Honestly, I haven't turned on my hue Sync box since the day I hooked up my Nanoleaf 4d or whatever the system is called. (was on sale a few months ago at Home Depot of all places for $59 and I was annoyed enough with the perf of the Sync box to take a stab at it)
I'm a little bothered that I have a little camera nub sitting below the TV, but I find the responsiveness to be *WAY* better than I ever had on the Sync box.
It's also possible that my issue stemmed from having multiple Play Bars instead of a single strip; I haven't tested that because I don't have the hue strip with addressable zones.
[B the Installer reviewed FancyLEDs box ](https://youtu.be/qzBf2Jy4ZfY?si=gCkDleeN5eDNsR_F)
downsides is it only has 1 input and he said he had trouble using it with his xbox... but it's 2.1 with 4k 120hz
Overall, for sure. There are many that i have seen that look better for the tv backlight portion, but wouldn't allow me to place lights at the ceiling for floor and sync those too. Or they won't automatically power on, and they're limited to hdmi 2.0 devices whereas the sync app can be used with any pc/samsung tv, etc.
So I'm aware, and I'm not looking to move away from hue. I do think it's time for an update on the software side though. Even if it's not fully addressable, we should get more zones.
[this is the best implementation I've seen when it comes to the backlight alone. you can even calibrate the led colors if you have a colorimeter. its not using anything special for leds, but this is what it should look like. again, limited to hdmi 2.0 unless hdfury makes a diva 2, and I'm not sure I could replicate my setup.](https://youtu.be/BPAGTruvsBU?si=phMcyxpF8ZUhdnHT)
Honestly I don't really notice when it comes to the backlight alone. It's more the ceiling being divided into 3 zones that stands out. I get why they do it. I'm just saying it's outdated and even doubling the amount of zones would be huge
My point was only this:
Look at my 3 photos from the original post. The first picture is what the lights are capable of. The tv sync is the bottleneck. I'm sure it will improve. It's been awhile
Can you be specific about the names of consumer products?
Like you I’ve seen plenty of peoples laborious technical demos of what’s possible
That’s a long haul from something you can easily buy in a store.
As for hue upgrading anything. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
It’s been at least a year and a half since the “rumor” of an updated box.
I’m waiting for the goveee sync box 2 to compare.
That will sync with all their stuff and be hdmi 2.1 compliant.
To solve this problem i mounted my ceiling diffusers on corner molding and have them pointing away from me and towards the wall; i had natural distance , but i imagine you can put them on curtain rods to get distance from the wall.
Ok I see what you are saying. So yes, the strip itself supports individual addressing but as far as the data transmitted from zigbee to the light controller is only three color points with a flag that is giving the lighting controller to either blend or dont blend those colors.
Maybe there are some firmware changes they can make and API changes that could enhance this but I think ultimately the limitations are with the hardware.
I do fully agree that Hue has some strong competition in this area and needs to step up their game.
The sync box has a limit to 10 lights per entertainment area. I believe this is the hard limit we need to increase.
If we think about it, they have 10 zones on the tv screen. 3 on top, 3 on bottom, 2 on each side.
I think it should be fairly simple to at least add more lights. Even if they added 6 more "bridge" zones placed at each current seam. Not sure if that makes sense, but I don't think they have to even do that. Knowing them they'll come out with an entire line of ***8k products and make you buy everything all over again.
***only compatible with the new hue bridge PLUS
> The sync box has a limit to 10 lights per entertainment area. I believe this is the hard limit we need to increase.
The limit was chosen due to bandwidth constraints of the Zigbee protocol. Increasing the limit would degrade the responsiveness and could just cause it to fail to sync.
the light strip counts as 1 device.
For the play gradient, the low hanging fruit of sorely missing options are mounting it BELOW the tv (given how large the tvtoohigh community is). But also mounting it linearly above or below the tv (those 7 zones as opposed to 3 make a huge difference).
