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Homemade TV Ambilight


PieFacE

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So, I've decided to start a new project, which is to use a raspberry pi to create an ambilight effect on my TV. 

You can buy products which do it for you, but I've decided to build it myself for a fraction of the cost. 

Has anyone ever done this before? And do you have any tips? 

 

The end goal is to look like this...

When I click submit the video embeds, but then doesn't once the post is made... weird.... 

Edited by limpid
fixed embed by pressing RETURN
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19 hours ago, Kingman said:

I had R/C LED Strips on the back of my set, Similar to these but better http://www.amazon.co.uk/19-7in-Strip-Background-Lighting-Generic/dp/B0184SNC2M/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1452195315&sr=8-3&keywords=tv+led+strip+lighting+white 

Ended up switching them off after THX Calibrated the set.

Thanks for fixing link Limpid.

What do you mean by THX?

I've found this little tutorial, seems quite straight forward....

 

Pressing return really does fix it :D 

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5 hours ago, PieFacE said:

What do you mean by THX?

 

THX is the standard set on how the director indented you to see the movie,

In a nut shell its lining up the sets Co-ordinates with laptop and meter in total blackout for a few hours.

Each individual tweak may not be noticed by the human eye but once collectively all lined up the picture is the best the set can be. 

Its a bit like investing in say a fine piano then having it finely tuned to maximise the performance output. 

THX Ltd. is an American high-fidelity audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaterscomputer speakersgaming consoles, and car audio systems. They have certified video games as well. The current THX was created in 2002 when it spun off from Lucasfilm Ltd.[1] THX was developed by Tomlinson Holman at George Lucas' company, Lucasfilm, in 1983 to ensure that the soundtrack for the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, would be accurately reproduced in the best venues. THX was named after Holman, with the "X" standing for "crossover"[2]as well as in homage to Lucas's first film, THX 1138. The distinctive glissando down to a rumbling low pitch used in the THX trailers, created by Holman's coworker James A. Moorer, is known as the "Deep Note".

The THX system is not a recording technology, and it does not specify a sound recording format: all sound formats, whether digital (Dolby DigitalSDDS) or analog (Dolby StereoUltra Stereo), can be "shown in THX". THX is mainly a quality assurance system. THX-certified theaters provide a high-quality, predictable playback environment to ensure that any film soundtrack mixed in THX will sound as near as possible to the intentions of the mixing engineer. THX also provides certified theaters with a special crossover circuit whose use is part of the standard. Certification of an auditorium entails specific acoustic and other technical requirements; architectural requirements include a floating floorbaffled and acoustically treated walls, non-parallel walls (to reduce standing waves), a perforated screen (to allow center channelcontinuity), and NC30 rating for background noise ("ensures noise from air conditioning units and projection equipment does not mask the subtle effects in a movie's soundtrack.")[3]

THX is owned by sound card manufacturer Creative Technology Limited, which holds a 60% share of the company.[4] The company has had a long history with Creative, which was responsible for the creation of the first THX-certified audio card for computers, the Sound Blaster Audigy 2

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX

Edited by Kingman
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A Bit like this… 

Jeti Specbos 1211

Achieving D65 greyscale, 2.4 gamma and Rec.709 colour was smooth sailing on the Samsung UE-65JS9000, thanks to well-implemented calibration controls that work as they should. As was the case on the UE65JS9500, red tended towards oversaturation, but a quick 24-point colour checker test revealed no glaring inaccuracy to the human eye in real-world viewing.

