Nanoleaf 4D Kit review – an RGB upgrade for your TV/monitor

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

Its this screen-mirroring tech that’s the reason we expect this Nanoleaf package is among the greatest 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 Package consists of three primary components, that are the sunshine strip itself, the management unit/plug interface, and the digicam module. There’s additionally a mains to 12V energy provide and a few nook mounting items.

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

You may lower the strips down, although, with every 14-inch/36cm size together with a cut-off level within the circuitry the place it’s secure to simply snip by way of the strip with scissors. The remaining strip isn’t helpful for the rest because it stands, although should you’re blissful to get a soldering iron out, you might 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 nearly definitely, although, must first afix the nook help 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’ll be able to run the strip all the best way spherical to start out and finish in the identical nook. Our setup was restricted by the chunky selfmade woodern TV stand of my TV, so it solely ran in an ‘n’ form.

Subsequent, it’s essential hook up the strip to the management unit, which homes the facility provide enter (a typical 12V barrel connection), the sunshine strip connection, and a port for the digicam. On prime 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 digicam, this sits on a pole that may both be mounted on a flat floor trying 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 digicam factors in the direction of the TV display and actually sees what’s taking place onscreen so it might 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 and pulls the picture knowledge straight from the video sign.

As soon as all the pieces’s related 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 digicam, with the app displaying a stay view of the digicam with a moveable white define overlay. You may seize the sides of this define and transfer them to match precisely the outer edges of your show’s display, 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 straightforward however then the primary couple of occasions 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, commonly 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 accomplished ever since.

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

The mirroring itself may also be set to 1D, 2D, 3D, or the titular 4D. 1D doesn’t have something to do with Harry Types (properly he did depart) however as a substitute has the sunshine strip present plain white however with the brightness matching the brightness of the scene on display. 2D ups this to displaying the dominant shade 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.

Design and efficiency

Earlier than we transfer onto speaking about how properly the Nanoleaf 4D Package truly works, it’s value a phrase on the elephant within the room as regards its bodily setup. Sure, I’m speaking about that digicam. There’s no getting spherical the truth that having a digicam on a stalk above your TV appears a bit bizarre. It’s maybe much less of a problem on a monitor – the place you’re seemingly used to having a webcam – but it surely’s undoubtedly not supreme.

Likewise, the management field and the necessity for the strip lighting, energy cable and digicam cable all makes for a good quantity of stuff to take care of. It’s an amazing workaround to supply the identical performance because the likes of an  Ambilight TV, however there’s a particular compromise by way of 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 that’s additionally considerably evenly coloured. Which will appear apparent but when your wall is just too far-off, is solely gloomy, very brightly-colored, or too shiny, the general “light wash of shade” impact is nowhere close to as affective.

With the best setup, although, I completely was gained over by this package. It introduced a brand new lease of life to my outdated 50-inch plasma TV, and would little question 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 – nearly just like the TV’s simply the in-focus a part of the view – is admittedly 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 additional lighting (scene dependent) even helps you see your popcorn extra simply.

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

The brightness will be actually dazzling too however may 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 in opposition to 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 brilliant with too broad a dynamic vary (the intense bits are too brilliant and the darkish bits are too darkish). As an alternative, you’re higher off choosing the Customized mode and setting dynamic vary to about 50/100, Saturation to an identical stage, and the White Steadiness to round 5600K.

With these settings, you may get a pleasant steadiness of darkish scenes, such because the traditional Star Wars textual content scroll from the opening of Ohsoka (above) having only a light and atmospheric wash of blue, to the brightness and shade tones stepping as much as match the a lot brighter opening scene of the present (under).

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 implies 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 value of energy, so isn’t one thing you’d need to depart on on a regular basis.

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

Worth

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 all the pieces you get. Nanoleaf’s personal wall-mount RGB shapes which are designed to simply be added to a wall to look cool are likely to value twice this a lot with out together with the digicam and screen-mirroring bit.

Generic mild strips will be discovered for a lot much less – Nanoleaf’s personal Necessities package is simply $50 – however once more you lack that each one necessary screen-mirroring characteristic. 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 inexpensive, no-brainer improve, the Nanoleaf 4D Package continues to be a surprisingly inexpensive 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 straightforward and the outcomes are incredible. The set up does considerably inherently imply you’ll be able to’t simply transfer the package from one display to a different, should you ever want or need to improve your show, but it surely’s technically doable and nonetheless feels truthful by way of 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 should you’ve ever seen or been tempted by the Ambilight-style screen-mirroring lighting, this package is simple to advocate.

Alternate 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 could possibly be extra correct than the Nanoleaf one, plus its mild strips are cut 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.