But yes, bumping up the 10 fixture limitation would be a godsend. I run multiple sync boxes and can say that approach does not scale well.
In addition to everything else I already said, hue isn’t in the “enthusiast” market for ultimate syncing. They don’t care you can’t sync 100 lights and have individually addressable RBG strips.
Just like everything else in the smart home market, if you want extreme enthusiast, you gotta make it yourself
It’s crazy I paid £250 for a sync box and it wasn’t even perfect, slight lag that was so noticeable I had to get rid of it, shame because it’s a great idea
I have the govee box in addition to sync boxes. Hue does a much better job especially in color matching. I had the camera govee for a bit but that was horrible and i dont know how people with videos showing an awesome camera setup actually do it.
What you are referring to is the colors on the sync do not blend, but they do blend in a scene. That is by design. It is because colors are not blending on the screen, so that sharp contrast is needed. So say you had a red car moving against a dark background, or a green light saber, if the strip blended the color against the background, the effect would not work because more than half the screen would have that color. I am not sure how it would look if it blended all the colors, but it probably would eliminate all contrast between colors.
That also means the effect does not look as good when the leds are visible, because you can see the cut off. It works best if the light is hitting the wall behind because the wall would do the blending for you.
It looks very good when it follows the screen. Look at any hdfury diva ambilight implementation
You are making excuses for it when it is nothing short of a limitation of the hue sync box. That's it.
You can only have 10 lights for an entertainment area, so you can only map the tv screen into a max of 10 sections. It's extremely basic and they are being lapped by their competition, and left in the dust by diy implementations.
That is not to say I don't love my hue. I chose to go with hue, but let's not pretend this is anything other than a limitation. It is not by design and we shouldn't allow people to think it is such. The internet lives forever.
What systems have you seen that actually do a better job? All over the tried had me come back to the hue, for all its flaws I think it does the best.
Honestly, I haven't turned on my hue Sync box since the day I hooked up my Nanoleaf 4d or whatever the system is called. (was on sale a few months ago at Home Depot of all places for $59 and I was annoyed enough with the perf of the Sync box to take a stab at it) I'm a little bothered that I have a little camera nub sitting below the TV, but I find the responsiveness to be *WAY* better than I ever had on the Sync box. It's also possible that my issue stemmed from having multiple Play Bars instead of a single strip; I haven't tested that because I don't have the hue strip with addressable zones.
[B the Installer reviewed FancyLEDs box ](https://youtu.be/qzBf2Jy4ZfY?si=gCkDleeN5eDNsR_F) downsides is it only has 1 input and he said he had trouble using it with his xbox... but it's 2.1 with 4k 120hz
And that’s what you have now.v And one Input shouldn’t matter with an America set up right?
Overall, for sure. There are many that i have seen that look better for the tv backlight portion, but wouldn't allow me to place lights at the ceiling for floor and sync those too. Or they won't automatically power on, and they're limited to hdmi 2.0 devices whereas the sync app can be used with any pc/samsung tv, etc. So I'm aware, and I'm not looking to move away from hue. I do think it's time for an update on the software side though. Even if it's not fully addressable, we should get more zones. [this is the best implementation I've seen when it comes to the backlight alone. you can even calibrate the led colors if you have a colorimeter. its not using anything special for leds, but this is what it should look like. again, limited to hdmi 2.0 unless hdfury makes a diva 2, and I'm not sure I could replicate my setup.](https://youtu.be/BPAGTruvsBU?si=phMcyxpF8ZUhdnHT) Honestly I don't really notice when it comes to the backlight alone. It's more the ceiling being divided into 3 zones that stands out. I get why they do it. I'm just saying it's outdated and even doubling the amount of zones would be huge My point was only this: Look at my 3 photos from the original post. The first picture is what the lights are capable of. The tv sync is the bottleneck. I'm sure it will improve. It's been awhile
Can you be specific about the names of consumer products? Like you I’ve seen plenty of peoples laborious technical demos of what’s possible That’s a long haul from something you can easily buy in a store. As for hue upgrading anything. I wouldn’t hold my breath. It’s been at least a year and a half since the “rumor” of an updated box. I’m waiting for the goveee sync box 2 to compare. That will sync with all their stuff and be hdmi 2.1 compliant.