Greyscale

Pre-calibration RGB Tracking
Pre-calibration Delta errors
Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)
Post-calibration RGB Tracking
Post-calibration Delta errors
Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in mode

Gamma

Pre-calibrated Gamma tracking in [Movie] mode Post-calibrated Gamma tracking in [Movie] mode
Pre-calibration gamma tracking (2.22) Post-calibration gamma tracking (2.41)

Colour

Post-calibration Colour saturation tracking in [Movie] mode
Post-calibration colour saturation tracking
Post-calibration colour errors in [Movie] mode
Post-calibration colour errors (<3 not appreciable to the eye)
Post-calibration colour checker
Post-calibration Colour Checker Classic test
Post-calibration colour checker errors
Post-calibration Colour Checker Classic errors (<3 not appreciable to the eye)

Benchmark Test Results

Dead pixels None
Backlight uniformity Some clouding; attenuated by engaging [Smart LED]
Overscanning on HDMI Defeatable with [Fit to screen] “On
Blacker than black Passed
Calibrated black level (black screen) LEDs shut off
Calibrated black level (4×4 ANSI) 0.043 cd/m2 with [Smart LED] engaged
Black level retention Stable if [Smart LED] “Off
Primary chromaticity Very good
Scaling Excellent
Video mode deinterlacing Very effective jaggies reduction
Film mode deinterlacing Passed 2:2 PAL & 3:2 NTSC tests in SD & HD
Viewing angle Typical of VA-type LCD panel
Motion resolution 1080 lines or higher with [Auto Motion Plus] engaged
Digital noise reduction Optional; effective when engaged
Sharpness Defeatable edge enhancement
Luma/Chroma bandwidth (2D Blu-ray) Full Luma; Chroma horizontally blurred
1080p/24 capability No judder in 2D; forced interpolation in 3D
Measured panel refresh rate 120Hz
Input lag (Leo Bodnar tester) 22ms in [Game] mode
Full 4:4:4 reproduction (PC) Yes for both 1920×1080 and 3840×2160@60Hz

Power Consumption

Default [Standard] mode 86 watts*
Calibrated mode 83 watts
Standby <1 watt

*Note: [Eco Sensor] was enabled by default in [Standard] mode.

Picture Quality

Black Level & Contrast Performance

Judging from its subpixel structure, the Samsung UE65JS9000 uses the same PVA LCD panel as the flagship UE65JS9500. Unsurprisingly, native black level was eerily similar once peak white was aligned to our dark-room target of 120 cd/m2, coming in at 0.052 cd/m2 on both full-field video black (with auto-dimming defeated by displaying a pause icon from our OPPO Blu-ray player) and a 4×4 ANSI chequerboard pattern if [Smart LED] was disabled.

Subpixel structure

Engaging [Smart LED] activates the 65JS9000′s pseudo-local dimming system, which not only improved black depth, but also attenuated the initially observed backlight inconsistencies (several patches of clouding near the corners) to negligible levels. Three [Smart LED] settings are available apart from “Off“, namely “Low“, “Standard” and “High“. All three lowered measured black level to 0.002 cd/m2 on a full-black screen with auto-dimming defeated, and 0.043 cd/m2on 4×4 ANSI.

In practice, we didn’t detect a great deal of difference between these 3 [Smart LED] settings when we sampled a variety of real-life content (particularly low-light material): all deepened blacks to the same degree without introducing blatant fluctuation in luminance or crushing shadow detail. In the end, we went with [Smart LED] “Low“, but would be equally happy with “Standard” or “High“.

Like last year’s Samsung HU8500, the JS9000 ships with a [Cinema Black] option in the picture menu to darken the top and bottom letterbox bars in cinemascope movies. It worked well in our testing, so we’d leave it on.

Motion

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we’re absolutely smitten with Samsung’s black frame insertion (BFI) mode – labelled [LED Clear Motion] in the [Auto Motion Plus] “Custom” submenu – which boosted motion sharpness to a level hitherto unseen on LCD-based displays, so much so that we incorporated it into our calibration workflow for the UE65JS9000. For the uninitiated, BFI inserts black frames between the original frames to reset your retinal persistence, drastically enhancing motion clarity without introducing interpolation artefacts or soap opera effect (SOE) in 24p films.

Black frame insertion is not without its flaws, usually causing increased flicker or decreased luminance due to how the technology works. Thankfully, such issues were largely absent on the Samsung UE-65JS9000: we barely saw any flicker in photorealistic content except on bright white backgrounds; and the SUHD panel’s naturally high brightness potential (necessary for HDR compliance) allowed us to effortlessly reach 120 cd/m2 (only a [Backlight] value of “11” out of the maximum of “20” was needed) or even brighter. Football has never looked so fluid and clear on an LED LCD.

