Adding Dancing Lytmi Neo Sync Lights to my television.
Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash
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Several years ago, I jumped at bringing background lights to my television. Philips was among the first to highlight this feature with their line of Ambilight Televisions. It was a simple idea; you would buy a television that could mimic the same color scheme you were viewing on the screen. This color scheme is emitted from the back of the television onto the surrounding back wall.
Simple LED strip with Remote
Different avenues had to be explored for those of us with a Samsung, LG, or some other television. My first venture was buying a simple LED light strip that was USB-powered. This could be plugged into an available port on the TV, and the strip could be affixed to the television's back border. Now, there is no way to synchronize this type of light strip with the movie or TV program, but it does provide ambient light in the back of the television. It was “good enough” at the time.
I jumped on the Nanoleaf bandwagon with their line of Canvas panels. Now I never intended to use these as ambient lighting for my television, but they have an available option. Provided you have a computer connected to the system, they will replicate movie lighting.
I wrote a little about these here.
I had my eye on the Philips Play HDMI Sync Box but couldn’t justify the $300+ price tag. It’s a hefty price to pay to bring synchronized lighting to a television, but it is as close to real-time as you can get. I would then want to buy an additional one for my basement television, which would be a small fortune. There had to be a more cost-effective alternative.
A family member mentioned Govee had a lighting option available, which might serve my purpose. The pricing is very welcoming at $65, but you have a camera that needs to be secured to the television. The camera observes the color scheme on the front of the television and replicates the color scheme out the back. I was told it was not quite in real-time, but it can be tweaked to come close. I envision this would drive me crazy!
I opted for another option altogether as I was searching for something between the super costly Hue Synch and the Govee. I searched through numerous other options and happened upon a company called Lytmi. They had an offering called the Neo Sync Box, and I am anxiously awaiting its arrival. Its advertised features echo the Philips but come in less expensive at $189 for 60″ and above televisions. More importantly, the unit hooks your existing system through an HDMI cable, and no external cameras are needed. More importantly, no system lag. I may have found my solution. Stay tuned for future updates!
Check out this update: