Sync feature with Android TV and external Streaming Device

Scenes, Effects, Entertainment
#1

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.

#2

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.

1 Like
#3

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.