Football

Previous Samsung high-end TVs suffered from intermittent motion hiccups following scene cuts. The JS9000 wasn’t totally spared, but the frequency at which these stutters occurred was significantly less than that witnessed on its predecessors. We watched a ton of football (including the FA Cup and Champions League) and Great Britain’s Davis Cup tennis win over the USA on the UE65JS9000, and the only programme which showed up the motion hiccups was the ill-tempered round-of-16 tie between Chelsea and PSG. While the stuttering cleared up a bit after we cycled the television’s [Auto Motion Plus] setting to “Off” then back to “Custom“, the only surefire way to completely eradicate the motion glitch is by enabling [Game] mode, but of course this entails other compromises. More on this later.

High Definition

The first aspect we wanted to examine was how the edge-lit LED configuration on the Samsung UE65JS9000T compared with the step-up JS9500′s full-array local dimming (FALD) system. On most mid- to high-APL content, there’s virtually no difference between the images produced by the two displays once greyscale, gamma and colour were dialled in and peak luminance was matched. Heck, as far as Samsung TVs go, even the H6400 (our favourite midrange 1080p set from 2014) which isn’t blessed with any sort of local dimming would probably hold its own in this comparison.

Where the FALD-equipped UE65JS9500 earned its keep was in low-APL scenes, especially those containing smaller areas of brighter elements against a dark backdrop. For example, Chapter 7 of Kill Bill: Vol 2 opens with a shot of a full moon just off the centre of the screen against the night sky. On the JS9000, the entire bottom right quadrant would light up however mildly (bringing some clouding into view); whereas the JS9500 would keep the section dimmed therefore improving perceived black-level response. 

As long as [Digital Clean View] and [MPEG Noise Filter] were both disabled, finely textured film grain was reproduced faithfully on the 65JS9000. Together with deep blacks, punchy contrast, accurate greyscale, lush colours and best-in-class upscaling, the result was a top-notch HD viewing experience that left us mesmerised. Just make sure you don’t give up your sweet spot in the middle, since the viewing angle isn’t the best as a consequence of the VA-type LCD panel used.

4K including HDR

Serving UHD video signals from a DVDO AVLab TPG 4K test pattern generator, we verified that the 65in JS9000 fully resolved all 3840 vertical and 2160 horizontal single-pixel lines at 24Hz, 30Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz. We also managed to successfully obtain 4:4:4 chroma reproduction at 3840×2160@60Hz resolution from a Chillblast gaming tower PC fitted with Geforce GTX 970 graphics card, but only if the HDMI port was labelled [PC], and [HDMI UHD Color] was switched on.

4:4:4 chroma

We reacquainted ourselves with several short HDR-remastered clips of Life of Pi and Exodus: Gods and Kings, and the impact still blew us away. We had originally feared that blacks would wash out severely on an edge-lit LED LCD to fulfil the extreme brightness demands of HDR (high dynamic range) material, but that proved not to be the case.

We ran the UE65JS9000 (playing the Life of Pi HDR snippet) side-by-side against a now-defunct-but-still-considered-reference Panasonic ZT plasma (displaying the Blu-ray version), taking care to calibrate both screens to 120 cd/m2 peak white. There’s simply no contest even from fifteen feet away: the combination of super-high resolution, punchier whites, greater gradation and increased detail (not only in the highlights but also in shadowed areas) made the ZT look noticeably muted and softer by comparison. So powerful was this onslaught of resolution, contrast and detail to our visual senses that we weren’t even aware of the UE-65JS9000′s on-paper weaker blacks versus the plasma.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the total number of consumer HDR content available on the market at this time of writing – a big fat zero. But it’s coming, starting with Netflix 4K HDR streaming later this year and Ultra HD Blu-ray by end-2015 (more likely early 2016). If you’re buying a 4K TV today, it makes sense to invest in one that is capable of showcasing this tremendously exciting format.

