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, the lights and a Hue Bridge. Comes to about £400.

However, I quite fancy it myself but I'll wait until there's a model that supports 4K/120Hz as the current model only supports 4K/60. Having recently bought a 4K/120 OLED I'll be damned if I'm going to limit myself to 60Hz.

[Digger]

HRL said:

usn90 said:

I don’t have a single hue gadget, however what do I need to buy to have the reactive lights on the telly for gaming etc, do I need the starter kit?

Deep pockets for what it is.

You'll need a Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, the lights and a Hue Bridge. Comes to about £400.

However, I quite fancy it myself but I'll wait until there's a model that supports 4K/120Hz as the current model only supports 4K/60. Having recently bought a 4K/120 OLED I'll be damned if I'm going to limit myself to 60Hz.

For PC use I find the official Windows synch app to be very good for this. It is reasonably configurable, and it is free. Works surprisingly well!

https://www.philips-hue.com/en-hk/entertainment/hu...

[usn90]

HRL said:

Deep pockets for what it is.

You'll need a Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, the lights and a Hue Bridge. Comes to about £400.

However, I quite fancy it myself but I'll wait until there's a model that supports 4K/120Hz as the current model only supports 4K/60. Having recently bought a 4K/120 OLED I'll be damned if I'm going to limit myself to 60Hz.

Hope the HDMI box doesn’t introduce any input lag/ drop in quality at all other than the hz?

I’ll wait till next prime day for the specific lights and sync box

I bought the starter kit with 3 colour b22 bulbs from Argos today for £103, annoyingly I missed prime day for these!

Out of interest, did anyone notice how much these bulbs were on sale for on prime? I see right now it’s £75 for 2 bulbs!!!

[Carbon Sasquatch]

usn90 said:

Out of interest, did anyone notice how much these bulbs were on sale for on prime? I see right now it’s £75 for 2 bulbs!!!

20-30% usually

Amazon reduce at other points too - Black Friday the next likely one, but sometimes they are on deal of the day

[BigBen]

usn90 said:

Hope the HDMI box doesn’t introduce any input lag/ drop in quality at all other than the hz?

I’ll wait till next prime day for the specific lights and sync box

I bought the starter kit with 3 colour b22 bulbs from Argos today for £103, annoyingly I missed prime day for these!

Out of interest, did anyone notice how much these bulbs were on sale for on prime? I see right now it’s £75 for 2 bulbs!!!

I think the starter kit was about £75, they are usually about 25% off at one retailer or another.

Black Friday is the best bet for the sync box (I hope)

[usn90]

Thanks I’ll keep an eye out.

Very impressed so far, bought my first Alexa products on Tuesday (echo show, dot, ring doorbell) so have caught the smart home bug

Currently looking at the outdoor hue lights, between the garden lights, driveway pedestals and wall lights I’m going to struggle to sweep the cost under the Mrs’s carpet it seems!!

[Carbon Sasquatch]

usn90 said:

Thanks I’ll keep an eye out.

Very impressed so far, bought my first Alexa products on Tuesday (echo show, dot, ring doorbell) so have caught the smart home bug

Currently looking at the outdoor hue lights, between the garden lights, driveway pedestals and wall lights I’m going to struggle to sweep the cost under the Mrs’s carpet it seems!!

My Mrs loves them - once I'd bought a few bits, it was her driving the agenda.

Alexa show me who is a the front door is always a winner as is having some of her lamps pink (a bit council I know). Other bits took time, like the hall & downstairs loo on motion sensors, but now she admits she wouldn't go back.

The outside lights seem expensive IMHO - I bought other units and put Hue bulbs in them. Depends on what you want but I have these - but paid about £40 for them https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AZ8COX8/ref...

[usn90]

So I added a motion sensor to the landing, I’m having difficulty setting the times I want using the hue app.

I want
“ bright” 18:30 - 21:00
“Nightlight” 21:00 - 06:45

And nothing between 06:45 - 18:30

However the app is only giving me a day behaviour and night behaviour, so as you can see once I set my desired “day behaviour” the app then sets the night behaviour to 21:00 - 18:30?

Am I just being dim here?

[dapprman]

I use the Hue Essentials app (android) in parallel to the official one as that allows me to do far more complex programming of the smart dimmer switches (including controlling several devices from each switch).

[wjwren]

Anyone tried something like this or similar with hue hub?


https://www.amazon.co.uk/GIDERWEL-StripLight-Contr...

[Carbon Sasquatch]

usn90 said:

So I added a motion sensor to the landing, I’m having difficulty setting the times I want using the hue app.

