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About Media Download Support
About
Media
Download v2.2
Support
1x Lightstrip Plus behind a 55'' Samsung TV. Mirroring a PC via HDMI.
ScreenBloom is a free PC/Mac application that grabs the average color of your screen and sends that value to connected Philips Hue lights.
Media
Videos
GIFs
Load More GIFs
The ScreenBloom UI
  • Save Setting Presets
  • Individual Bulb Settings
  • Choose Your Display
  • bootstrap carousel
  • Set Min/Max Brightness
Download
Support
Have a question about ScreenBloom? Check out the FAQ below, the Github Repo , or send me an email directly.
Think ScreenBloom is a cool app? Toss some beer money my way, if you'd like. PayPal Donation Link
System Requirements?
ScreenBloom will run on just about anything, but the faster your CPU the better.
What Kind of Resources Does ScreenBloom Consume?
The fully installed application takes up roughly 20MB of disk space.

While running ScreenBloom lives in ~16MB of RAM and uses ~3-15% of the CPU, with better CPUs being more efficient.
Performance Tips?
ScreenBloom performance largely boils down to two factors.
  • Number of Lights Being Addressed

    Each light adds another string of commands that the Hue bridge has to process before moving on to the next, so the fewer being addressed the more responsive ScreenBloom will be.

    To address more than 2 bulbs at once, set a small (0.1s) Update Buffer. This tiny pause will be undetectable to you but will give your bridge enough time to comfortably process all the commands being thrown at it.

  • Philips Hue Bridge Version

    The Philips Hue Bridge V2.0 (square with rounded corners) has much better internal hardware than the V1.0 Bridge (circular). It's able to process commands much faster and makes for a hugely more responsive ScreenBloom (and Hue in general) experience.

    For the best results, make sure you're running ScreenBloom with a 2.0 Bridge.

Trouble Connecting To The Hue Bridge?
After hitting the Hue bridge button and clicking Register you get the spinning loading icon but nothing happens...

This is most commonly caused by an antivirus software blocking ScreenBloom from either syncing with the bridge or creating a config file. You'll just need to whitelist ScreenBloom in your antivirus program of choice.
On a Mac and Can't Connect?
If you're stuck at the spinning loader for the registration process and on a Mac, you're probably running into a permissions issue.

You'll need to run the screenBloom.app package (extracted from the downloaded .zip file) in a directory where you have full permissions. The easiest solution is to just drag the package to your Desktop and run from there.
ScreenBloom Error / Won't Start?
Sometimes the config file that ScreenBloom creates can get corrupted resulting in all kinds of nasty errors.

You can re-create your config from any ScreenBloom page.

ScreenBloom Regen Config Button Check the top right section of the page
Lights Not Dimming With Dark Scenes?
Make sure your active bulbs have their minimim-brightness set to the level you'd like.

Each bulb can have its brightness levels individually adjusted in the Bulbs Menu.
Using a High DPI / Resolution Screen?
If you've got a high resolution display ScreenBloom might have trouble grabbing an image of the entire screen. This is due to a quirk in one of the program's dependencies.

Luckily the fix is very simple. You just need to check Disable display scaling on high DPI settings in the ScreenBloom executable's compatibility settings.

Right click on screenbloom.exe, click properties, and find the Compatibility tab. Refer to the image below.

Display Scaling Compatibility Option Find the file at the path highlighted blue and check the box highlighted red
Updated From Previous Version And Getting New Error / UI Looks Weird
Your browser might be using a cached copy of the code from the old version of ScreenBloom. You just need to hard refresh your page and your cache will be cleared.
Chrome:
Press CTRL + F5
Safari:
Press Opt + Cmd + E

Can I Use ScreenBloom with Videogames?
Definitely, but with one caveat.

Games need to be run in windowed mode to have their pixels parsed by ScreenBloom. Many games offer an official Fullscreen Borderless Windowed mode which makes this process very simple.

For everything else there is a free program available. Windowed Borderless Gaming
Big Delays?
Some users report large delays between light updates. CPUs running ScreenBloom at a high or variable speed can cause commands to be spammed at the Hue bridge too quickly resulting in a mini DDOS attack and eventual slowdown.

Setting an Update Buffer can resolve the issue (located in the Update Speed menu).

You'll want to experiment and find the lowest possible setting that improves ScreenBloom's responsiveness.
Can I Access ScreenBloom From a Mobile Device?
ScreenBloom starts a tiny web server that hosts the application interface on your localhost IP address in the example format below:
192.168.0.X:5000
When you launch ScreenBloom your default browser will automatically access this address in a new window/tab.

Grab the address from your browser's URL bar (I just bookmark it) and head there on any device - you'll have full control over the ScreenBloom process.

The web interface is responsive and lightweight so controlling ScreenBloom with a phone or tablet is relatively painless.