3D

We didn’t describe the tri-dimensional performance of the Samsung JS9500 in our review last month (although we did test it), so we thought we’d cover it here (it’s identical between the two SUHD sets). We confirmed full HD 3D resolution from the JS9000′s active-shutter glasses (ASG) system using our custom-authored test pattern. However, there’s forced frame interpolation running at all times in 3D mode, causing movies to look like ultra-smooth video, though it can be defeated by engaging [Game] mode at the expense of introducing judder to 24Hz content.

There’s some crosstalk, but it’s faint and not distracting. Maximum light output measured through the shuttering lenses was 65 cd/m2, which was a great deal brighter than plasma and slightly more so than previous Samsung 3DTVs. Nevertheless, it’s still slightly disappointing given the 65JS9000′s high brightness potential – it appears active 3D does darken the image quite considerably.

All in all, there’s been no major leap in extra-dimensional picture quality on Samsung’s LED LCD televisions for a good few years. 3-D is now firmly an afterthought for all TV makers including Samsung (and who can blame them in light of 3D’s lukewarm public reception), and we don’t expect this to change for the better anytime soon.

Gaming

Our Leo Bodnar input lag tester returned a super-low figure of 22ms on the UE65JS9000 in [Game] mode, proving that the supreme gaming responsiveness seen on the top-end UE65JS9500 wasn’t a once-off. We absolutely applaud Samsung’s new-found acknowledgement of the importance of response time to television owners who play video games semi-competitively; the only question is how far down the company’s 2015 TV lineup does this low input lag extend.

Input lag

 

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/ue65js9000-201503154027.htm?gclid=CNLd_OSHm8oCFUeVGwodCygKEQ#calibration

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  • 5 months later...

Well, 6 months on I've finally done it. It hasn't taken me 6 months, it's taken about a week.

Unfortunstely I think i've bought cheap clone LED's by mistake and my white colour is a bit pants....

 

Anyway, here it is... you have to excuse my dodgy camera work lol...

 

 

If anyone is interested let me know and I can help. It's easy once you get your head around the calibration.

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9 hours ago, PieFacE said:

If anyone is interested let me know and I can help. It's easy once you get your head around the calibration.

I'm tempted, but never have time :( 

Why do you have a spare tv?

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On 11/06/2016 at 07:49, PieFacE said:

Well, 6 months on I've finally done it. It hasn't taken me 6 months, it's taken about a week.

Unfortunstely I think i've bought cheap clone LED's by mistake and my white colour is a bit pants....

 

Anyway, here it is... you have to excuse my dodgy camera work lol...

 

 

If anyone is interested let me know and I can help. It's easy once you get your head around the calibration.

I think that looks brilliant PieFacE, you've done an excellent job. In your original post you mentioned there were pre-built version but you just wanted to do it cheaper, for those of us who don't want to mess around building the Pi, do you know much about any of those solutions and how they stack up to your version?

I have a Sony Bravia TV with a windows PC sitting right underneath it.

Thanks

Edit: I found this tutorial which seems pretty straight forward, i shouldn't need a HDMI splitter either as i have all my inputs go into my Marantz receiver which just has a single output to the TV.

Edited by Chewie
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On 6/11/2016 at 10:06, limpid said:

I'm tempted, but never have time :( 

Why do you have a spare tv?

A spare TV? The thing on the right of the screen is my electric fire if that's what you're referring too :D 

 

On 6/12/2016 at 22:00, Chewie said:

I think that looks brilliant PieFacE, you've done an excellent job. In your original post you mentioned there were pre-built version but you just wanted to do it cheaper, for those of us who don't want to mess around building the Pi, do you know much about any of those solutions and how they stack up to your version?

I have a Sony Bravia TV with a windows PC sitting right underneath it.

Thanks

Edit: I found this tutorial which seems pretty straight forward, i shouldn't need a HDMI splitter either as i have all my inputs go into my Marantz receiver which just has a single output to the TV.

