When Philips introduced its original ambient lighting system, Ambilight, many believed that the idea was another twist within a marketing idea. But the truth is that the accompanying light completely changes the viewing experience, and if the lights change color at the same time as the image, the immersion is total. But how to set up your own system?
Basic accompanying lights
A solution may be a simple companion taillight with some soft color. For this it is enough to connect a colored LED strip, and to make everything more comfortable, it has wireless connectivity so that we can turn it on with a simple voice command.
Thus, you could select the desired color, and keep an accompanying light while watching TV at night. An economical model that works very well could be this TP-Link LED strip. Keep in mind that depending on the TV you have, you will need more or less meters of LED strip depending on the inches you want to cover.
Lights that change with the image
The true experience is to have a lighting system that changes color according to what appears on the screen. This solution requires specific hardware that is capable of analyzing the image, but they are much more expensive options. One of the products that makes things easy is the Govee lighting system which, with a simple mechanism based on a small camera, is responsible for analyzing what is being projected on the screen to represent the colors on an LED strip placed behind the TV.
It is the most economical and simple solution that allows you to enjoy an Ambilight system while respecting the colors of the image, although requires placing a camera over the TV that protrudes slightly as a lamp. Depending on the model and placement of the camera, the upper corners usually do not control very well, but it is capable of analyzing signals that do not pass through an HDMI signal, such as the signal from the TV antenna.
The real Ambilight
The most complete solution you can set up is a HDMI device that is responsible for analyzing the video signals at all times that come to TV. In this way, a precise and exact reading of the tones that must be projected is achieved, being a very reliable method that works perfectly.
The problem is that the hardware needed is expensive, and at best compatible with 4K signals with HDMI 2.1 so as not to limit the image that is sent to the screen. Philips has its own solution, and it is highly recommended since by integrating into the Hue ecosystem, the lighting options are endless.
In any case, there are already cheaper alternatives such as the solution of Lytmi, which proposes an HDMI hub to connect all the signals from our devices and an HDMI output port to connect the cable that goes to the TV. An included LED strip is also connected to this hub, something that requires us to have the hub on the back of the TV.