I want
“ bright” 18:30 - 21:00
“Nightlight” 21:00 - 06:45

And nothing between 06:45 - 18:30

However the app is only giving me a day behaviour and night behaviour, so as you can see once I set my desired “day behaviour” the app then sets the night behaviour to 21:00 - 18:30?

Am I just being dim here?

Not being dim - the day can only be split into 2 segments, however.... if you scroll down there's a daylight sensitivity setting too. Mine is set 23:00-8:00 Night & 8:00-23:00 is Day - but the daylight setting means it doesn't activate most of the day when its light enough. What it does mean is that I don't have to touch it all year as the light changes.

[threadlock]

wjwren said:

Anyone tried something like this or similar with hue hub?


https://www.amazon.co.uk/GIDERWEL-StripLight-Contr...

I bought £200-worth of equivalent components from www.ledspace.co.uk a month ago. That gave me 6m of strip, two controllers, two power supplies and a bunch of connecting ribbon and joints. The controllers are the same as in your Amazon link: basic 5-wire Gledopto RGBW. (£200 sounds like poor value for 6m of strip when your kit is £40 for 2m, but the longer lengths need decent power supplies, the connecting wires and joints weren't especially cheap etc.)

It's "OK". It's not as bright per metre as my old Hue Lightstrip, the white temperature is way off (it doesn't go as warm as the Hue, despite being a warm white strip), it doesn't fade up/down as smoothly as the Hue, and it doesn't always respond to the instructions from the hub.

The big advantage for me is in its installation flexibility. I've joined 6 short lengths together that are stuck under kitchen cabinets, which wouldn't have been possible with the Hue strips.

If you're just wanting a bit of coloured decorative lighting then it'll probably work OK, although you might not find it responds to Hue instructions as perfectly as you'd like.

Edited by threadlock on Tuesday 20th October 10:00

[BigBen]

threadlock said:

The big advantage for me is in its installation flexibility. I've joined 6 short lengths together that are stuck under kitchen cabinets, which wouldn't have been possible with the Hue strips.

Edited by threadlock on Tuesday 20th October 10:00

If you are keen you can break the hue strips and add connectors for extensions, I did this in my kitchen so I could bypass the extractor hood. Just needs a scalpel, a soldering iron and ideally a hot air gun.

[wjwren]

I just want it for under kitchen lighting that responds off the hue PIR i have on the ceiling. Will it be ok for that? Normal daylight white.

[threadlock]

BigBen said:

If you are keen you can break the hue strips and add connectors for extensions, I did this in my kitchen so I could bypass the extractor hood. Just needs a scalpel, a soldering iron and ideally a hot air gun.

I was scared of ruining £200-worth of Hue Lightstrips with a ham-fisted attempt at soldering, and so was looking for a solution with well-made connectors. Lightify haven't yet made any V4 connectors for Hue and I couldn't find any V3 strips still in stock.

[usn90]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

Not being dim - the day can only be split into 2 segments, however.... if you scroll down there's a daylight sensitivity setting too. Mine is set 23:00-8:00 Night & 8:00-23:00 is Day - but the daylight setting means it doesn't activate most of the day when its light enough. What it does mean is that I don't have to touch it all year as the light changes.

Thanks for that, will try this

[random_username]

usn90 said:

Thanks for that, will try this

There's also a Hue Labs option called "Three Times Is a Charm" which lets you split the day into three rather than two - useful if you want day, evening and nightlight...

[wjwren]

Anyone with Osram Lightify - they are switching their servers off next year. Their bulbs work with Hue im led to believe so might be some bargains about.

[dapprman]

wjwren said:

Anyone with Osram Lightify - they are switching their servers off next year. Their bulbs work with Hue im led to believe so might be some bargains about.

Be warned there are known compatibility issues with Osram and other Zigbee manufacturers. This link is not the one I was actually looking for but does match what I had previous read when I was looking for cheaper expansion options, I'm also ignoring the fact the US Osram bulbs use a different zigbee standard to the European ones and will not work.

[C2Red]

dapprman said:

wjwren said:

Anyone with Osram Lightify - they are switching their servers off next year. Their bulbs work with Hue im led to believe so might be some bargains about.

Be warned there are known compatibility issues with Osram and other Zigbee manufacturers. This link is not the one I was actually looking for but does match what I had previous read when I was looking for cheaper expansion options, I'm also ignoring the fact the US Osram bulbs use a different zigbee standard to the European ones and will not work.

Do they work with a SmartThings hub?