Nanoleaf 4D Equipment overview – an RGB improve to your TV/monitor

We’ve lengthy been followers of Philips’ Ambilight know-how that fills the house behind your TV or monitor with screen-matching LED lighting. In our expertise it may possibly actually enhance your immersion in what you’re watching whereas additionally decreasing eyestrain. The Nanoleaf 4D Equipment (Nanoleaf 4D Display screen Mirror + Mild Strip Equipment) goals to supply that very same performance however for any display screen and for a surprisingly low worth.

Its this screen-mirroring tech that’s the reason we predict this Nanoleaf package is without doubt one of the finest LED mild strips you should buy, because it not solely provides some enjoyable to your AV or gaming setup however some performance too.

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Specs

Options and setup

The Nanoleaf 4D Equipment consists of three principal components, that are the sunshine strip itself, the management unit/plug interface, and the digital camera module. There’s additionally a mains to 12V energy provide and a few nook mounting items.

The strip is out there in both 4m (13ft) or 5.2m (17ft) lengths designed to be used with 65-inch or 85-inch TVs, which supplies you a clue as to the dimensions of gaming monitor that could be a wise match for this package. I used the package on a 50-inch TV and there was almost half the strip size left over.

You’ll be able to reduce the strips down, although, with every 14-inch/36cm size together with a cut-off level within the circuitry the place it’s protected to only snip by means of the strip with scissors. The remaining strip isn’t helpful for anything because it stands, although in case you’re completely satisfied to get a soldering iron out, you possibly can wire it again on to a different strip.

Organising the package is easy sufficient, with the strip simply sticking to the again of your TV or monitor by way of its sticky backing – simply peel and stick. You’ll virtually actually, although, must first afix the nook assist items. These present a mount for the strip that lets it gently flip a nook with out kinking. The corners additionally simply stick on utilizing offered double-sided foam tape.

The usual strip configuration is to have it both begin within the backside proper or left nook, stand up and around the again of the panel and finish within the reverse backside nook, so the strip runs in an ‘n’ form. Or you possibly can run the strip all the way in which spherical to start out and finish in the identical nook. Our setup was restricted by the chunky do-it-yourself woodern TV stand of my TV, so it solely ran in an ‘n’ form.

Subsequent, you must hook up the strip to the management unit, which homes the facility provide enter (a normal 12V barrel connection), the sunshine strip connection, and a port for the digital camera. On high of this unit there’s additionally 4 buttons. One is for energy whereas the opposite three set the package to work in screen-mirroring, music-matching, or a hard and fast sample/scene mode. The management module additionally comes with a chunk of double-sided tape to stay it to the again of your setup.

As to the digital camera, this sits on a pole that may both be mounted on a flat floor wanting up on the TV or rests on the highest fringe of your TV like a webcam (it sat fairly securely on quite a few TVs and screens I attempted). The digital camera factors in direction of the TV display screen and actually sees what’s taking place onscreen so it may possibly match the lighting to it. That is in distinction to how the Govee AI Sync Field works, as that sits in-between your PC/console cables and your display screen and pulls the picture information straight from the video sign.

As soon as every little thing’s linked up, it’s important to obtain the Nanoleaf app and scan the QR code on the underside of the management unit. As soon as within the app, among the many key setup steps is calibrating the digital camera, with the app exhibiting a reside view of the digital camera with a moveable white define overlay. You’ll be able to seize the sides of this define and transfer them to match precisely the outer edges of your show’s display screen, so the app is aware of precisely which components of the picture with which to try to match its lighting.

Initially, I discovered the setup process fairly simple however then the primary couple of instances of trying the method, both the setup course of bugged out on me or, as soon as setup, the entire unit didn’t appear to be steady, recurrently simply not responding to my instructions. It took an app replace and (iirc) a firmware replace to the unit by way of the app to get it to all work stably, which it has achieved ever since.

These complications apart, the app is pretty intuitive to make use of and provides a great deal of customisation choices. You’ll be able to set the strip to be a static colour, comply with audio cues, present all method of multi-color patterns, or have it screen-mirror.

The mirroring itself will also be set to 1D, 2D, 3D, or the titular 4D. 1D doesn’t have something to do with Harry Kinds (nicely he did depart) however as an alternative has the sunshine strip present plain white however with the brightness matching the brightness of the scene on display screen. 2D ups this to exhibiting the dominant colour of the scene throughout the entire strip whereas 3D goes a step additional, including a number of colours from the scene. 4D has the strip do its utmost to precisely match all of the strip’s LEDs to match precisely the colours on display screen.

Design and efficiency

Earlier than we transfer onto speaking about how nicely the Nanoleaf 4D Equipment really works, it’s price a phrase on the elephant within the room as regards its bodily setup. Sure, I’m speaking about that digital camera. There’s no getting spherical the truth that having a digital camera on a stalk above your TV appears a bit bizarre. It’s maybe much less of a difficulty on a monitor – the place you’re probably used to having a webcam – but it surely’s undoubtedly not splendid.

