Phillips Hue 20% off @ Amazon

Damn the 3rd gen colors are much better than 2nd gen. Damn more money..
 
Morphes said:
Is there a way to setup HDMI input for their pc to control the lights on other devices like a roku or bluray player?
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You would need to setup a capture card and it's honestly not worth it. There's other setups that don't require a PC to interface with.
 
I have a couple behind my TV, and there's a plugin for Kodi to control them. Works pretty well.
 
home lighting automation system. Can you build it yourself cheaper? Yes. Do I want to build it myself? hell no. I have 2 led strips, 2 blooms and 6 bulbs. Download the app to my phone, connect to the bridge, and I set all my scenes in my house. I have about 15 different routines all depending on the time of the day. Some may say its expensive.. I absolutely love it, and feel like it was worth every cent.
 
kdh said:
home lighting automation system. Can you build it yourself cheaper? Yes. Do I want to build it myself? hell no. I have 2 led strips, 2 blooms and 6 bulbs. Download the app to my phone, connect to the bridge, and I set all my scenes in my house. I have about 15 different routines all depending on the time of the day. Some may say its expensive.. I absolutely love it, and feel like it was worth every cent.
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Yeah absolutely, plus the app is really slick and well made. You can do bluetooth bulbs but what you pay for is the software, in my opinion. Plus the colors look really good.
 
there is other brands out there like LIFI that can do some things better (color, brightness, no hub needed ), but in general the phillips system is the best overall due mainly to the small computer in the hub that allows almost an unlimited imagination of software to be designed and ran.. because of this and phillips name, have some of the best integration with other devices.

there is many uses.... a couple funny uses: 1) a guy was asking to program it so that when he went to sleep and woke up the next day on election day.. the color of the bulb would tell him who won. 2) some people have one bulb set up as a weather bulb. if it suppose to rain that day, it will be blue. 3) disco.. rapidly changes color and strobes on off. 4) holidays. based on the holiday, it will use certain color/effects for that holiday. 5) some i think have tied to their phones to flash when people call. 6) tied to a smart garage opener... they use to do somehtin when the garage opener is used.


so far i use it as : 1) wake up.. i set it to turn on 10 till alarm and gradually increase in intesity. 2) atmospheric/mood light: i have it set to turn on about 15 minutes after i get off work to a savannah sunset for a nice relaxing atmosphere afterwork. 3) i set the lightstrip that is under tv to a low lumens white color that is suppose to help bring out the tv colors... 4) i recommend it to people that travel alot (especially women) so they can turn lights on and off as needed while away or coming home from work.

Ive got 6 bulbs, 1 lightstrip, and roomie has one bulb. Can be expensive, but like many things, look around and you may find a deals.. i got the v2 starter pack for 149, was able to pick up 4 more bulbs for 29 a piece, and the lightstrip for 20 less (69).

Ive only touched on a handful of uses. There is a ton more.
 
I love the LED strip I have behind my tv, and my 2nd led strip is under my bed by the foot of it. At 1am, is comes on and glows red on the lowest setting and turns off at 5am. That way if I need to get up at 2am to take a leak, I can sorta see and not step on my cat with out being completely woken up. My setup turns off at midnight as a signal to goto bed. I usually just turn the bulbs back on.. then my 2nd, "go the F to sleep" routine kicks on at 12:30 and turns off the whole house on me again. Come home after work, and my house has a warm glow to it. There are definitely other systems with better features, and maybe cheaper but the hue system is the most cohesive. The previous version of the app was better. It had the ability to sorta float the times you had set up in your schedules. If you went on vacation the lights would turn on and off at slightly different times to give the appearance someone was home.
 
NickJames said:
Lights that connect to your wifi so you can control it using numerous apps and devices. It's smart home stuff.
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But way overpriced. Its much better IMO to just get a smart switch, that controls say the 10 lights in your kitchen, the 8 lights in your open concept living area, etc... otherwise you spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars having individual smart bulbs.
 
Ducman69 said:
But way overpriced. Its much better IMO to just get a smart switch, that controls say the 10 lights in your kitchen, the 8 lights in your open concept living area, etc... otherwise you spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars having individual smart bulbs.
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I actually do like the individual bulb control. When I am watching a movie I turn off the rear lights so it doesn't reflect on the TV while leaving the front ones on dim. The cheaper non-RGB bulbs are like $10 anyway.
 
Ducman69 said:
But way overpriced. Its much better IMO to just get a smart switch, that controls say the 10 lights in your kitchen, the 8 lights in your open concept living area, etc... otherwise you spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars having individual smart bulbs.
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Smart switch will not give you RGB control. I use both (Not Phillips, rather Ive got LED strips run via a Fibraro Z-Wave controller) LED strips, Zwave switches, and even have two RGB "Lightify" can lights that im playing with now.....Very use dependent the PITA w/o a smart switch is that if someone doenst know / doesnt pay attention they can kill the whole circuit , nullifying the light control :D
 
True, but LED strips are their own thing, I have those too, and are fine for accent lighting. Which personally, I only want a slight accent color, I'd never want my room to actually be green or red or something, heh. I was just saying that for most lighting in your home, go with a smart switch as one smart device controlling lots of LED bulbs is way cheaper. I do have three "smart" light bulbs too, but even that was pretty darn 'spensive.

The biggest plus with smart lights is really just the automation (nice to wake up to lights slowly brightening in the morning followed by music that gets louder) and ability to control lights with Alexa. Just very Star Trekish IMO to be able to say "Alexa, lights 10%" or "Alexa, turn on projector" and have your lights and other devices respond accordingly. Color to me is not as critical, especially since adjusting color isn't easily done through voice commands at this time.
 
Ducman69 said:
True, but LED strips are their own thing, I have those too, and are fine for accent lighting. Which personally, I only want a slight accent color, I'd never want my room to actually be green or red or something, heh. I was just saying that for most lighting in your home, go with a smart switch as one smart device controlling lots of LED bulbs is way cheaper. I do have three "smart" light bulbs too, but even that was pretty darn 'spensive.

The biggest plus with smart lights is really just the automation (nice to wake up to lights slowly brightening in the morning followed by music that gets louder) and ability to control lights with Alexa. Just very Star Trekish IMO to be able to say "Alexa, lights 10%" or "Alexa, turn on projector" and have your lights and other devices respond accordingly. Color to me is not as critical, especially since adjusting color isn't easily done through voice commands at this time.
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I mean ... My entire great room is lit fully off of LED strips ...



Thats at like ~50% power, took it months ago when I first installed ;), and with the old fan (new one has no lights on it...damn that picture is old now ... so much has changed). Just saying there are options. However I run a few smart switches here and at my parents house due to cost effectiveness.
 
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