I have just built a home theater in the basement and I have 8 recessed can lights that are on a smart dimmer right now. but I would like to control them indisually so i can only turn on the two above our heads when we are eating, and other ideas. I have used smart bulbs from TP link and Cree but have had mixed feelings with how they work. I am looking at either Govee or Hue. I do not have either of these in my house right now. My question is do I just spend the money on Hue as it seems like these just work great or are the Govee just as good. I will also like to replace the smart switch with something that can operate the lights but not cut power to them. I dont think the TP dimmer i have now will be able to do that. Thanks for any input you have on this issue.
You can’t use smart bulbs powered with dimmer.
You need two dimmers but first you need to find a way to connect the light groups separately. Do you know how the wiring is done?
If it were me I would be replacing the bulbs for Hue bulbs and doing away with the current switch / dimmer. If you want a hardware dimmer or switch then add a Hue switch in its place.
All our cinema room lights are hue and we use HA to control them automatically, so when the cinema mode is turned on the lights go in to interval mode/scene, when the players are detected as playing they fade out to exit lights only, pause media puts them in to an interval scene etc. Almost complete granular control over each bulb is in my opinion always going to be the preference for a cinema room.
Where is your geo (Necessary for recommendations)
Do you have any zigbee, ZWave or. Matter now?
There are smart switches that leave the load intact that can do what you want but there are many questions first. - specifically your location.