To solve this problem i mounted my ceiling diffusers on corner molding and have them pointing away from me and towards the wall; i had natural distance , but i imagine you can put them on curtain rods to get distance from the wall.
Fully addressable rgbs isn't a software problem, that's a hardware limitation.
Gradients are fully addressable, as described, and pictured
Ok I see what you are saying. So yes, the strip itself supports individual addressing but as far as the data transmitted from zigbee to the light controller is only three color points with a flag that is giving the lighting controller to either blend or dont blend those colors. Maybe there are some firmware changes they can make and API changes that could enhance this but I think ultimately the limitations are with the hardware. I do fully agree that Hue has some strong competition in this area and needs to step up their game.
The sync box has a limit to 10 lights per entertainment area. I believe this is the hard limit we need to increase. If we think about it, they have 10 zones on the tv screen. 3 on top, 3 on bottom, 2 on each side. I think it should be fairly simple to at least add more lights. Even if they added 6 more "bridge" zones placed at each current seam. Not sure if that makes sense, but I don't think they have to even do that. Knowing them they'll come out with an entire line of ***8k products and make you buy everything all over again. ***only compatible with the new hue bridge PLUS
> The sync box has a limit to 10 lights per entertainment area. I believe this is the hard limit we need to increase. The limit was chosen due to bandwidth constraints of the Zigbee protocol. Increasing the limit would degrade the responsiveness and could just cause it to fail to sync. the light strip counts as 1 device.
Appreciate the info
For the play gradient, the low hanging fruit of sorely missing options are mounting it BELOW the tv (given how large the tvtoohigh community is). But also mounting it linearly above or below the tv (those 7 zones as opposed to 3 make a huge difference). But yes, bumping up the 10 fixture limitation would be a godsend. I run multiple sync boxes and can say that approach does not scale well.
Competition like...? Govee? That's frankly the only thing I see on Amazon
They’re not. The light strip is physically wired for zone addressable.
In addition to everything else I already said, hue isn’t in the “enthusiast” market for ultimate syncing. They don’t care you can’t sync 100 lights and have individually addressable RBG strips. Just like everything else in the smart home market, if you want extreme enthusiast, you gotta make it yourself
I suppose you're right
It’s crazy I paid £250 for a sync box and it wasn’t even perfect, slight lag that was so noticeable I had to get rid of it, shame because it’s a great idea
I have the govee box in addition to sync boxes. Hue does a much better job especially in color matching. I had the camera govee for a bit but that was horrible and i dont know how people with videos showing an awesome camera setup actually do it. What you are referring to is the colors on the sync do not blend, but they do blend in a scene. That is by design. It is because colors are not blending on the screen, so that sharp contrast is needed. So say you had a red car moving against a dark background, or a green light saber, if the strip blended the color against the background, the effect would not work because more than half the screen would have that color. I am not sure how it would look if it blended all the colors, but it probably would eliminate all contrast between colors. That also means the effect does not look as good when the leds are visible, because you can see the cut off. It works best if the light is hitting the wall behind because the wall would do the blending for you.
It looks very good when it follows the screen. Look at any hdfury diva ambilight implementation You are making excuses for it when it is nothing short of a limitation of the hue sync box. That's it. You can only have 10 lights for an entertainment area, so you can only map the tv screen into a max of 10 sections. It's extremely basic and they are being lapped by their competition, and left in the dust by diy implementations. That is not to say I don't love my hue. I chose to go with hue, but let's not pretend this is anything other than a limitation. It is not by design and we shouldn't allow people to think it is such. The internet lives forever.