Hueblog: Community Question of the Week: Using Play Gradient Lightstrip without Sync Box

Community Question of the Week: Using Play Gradient Lightstrip without Sync Box

Manually controlling the colour gradient

It's time again for the Community Question of the Week – so this morning I rummaged through mails, comments and entries in the Community section. I chose a question from Christof that some of you may have asked yourselves:

Is it possible to use the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip 65 inch without the Sync Box? Can you control the colour gradient manually, like with an Ambiance Gradient Lightstrip?

The simple answer: Yes, this works without any problems. At the launch of the product in September 2020, however, exactly that was not yet possible; at that time, you could only control the Play Gradient Light Strip in one colour in the Hue app. Now you can select three colours and the matching colour gradient is generated automatically.


And why should you go for the Play Gradient Lightstrip when there is now also the Ambiance Gradient Lightstrip as a “normal” light strip? Especially as the latter is cheaper, even calculated on the basis of the current price per metre.

One possibility would indeed be to mount it behind a TV as ambient lighting. Due to the form factor and the included brackets, the Play Gradient Lightstrip is of course predestined for this. And as long as you don't want Ambilight effects in combination with the current TV picture, but only control the light strip manually, you don't need a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box.

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Check your local Philips Hue Online Store for availability of Hue products in your country. There you will also find all the technical information and prices.



In den letzten Jahren habe ich mich zu einem echten Experten in Sachen Hue & HomeKit entwickelt. Mittlerweile habe ich über 50 Lampen und zahlreiche Schalter im Einsatz. In meinem kleinen Blog teile ich meine Erfahrungen gerne mit euch.

Comments 2 replies

  1. You can control ambilight directly from your free official philips hue pc app.
    You dont need the box for that. It works as 7 zones for music, video or a combination of both.

    1. @Eugen is that app (the one that replaces the need for a HDMI Sync box $$$$) available to download on Smart TV’s? I like the gradient light strip but not if i need to purchase another $200+ device to sync with my TV. thanks in advance.

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