FabianEven after the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K appeared at an Italian retailer in July, there were still doubts in some parts of the community that the second generation would be available soon. After all, the first ‘leaks’ appeared well over a year ago, some of which were mistaken for a Photoshop fake.
This is of course absolute rubbish, Philips Hue has simply taken a little more time. But now the release is imminent – it should be ready in September. The Philips Hue Sync Box 8K can now be seen again at a Danish retailer – including the full product description and new marketing images.
The second generation of the Hue Sync Box is compatible with HDMI 2.1, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. This means that resolutions of up to 8K with 60 hertz and, which is probably more exciting for most applications, 4K with 120 hertz are supported. Apart from the already discovered revised power supply unit and a slightly different housing design, the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K does not appear to offer any further innovations compared to its predecessor.
Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K
$349.99 / £299.99 / €349.99
Here is a look at the translated product description:
- Supports 8K 60Hz & 4K 120Hz: HDMI 2.1 certified for synchronisation of the highest quality content.
- Real-time light synchronisation: Experience seamless, vibrant colour transitions that match your media content.
- Connects up to 4 HDMI devices: Synchronise with consoles, media players and streaming devices (excluding TV apps).
- Customised settings via the Hue app: Adjust light intensity, brightness and colours to suit your preferences.
- Surround lighting experience: Add up to 10 Hue lights for a dynamic and immersive entertainment setup.
- Requires Hue Bridge: Unlock the full potential of your Philips Hue system with automations, smart lighting control and more.
- Smart Home Integration: Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit for hands-free operation.
I expect an official presentation of the new Sync Box within the next two weeks. In terms of sales, Philips Hue will continue to focus on retailers specialising in consumer electronics; the Sync Box is unlikely to end up in DIY stores or at pure lighting retailers.
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Not even Ethernet? Sheesh. That would’ve been nice. At the very least I hope that HDMI 2.1 means support for Quick Media Switching (QMS.)
I’ve heard this many times and I am curious, what would you use Ethernet for in this device?
Is it full 48gbps hdmi 2.1?
And indeed no Ethernet is really a big missed opportunity. Interested to see how they’ll market it without any ‘big’ improvements.
Don’t care whatsoever about 8K as I have neither player nor display which can do that. Don’t really care about 120 Hz either, don’t think I have any games that supports it. What I DO care about however is HDMI VRR and the new Sync Box better support that!
Would also be nice if they’ve fixed the stability issues. Not too many crashes/restarts lately, but I had one period of 2-3 weeks where it happened multiple times each day and sometimes it didn’t even restart but shut down instead (red light on the front). So annoying!
Even the previous one supports vrr. Old hsb doesn’t support gsync and freesync but it does support vrr.
Yeah it’s nice, but quite expensive for something that becomes obsolete as soon as hdmi 2.2 or whatever comes out. They should have released this a 2-3 years ago when TVs started supporting 4K 120hz for gaming
I can’t wait for the new Phillips Hue HDMI Sync Box to be released the only problem I have is that it’s only going to come with the standard plug and not like the 3 adapter plug you got with the old Phillips hue hdmi sync box so you can’t even connect your Phillips hue light bars to it either cause it’ll only come with a normal plug I suppose the only way to get round it is if the wire to the power lead is not directly connected to the new Phillips hue sync box cause if it’s like the old sync box then you could try and see if the power lead to the old sync box would fit into the power connector on the new sync box
Just purchased this but will be sending it straight back if the stability issues aren’t fixed. At least a couple of times a week the picture will just disappear for 5-10secs before coming back, sometimes it doesn’t come back at all and I have to turn off and on the box. Bad enough when I’m watching TV but if I’m gaming its a whole worse. Expect better from a device that costs over £200…£300 in this case.