Sorry, I don’t have any new hardware for you today, but at least there are two small software updates. Don’t get your hopes up too high, though, because these are just minor bug fixes. One of them is for Hue Secure Cameras, where software version 1.2.32.976160 has been released. “We have fixed a bug that prevented events from your camera from being displayed,” says the development team.
We’re bridging the bridge between the public holiday and the weekend in Germany with two small firmware updates for Philips Hue. There is new software for the Philips Hue Bridge and the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 4K. However, there are no major innovations, I can already say that in advance.
Product photos appeared on Amazon almost exactly 11 months ago. And not of an existing product, but of an alleged Philips Hue play HDMI Sync Box 8K. Not much has happened since then. What about the successor to the Sync Box released in 2019? People keep asking about it and there are always the same comments on social networks: “Someone was just having fun with Photoshop.”
Now that TV manufacturer TP Vision has completely abolished the Ambilight+Hue function in the latest TV generation and the “smart” app is still only available for Samsung TVs, the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box is currently the best way to have up to ten Hue lamps light up to match the content on the TV.
“Never change a running system” – this is a more than well-known wisdom from the IT world. The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, for example, has not received a single firmware update in the past year, with the last update dating back to 29 October 2021. If you have encountered one problem or another during this time, you might be helped with an update now.
It’s a topic I’ve stumbled across again and again in the past. Be it on social media or in emails to me: again and again people ask after a new purchase of the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box and a Gradient Light Strip why the apps on their TV are not compatible.
It had been announced for a long time, but now the time has come: If you use the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, you no longer have to use the Hue Sync App to control it. With the update to version 4.31, the functions have been integrated into the Sync section of the Hue app.
I was able to tell you a few weeks ago that Philips Hue is planning to kill off the Sync app as well, following the end of the Bluetooth app. Instead of a separate app for the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, the entire functionality is to be integrated into the normal Hue app.
For some time now, Philips Hue has been working on making its separate apps redundant. Since the end of February, it has been possible to pair Hue lights within the Hue app via Bluetooth and no longer have to use the separate Bluetooth app. Back in March, I reported that Philips Hue had also started work on integrating the Sync Box into the regular Hue app.
With the latest update to version 4.13 of the Philips Hue app, the Eindhoven-based manufacturer allows Bluetooth lamps to be paired directly in the “normal” Hue app for the first time. Soon it should also be possible to transfer your lamps paired with the Bluetooth app to the main app as well, to make the switch even easier for existing users.
Fabian