Likewise, the management field and the necessity for the strip lighting, energy cable and digital camera cable all makes for a good quantity of stuff to take care of. It’s a terrific workaround to supply the identical performance because the likes of an  Ambilight TV, however there’s a particular compromise when it comes to type, significantly if the again of your TV/monitor is seen.

That leads us on to one of many apparent efficiency factors about this package, which is that it does depend on you having a wall or different flat floor behind your display screen that’s additionally considerably frivolously coloured. That will appear apparent but when your wall is just too distant, is fully gloomy, very brightly-colored, or too shiny, the general “mild wash of colour” impact is nowhere close to as affective.

With the correct setup, although, I completely was received over by this package. It introduced a brand new lease of life to my outdated 50-inch plasma TV, and would little doubt be even higher on a bigger TV with a a lot thinner bezel. The way in which the lighting feels prefer it naturally extends out, as if what’s onscreen is occurring simply behind the bezels – virtually just like the TV’s simply the in-focus a part of the view – is basically absorbing.

It’s particularly compelling whenever you sit down to look at a film with the lights in any other case off. Not solely does it assist draw you in just a bit extra however the further lighting (scene dependent) even helps you see your popcorn extra simply.

I additionally discovered the lighting barely eased my eyestrain. I usually prefer to have some background mild when watching TV, simply to stability out the brightness ranges a bit, however right here the package naturally gives this, dynamically adjusting the required brightness in accordance with the scene.

The brightness will be really dazzling too however will also be tailed again. I settled on about 75% brightness because the darkish blue blinds behind the TV dulled the impact considerably. 50% might be greater than sufficient towards a white wall.

One thing to be careful for are the default modes. The Cinematic mode is simply too dim whereas the Vivid mode is just too vivid with too huge a dynamic vary (the brilliant bits are too vivid and the darkish bits are too darkish). As a substitute, you’re higher off choosing the Customized mode and setting dynamic vary to about 50/100, Saturation to the same degree, and the White Stability to round 5600K.

With these settings, you will get a pleasant stability of darkish scenes, such because the basic Star Wars textual content scroll from the opening of Ohsoka (above) having only a mild and atmospheric wash of blue, to the brightness and colour tones stepping as much as match the a lot brighter opening scene of the present (beneath).

The sunshine strip runs pretty heat however not sufficient to be alarming. Nanoleaf claims the max energy consumption of every meter of strip is 7.2W, which suggests a full size setup of the 5.2m model might draw upwards of 35W at max brightness. That’s a couple of vitality saving bulbs price of energy, so isn’t one thing you’d need to depart on on a regular basis.

By way of utilizing the strips on a gaming monitor, we discovered all of it a bit an excessive amount of when it comes to bits to accomodate behind the display screen and the size of cable. It solely felt remotely prefer it was worthwhile when utilizing a extremely giant display screen, although we actually want to see a extra compact model designed particularly for smaller gaming screens.

Value

The Nanoleaf 4D package is priced at both $99.99 for the 4m package or $119.99 for the 5.2m package, which isn’t low-cost however is a good worth for every little thing you get. Nanoleaf’s personal wall-mount RGB shapes which are designed to only be added to a wall to look cool are inclined to price twice this a lot with out together with the digital camera and screen-mirroring bit.

Generic mild strips will be discovered for a lot much less – Nanoleaf’s personal Necessities package is barely $50 – however once more you lack that each one vital screen-mirroring function. Notably, Govee’s direct competitor, the Envisual, prices $139.99, although it’s a dual-camera package and we’ve not examined it for comparability but.

Closing ideas

Whereas it’s not precisely an affordable, no-brainer improve, the Nanoleaf 4D Equipment continues to be a surprisingly reasonably priced option to actually improve your TV viewing expertise, in case your show doesn’t in any other case have screen-mirroring tech. Its setup is pretty simple and the outcomes are implausible. The set up does considerably inherently imply you possibly can’t simply transfer the package from one display screen to a different, in case you ever want or need to improve your show, but it surely’s technically doable and nonetheless feels truthful when it comes to worth.

Not everybody will see the worth in what this package does – and it’s suitability to gaming screens is a bit restricted, because of the bulk and strip size of the package in comparison with a typical gaming monitor – however in case you’ve ever seen or been tempted by the Ambilight-style screen-mirroring lighting, this package is straightforward to suggest.

Options

Govee Envisual

Get the identical impact as this package however from arguably Nanoleaf’s largest rival, Govee. We’ve not examined the Envisual however its dual-camera setup might be extra correct than the Nanoleaf one, plus its mild strips are break up into sections which are simpler to get spherical corners and it has 60 LEDs per meter in comparison with the Nanoleaf’s 30 per meter.