I followed this tutorial to do it myself - http://awesomepi.com/diy-breath-taking-ambilight-for-your-own-tv-raspberry-pi-2-tutorial-part-1/ (Parts 1, 2 and 3)

Lightberry HD was the package which I think you can purchase which does most of the work for you. That article you quoted said it took them an hour and a half to setup, mine took about a week so definitely save a lot of time!!  You would still need a splitter between the amp and TV. I have a similar setup.

construction_plan_ambilight_all_hdmi_devices

On 6/13/2016 at 19:27, CardiffGreens said:

Nice, looks very nice - I'm currently just rocking a giant Hue bulb that I currently just set to whatever football team is playing for "ambiance". :)

ha, I've been playing around with Hue lights too, got them in my bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, they're very good :D

14 hours ago, Kingman said:

Nice job pal, i had completely forgot about mine on the back of the TV. 

Ill might turn them on when the clocks go back.

Why do you not use them? Mine just auto come on every time my Pi does. 

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2 hours ago, PieFacE said:

I followed this tutorial to do it myself - http://awesomepi.com/diy-breath-taking-ambilight-for-your-own-tv-raspberry-pi-2-tutorial-part-1/ (Parts 1, 2 and 3)


Lightberry HD was the package which I think you can purchase which does most of the work for you. That article you quoted said it took them an hour and a half to setup, mine took about a week so definitely save a lot of time!!  You would still need a splitter between the amp and TV. I have a similar setup.

Thanks for the reply, the Lightberry pack is this one - but it is not clear to me what else you need. Just the HDMI cables and the splitter?

 

lightberry-HD-4m.png

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You'd still need a Raspberry Pi I think. To be honest, I thought they provided the complete solution but it appears they just provide everything but the splitter and Raspberry Pi.... but most of the configuration is done on the Raspberry Pi so I'm a little unsure.

 

Ah you can also buy this from their site which you'd use instead of a splitter and HDMI2AV grabber.

premium.jpg

 

I'll do a bit more reading on their website later after work :thumb:

Edited by PieFacE
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14 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

You'd still need a Raspberry Pi I think. To be honest, I thought they provided the complete solution but it appears they just provide everything but the splitter and Raspberry Pi.... but most of the configuration is done on the Raspberry Pi so I'm a little unsure.

 

I'll do a bit more reading on their website later after work :thumb:

Yep, def need the Pi. But their kit is confusing me because the other picture on their product page shows this... premium.jpg

... as the device with HDMI in. Yet your past image shows needing a converter to go from HDMI to RCA :/

Any advice you have when you get time to look it up would be appreciated, i shall do some more digging also.

 

Edit: Found a pic of the back of the Lightberry, looks like it handles the HDMI split-off internally to send info to the Rasperry.

kit-hdmi-premium.jpg

 

Edited by Chewie
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To be honest, I think you could be better off doing it yourself. It's really not that difficult. If you have any kind of experience with soldering and SSH (at a very basic level) you can quite easily do it. 

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1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

To be honest, I think you could be better off doing it yourself. It's really not that difficult. If you have any kind of experience with soldering and SSH (at a very basic level) you can quite easily do it. 

SSH. no problem.

Soldering. Will burn the house down, or at the very least put a hole through the board.

Other than cost, why do you think i would be better off doing it myself? Actually, i have a question which might be directly related to that. A lot of Youtube demos I have seen have the ambience really 'tight' to the TV, like it only spreads out half a foot or so, yet yours spreads out all the way across the wall. Is that simply due to some settings, or something else in the physical setup?

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30 minutes ago, Chewie said:

SSH. no problem.

Soldering. Will burn the house down, or at the very least put a hole through the board.

Other than cost, why do you think i would be better off doing it myself? Actually, i have a question which might be directly related to that. A lot of Youtube demos I have seen have the ambience really 'tight' to the TV, like it only spreads out half a foot or so, yet yours spreads out all the way across the wall. Is that simply due to some settings, or something else in the physical setup?

Depends how far away the TV is away from the wall. If you have the TV mounted right against the wall then the room for the light to reflect is smaller, creating a smaller ambiance effect. My TV is on a TV stand and there's probably about a foot of space between the TV and the wall.

I'd say do it yourself because it's a nice little project to work on, but if soldering isn't your thing then it might be best to get the kit (might be worth checking if soldering is also required with the lightberry)

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