Philips Hue Play sync box and gradient lightstrip review: wholly unnecessary, totally delightful

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I think our TVs should be cooler by now. 3D TVs were bad and curved TVs were not a good idea. Since the 1980s, picture quality and form factor have improved.

When I was given the chance to try out the Play HDMI sync box and Play gradient light strip, I was hopeful that it would elevate my TV experience. It claims to be able to sync the backlight with the content on the TV for a better experience. We have known about the surround sound for a long time.

It's still pretty cool, even though it isn't quite sci-fi. I used it almost every night for the last couple of months. I am surprised as well.

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This system needs to be broken down into its component parts. The brains of the operation are the PlayHDMI sync box. The box is 7 x 4 x 1 inch. Four of the inputs and one of the outputs are on the back. The system knows what's on your TV screen so it can color match your lights. There is one major flaw to this method, which we will get into in a moment. When it first launched, it was limited, but now it supports a number of popular audio and video formats, so your programs will look and sound the same.

Depending on the size of your TV, the Play gradient lightstrip can be purchased for $250 for the 55 inch, $270 for the 65 inch, and $300 for the 75 inch. The back of your TV has a strip of lights attached to it. The 65-inch strip I ended up with contained 80 individual LEDs, but they don't all have to display the same color at the same time, which is how they are able to create a representation of the many colors being displayed on the edge of your TV screen The idea is that the colors bleed off of the screen and onto the wall behind it, making the screen feel bigger.

This is getting expensive and there are other nice-to-haves. The bridge is the central hub for all things Hue and costs $60. The sync box will tell you which colors to display.

The nice-to-haves are any other lights that change colors. The colors on your screen can be extended not just behind your TV but all around your room, which turned out to be way cooler than I thought it would be.

It was easy to set up the system, but I had a head start because I already had all of the lights in my living room connected to the internet.

The first thing I had to do was put the gradient strip on my TV. A few plastic guides with double-sided tape are included in the system. You just put the strip into the guides. I have a 55-inch TV and the 65-inch strip was sent to me inadvertently. I was able to add curves to the straightaways because of the strips bending. You should get the right size strip for your TV. You can add it to your home system by plugging it into a wall outlet and using the bridge.

It was easy to set up the box. You just take the HDMI cables from your streaming devices, video game consoles, Blu-ray players, etc., and instead of running them into the TV, you connect the sync box's HDMI out to the TV and plug in the power.

You have to install a different app on your phone. This is where the light show will take place. If you have more than one Hue light in the room, you can use a 3D diagram of the room to show them. The sync box knows which light to turn and when. If you only want the TV to be backlit, you can create multiple entertainment areas.

You are good to go at this time. If you want the system to work like you want it to, you need to start playing some content through the sync box. You can change between video, music, and game modes on the main screen, as well as adjust the intensity between subtle, moderate, high, and extreme.

I liked tailoring the experience to the content I was viewing. If I were to watch a movie like Everything Everywhere All At Once, I would want it to be in video mode with high intensity lights. Moderate intensity was preferred for movies that were at a slower pace. I switched to extreme intensity if I wanted it to have sudden reactions. If I wanted to play music through my TV and have a party vibe, I would turn it to music mode, which makes the lights pulse along with the beat.

Once I adjusted them to my liking, each mode worked well. I assumed that movies would be a distraction, but I didn't find that to be the case. The film was not overwhelmed by the brightness and intensity. I was introduced to the world of the movie. It felt like I was sitting in the same room as the characters and not looking out the window.

It was a pleasure to watch The Simpsons in my living room. While I don't have a gaming system setup, I watched a lot of video games while in game mode, and it was a blast with my apartment lighting up with explosions, laser fire, or grassy greens depending on the game. While music mode probably isn't something I'd use unless I throw a party, I loved seeing my apartment pulse along with beats in Anderson.Paak, and J. Cole's music It works well with music videos.

While I have eight Hue lights in my living room, I spent a lot of time using the sync box with only the gradient strip on the back of the TV and all the other lights off. It worked very well. It puts out a significant amount of light (1,100 lumens, roughly the equivalent of a 75W bulb but distributed in a long ring), and I often have it on even when the tv is off because it adds more light to my living room and can be controlled like any other light with There were nature documentaries that popped up. I felt like it reduced my eyestrain, but it didn't make me want to leave.

The response time for gaming is very fast. When Thomas Ricker reviewed the Govee Immersion TV Backlight last year, he found that it was prone to falling behind the content on-screen, but that wasn't an issue for me. Slower transitions of moderate intensity make the effect more subtle and natural.

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The integration of the other lights in my house wasn't as smooth as it could have been. I found out when I was watching a movie or a show that I didn't like seeing my lights directly or they would distract me. It is possible to create an entertainment area in the sync app that does not include the lights. For some reason, the app doesn't allow you to change the areas you've already created.

If they were on, you have to uninstall the sync app, open the regular hue app, and turn them off manually. It's just a few clicks, but you can't do all of this from one app. I haven't been able to automate the process of using the sync box because it doesn't respond to some voice commands. I want the ability to switch between entertainment areas added directly to the homescreen so I don't have to dive into the settings as often.

There's a flaw in the system. The name of the box suggests that it only works for content that comes in through an HDMI cable. If you use the built-in app on your smart TV or a digital antenna to pick up local broadcast, you're out of luck because the sync box won't work with that content at all. The Govee system can do that. Though it requires placing a small camera in front of your TV screen, it doesn't work as well as other smart lights. This was not an issue for me because I don't like my TV's built-in apps. If you use a Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Xbox, or cable box that runs through HDMI, it's the same thing. If you are one of the many people who just use the built-in apps on their TVs, you do not want this product.

If you need to purchase the Hue Bridge, the sync box and gradient strip costs more than $600. This is more expensive than a lot of decent TVs and puts it in the category of luxury products. As a smart home product, Hue has a reputation for being polished, working well, steadily adding features, and playing nicely with other smart home items, and its lighting often costs more than the competition as a result. While this still isn't cheap, it adds a whole new bag of tricks to your home lighting system and is something a lot of people have already bought into.

Every smart device has a set of terms and conditions that you have to agree to before you can use it. It is not possible for us to read and analyze all of them. We started counting the number of times you have to agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people can't negotiate.

If you want to use the sync box and light strip, you have to have both the app on your phone and the one on your computer. Before the sync app can be used, the hue app needs to be set up.

Access is required to use the sync app.

• Local network devices (iOS)
• Bluetooth (both Android and iOS)

The terms and conditions and privacy policy are mandatory. Any remote, out of home control, that is not connected to the internet, will not work if you don't have a holsy.

There are two mandatory agreements and two mandatory permission.

The photo was taken for The Verge.