Samsung TVs will soon be able to sync with Philips Hue lighting without extra hardware, thanks to a new partnership announced at CES 2023.
The news ends a series of ongoing rumours about a partnership between the two companies.
Last year, rumours began to stir of Philips Hue lighting integration with Samsung TVs without the need for the HDMI sync box, as the two companies would partner to create an integrated software alternative that could be downloaded directly on your TV. Now at CES 2023, these rumours have been confirmed, with the Philips Hue Sync TV App for Samsung TVs launching soon.
The Philips Hue Sync TV app does what it says on the tin really, it'll sync your Philips Hue lights depending on what is happening on your screen. The aim is to create an immersive experience that extends past the frame of the TV, and up to this point it was only available either through Philips' own Ambilight TVs or by using a costly HDMI sync box that also meant sacrificing an HDMI port.
This new app for Samsung TVs allows you to watch, game and even natively stream on the TV with added Ambilight effects, with support for various picture formats supported including 4K, 8K and HDR10+ according to Philips. This streamlined immersive lighting solution sure sounds practical, but there's one small catch.
The app to enable this feature costs a whopping £115 / $130 / AU$200. That's without factoring in the cost of the Philips Hue lights, meaning that this app isn't exactly the cheaper alternative to the HDMI sync box we were hoping for. That being said, it does look to accomplish the goal of removing unnecessary clutter from your entertainment setup, and its extensive feature set makes it an upgrade over the sync box.
The Philips Hue Sync TV app is available to download on 2022 Samsung TV models, as well as a range of QLED models from the Q60 series upwards. It's available to download on the Samsung TV App store.
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