If this help you, consider to
Hello there! Have you ever heard of ambilight?
Ambilight is a technology developped by Philips to add an ambient light around the screen of a TV that "extends" the image that's on your screen.
Even if the "ambilight" is only possible to have on a philips "ambilight" tv, you can have an ambient lighting on any screen thanks to a few components, Hyperion and some HDMI cables.
- a Raspberry Pi (I used an old Pi3 B that I had laying around.) ~35€
- a D1 Mini (to control your LED strip) ~2-3€
- I used this one: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32643142716.html
- a WS2812B Led strip (enough lenght to circle around the back of your TV) ~20€
- I ordered this one: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32654279986.html
- Some L shaped connectors for RGB strips (for an easy connection) ~2€
- a 5V power supply with enough power to feed your strip and some other components. ~10-12€
- I ordered a 5V20A Power supply there: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32905696401.html
- a HDCP 2.2 compatible HDMI splitter. ~40€
- I ordered this one: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B07D6WYJTN
- Please note that the HDCP 2.2 is important as some contents (such as blu-rays) might refuse to display themselves if your splitter isn't HDCP compliant.
- an HDMI to USB capture card ~10€
- I used this one: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4001032586121.html
- a HDMI switcher (not required)
- I ordered this one: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32881007293.html ~40€
The project can be splitted in two modules
This module will capture the hdmi signal from your source and analyze it to determine the colors to put on the RGB strip. This step is achieved by hyperion.ng installed on the Raspberry pi.
This module receives the colors from Hyperion and applies them on the strip. This step is achieved by WLED installed on the D1 mini.
This document won't give you a step by step of how to create you own ambilight but I will refer you to some videos that inspired me to create my own and will also provide you with a series of advices and mistakes I made.
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- Event though Dr Zzs wires his led strip directly on the Pi, I will send you to his channel beacause he has a lot of good content about home automation. (Check it out!)
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- I found this video very late in my researchs but this tutorial ends up being the closest of what I've done.
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You might also like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Nie5uSMOE
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Placing your LED strip around the case of the TV instead of around the screen.
- The first mistake I made is when placing the LED strip. I placed them at the very edge of my TV but you want your sides to be the same size as the screen of your TV instead of the size of the plastic border of your TV. I do really hope this makes sense to you...
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Going cheap and order a "dumb" HDMI splitter.
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Even if you might think it should work with a 5€ HDMI splitter, the film industry has a secret weapon called HDCP. HDCP is a software protection of digital contents displayed via HDMI (and DVI). To make things simple, HDCP works by verifying that every device on the HDMI network is "safe" and can't be used to illegally copy the movies that the DVD/Blu-Ray/Disney+/... is sending through the HDMI cable.
Even if the goal is understandable, this protection is not frustrating just for pirates. If you don't buy an HDCP 2.2 HDMI splitter like the one I linked above, you'll likely end up with a DVD refusing to launch or the Error 39 on Disney+ (Netflix is ok though !)
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- Reduce the resolution of your capture card.
- The capture card listed can handle signals up to 1920x1080 (1080p). This works but is way overkill. You can reduce the resolution to 800x600 in the configuration of hyperion. This will reduce the computing power needed and will reduce the delay between the image and the color of the strip.
At home I have:
- A Nintendo Switch
- A TV tuner (Proximus)
- A Steam Link
- A Google Chromecast (V1)
- An XBOX One.
- In the future maybe a Kodi
As i regularly use my XBox to steam content fom Netflix, watch DVDs and Blu-Rays or watch Disney+. I wanted to use it as a "hub".
So, all my devices are connected to the HDMI switch.
The output of this switch is then fed in the "Input" port of the XBox.
The "Output" of the XBox is then fed in the HDMI Splitter.
The Splitter (out1) goes to my TV
The Out2 goes in the HDMI Capture card plugged in the PI.
I plan on designing a 3D printed enclosure (with a cut down wine crate). When this will be done and working, I'll update this readme with a link to download :)
If you have any questions, feel free to open an issue. I will gladly answer to you as soon as possible and maybe improve this "How To" accordingly :-)