FabianThe blog Toengel, which specialises in Philips TVs, published an interesting report yesterday: the new Philips TVs with the model year 2023 will only offer “normal” Ambilight integration across the board, while the popular Ambilight+Hue function will be dropped completely.
This was officially confirmed to me this morning by a spokesperson from Philips' TV division. This means that with the new TVs, even with the expensive OLED top models, there will no longer be a direct option to have the Hue lamps in the living room light up to match the Ambilight.
The background: It's not all Philips where it says Philips on it
You are probably asking yourselves: Why is Philips cancelling such a great function that connects two of its own products in such a simple way? Is it to boost sales of the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box?
The basic problem, as I see it, is the fact that the Ambilight TVs and the Hue lights are developed and manufactured by two different companies. They both say Philips, but there are two manufacturers behind them: TPVision is responsible for the TVs, Signify for the lamps.
In the past, there have always been problems and functions that were not fully implemented, for example, Gradient products were not fully supported by the Ambilight TVs. In addition, from my point of view, many possibilities have been left unused. How great would it have been, for example, if you could have controlled the Ambilight LEDs of a switched-off TV via the Hue app?
In the end, the whole Ambilight+Hue thing simply involved two manufacturers who couldn't or didn't want to pull together properly.
Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip TV
from $249.99 / £169.99 / 199,99€
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This is extremely disappointing. I love my hue+ambilight integration, and am hoping to afford a new, larger tv in the future. Obviously only looking at tvs with ambilight, but I am not planning to buy this year… Maybe they will re-integrate again in the future? Im crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.
They’re making a mistake
i’ve tried the integration for many months and for some reason my TV always forgot about my bridge and i had to go through the config over and over again at random intervals.
This is a really stupid decision. That Signify and TP Vision are not ‘Philips’ is not an ‘explanation’ ‘an sich’ because the Ambilight+Hue function was always available although it always were 2 separate companies. Also USB-recording seems to be deleted. There is a sketchy suggestion that it could have to do with the switch to a new TV-chipset. The trouble is that the Philips website and the printed promotional materials however still state that specific 2023 Philips TV’s have Ambilight~Hue, so it seems a last-minute decision. Killing an USP is the beginning of the end.
Meanwhile my generic Chinese ambilight addon and additional lamps, bulbs, and led strip all work fine together and integrate perfectly with home assistant, all for a fraction of the price
Signify liking the Samsung HueSync app money I’d wager.
I’ve had 6 Ambi light televisions because of the Ambi light of they stop providing the TV’s with Ambi light+ there is no reason to purchase Philips televisions again, how stupid are they
Wooooow, I have been a Philips OLED customer the past 4 years. This is my third TV. Just got a new 65″ 808 OLED. The Ambilight makes my knees week. I have been furiously looking for Ambilight+HUE function on my new TV. Thanks to this articel, I know why I couldn’t find the function. This is sooo stuipid. I mean, the whole thing why I got this TV is for the ambilight!!! I got a 5metere lightstrip above my tv, between ceiling and the wall. Now it is useless. Thanks Phlilips. Should have bought LG G3! Everybody I know told be me my choice was dumb because the LGs new evo panel is kick ass. I defended Ambilight so hard and got stabbed in the back. Anyone know any workaround besides their stuipid sync box?
Interested if you have found something 🙂
killing your main unique sellingpoint.
who ever was the director/manager who made the final decision on this choice will go down into the history books as the person who killed Phillips branded high end tv’s
Hmm, will it be available as a separate (expensive) app like in Samsungs?
This must be spread all across the internet. Let Phillips really bleed for their decision.
I have an Ambilight TV and another TV with Syncbox and Gradient TV attached to the latter. I was never able to sync the ambilight with other hue lights while the syncbox was syncing with the strip and viceversa (i.e., not able to run two syncs simultaniously on the same bridge).
Maybe Philips decided to kill the ambilight+hue in order to avoid complaints about syncbox not working simultaniously?
I just purchased today just because of this function and it is still officially advertising, it is there! /12 is without Hue but /62 is with Hue…
https://www.philips.com.tr/c-p/65PUS8808_62/the-one-4k-ambilight-tv
They mocked me than! As a customer that is fake promotion so either they take this back or give me a sync box free…
Hi everyone. Two days ago I bought OLED708. Very disappointed when couldn’t find Ambilight+Hue option!!! My old 50PUS7334/12 worked perfect with all my Hue bulbs and lights. Changed the TVs coz PUS have software glitches and they were never resolved! Right, on my new OLED TV there is system app called Ambilight+Hue version 0.0.0.1. It’s running in background. This gives me hopes that this function will be implemented in new software updates like Philips introduced DTS play-fi on PUS TVs. Fingers crossed!
Hi again. To sync Hue lights and bulbs with your OLED Philips TV you need Hue Essentials app. Download, install, pay £6 and use Sync option. It’s sill under development. The free trial is only 30 seconds but gives you the idea of how it works. Hope this helps.
Kostadin Chaparov I just tried but when switch the TV to HDMI content the sync is not working and the hue lights are off. After switch back to the android everything is ok.
Disappointed to read this. Was new to me. Ambilight+ has been the reason to buy a new Phillips OLED. As this is gone now, i am looking for other TVs again.