Hi there, first of all thank you to the Hue Essentials Team for finally giving us the opportunity to add Ambilight to our TVs via the sync feature.
This is my current “Ambilight” TV Setup:
Xiaomi Mi TV 4A 32" with integrated Android TV
Chromecast with Google TV
3 Yeelight 1S Color LED Bulbs
The way I currently sync the three Yeelight Lightbulbs to my TV screen is through the App “TV Orchestra” provided by Yeelight. I run this app on the Android TV but I use the Chromecast with Google TV to actually stream the content. This has been working out great for me so far since the TV doesn’t run into any performance issues and the ambilight works with ALL CONTENT on screen (even copyright content on Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube etc). I don’t know how Yeelight managed to achieve this but they did a hell of a good job.
Now I am thinking to upgrade my setup with a LIFX Z Strip behind the TV using the Sync feature of the Hue Essentials App to sync it to the TV. Therefore I want to ask if the setup I described above has ever been tested with Hue Essentials (splitting the tasks by running the App on Android TV and streaming the content on external device) and if this would still cause issues with the copyright content.
I would appreciate it a lot if you could help me out with these questions.
Best regards,
Lorenz.
We have tested LIFX-Z on a Google Chromecast TV behind a MiTV-MSSP3. This works but not all apps function good enough yet. We will need to test this further and see what limits the power of the Chromecast. Hue Essentials directly to the Mi TV worked better. Note that Hue Essentials only works on the device installed to; any HDMI connected devices are not detected (yet).
I also tried the app from Yeelight you described with some Yeelight bulbs. Setup went fine but when using preview or start to sync, nothing happened. Any special settings I may have forgotten?
From my point, it is interesting to see how they did it as it could improve our sync features. Especially the way they sync the connected HDMI passthrough or perhaps secured content.
Thanks for the info! Great to hear you are working on external hdmi support for the sync feature.
Yeah, as I mentioned in my comment on Sync (Entertainment) on your phone or Android TV the Yeelight Orchestra TV only works with Mi TVs (which is big mistake imo). As for settings I would make sure to add the Lightbulbs in the Yeelight app on phone and also make sure to turn on LAN control for every Bulb.
Again, as previous posters have stated, thank you for this wonderful app and it’s features! Due to a poor internet connection I rarely stream copyright content so your sync feature covers most of my watching needs…except content from an HDMI connected device.
With TV Orchestra figuring out syncing HDMI content, and your comment regarding Hue Essentials not detecting the content yet, is HDMI support something that could be coming in the future, or have you ruled it out as not possible? I’ve considered getting the Sync Box for to cover this one feature missing from Hue Essentials, but would much prefer an all-in-one software solution. I’ve gone as far as starting to look at the TV Orchestra code and hack something together myself, but if you’ve already done the work and are almost there I’d much rather support your app!
Also, while syncing video content are you able to process the audio as well? I’ve noticed turning down the intensity works great for quieter/dialogue scene but boosting it for louder/action scenes looks better. While syncing, if you could dynamically adjust the intensity/brightness based on audio you would have a killer product far superior to the Sync Box…this may be a worthwhile feature to investigate.
I still need to look further into the Yeelight TV Orchestra app if this is something we can use in Hue Essentials as well. If that is possible, I could add it as an option.
Hi. It’s good to know that I can expect external HDMI syncing in the future, but is it going to be in the foreseeable future, or later? I wanna decide if I should buy the sync box. I have a 65" Sony Smart UHD TV and Philips Hue Bridge & lights.
Essentials does not sync with my cable STB and I was pretty excited to watch “How The Universe Works”, BBC Earth, and ESPN. Well, the excitement has dampened somewhat, maybe you can rekindle it with HDMI support!
I’m in the same boat. I am trying to decide between buying the external sync box, vs. buying hue essentials app for my Android TV (Sony). I need it to sync externally connected HDMI devices (PC, apple tv, etc.) otherwise I have no use for it.
@marclennox Syncing HDMI is currently unsupported and I have not found a way to get it working yet. However, I am working on Hue Essentials for PC which I hope to release later this year.
