FabianIt’s an issue that has raised questions since the introduction of Hue Sync. Why doesn’t Philips Hue offer its Sync app for Android TV or Apple TV? This is exactly the question we want to address today.
First of all, the bitter news for all Apple users: The restrictions of tvOS are so strict that a Sync app that analyzes the running picture of Apple TV is not possible at all. On Android, these restrictions do not exist – and here, indeed, something seems to be happening.
As the developers of the well-known app Hue Essentials in social media have announced, they are working on a sync function for devices like Nvidia Shield, Fire TV and Android TV. However – it is still a long way off.
Currently beta-testing has started and there are still some problems to be solved. For example, most Android TVs are not fast enough to analyze a 4K picture and forward the data gained from it to the Hue Bridge.
Protected content cannot be processed by Hue Essentials
Another problem is that when playing content that is protected by DRM copy protection, it is not possible to analyse the footage. Unfortunately, this is exactly the case with many streaming services, such as Netflix. Although we are working on a solution to be able to film and analyse the screen content with the smartphone’s camera, let’s be honest: in the end, this is just a gimmick that is not very practical.
I do find one special ambition of Hue Essentials very exciting, though: they want to make the sync function possible for lamps that don’t come from Philips Hue. Exactly that is not yet possible.
I’m curious to see how this project will develop in the coming weeks, but at the moment I remain cautious. Especially the DRM-history is in my opinion still a rather limiting factor.
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