TVs with dynamic backlighting around the display frame is one of the proprietary chips of Philips. And unlike many others, it works. Everything comes at a price, though, and TVs with Ambilight and immersive presence are more expensive than many others.
Russian developers have proposed a method that will equip monitors of any manufacturer with dynamic backlighting. To do this, you don't even have to carry the device to service center: it only takes a little time and perseverance.
In general, such a backlight can be purchased as radio components and configured on your own. But, as practice shows, this is almost comparable to the ready-made options from PaintPack.
There are two main models available: a monitor version (30 LEDs) and a TV version (60 LEDs). There is also a very simple one - for 10 LEDs, but it is suitable only for the smallest monitors.
The TV version is equipped with an external power supply. Also, a larger number of LEDs speaks in its favor, which gives a larger illumination area (it will shine wider and higher, in other words). If such options are not suitable for any reason, you can contact the developers: for a small surcharge, they will offer a modified version.
mindrunway.ruPaintPack, in fact, is a small housing, to which removable led strip... The box with the filling carries indicators and a power connector, as well as a microUSB for connecting to a PC. There is also a master connector (proprietary) for daisy chaining two devices.
The device body is located on the back of the TV or monitor. Then LED strips are laid in accordance with the instructions, power is connected and witchcraft begins. When connecting PaintPack to a computer via a USB connector, you need to install drivers and configure the device in the bundled program.
mysku.ru The setting is done using the AmbiBox package. It is necessary to go to the "Intelligent backlight" menu, select a screen capture method and one of the operating modes offered in the program:
- Static background - any color can be set, LED glow is regulated.
- Color music - the backlight will flash in time with the sound of music. The backlight color is set to green-yellow.
- Dynamic background - smooth flow of one color into another.
- Screen capture is the main mode of operation.
In this mode, you can capture color from the movies and games you are watching. The backlight color will change in accordance with the image on the screen, dividing into top, bottom and side zones (each separately).
PaintPack is slightly slower than official counterpart from Philips. But taking into account the difference in cost and the possibility of upgrading any device, the choice is obvious.
I bring to your attention a simple craft - the backlight of the TV.
TV, as you know, is not recommended to watch in complete darkness for the safety of vision. And in the overhead light - I don't like it - it's too bright. When watching TV, I turn on the floor lamp and everything seems to be fine, but I wanted to organize the backlighting of the corner where the TV is. And so that she does not shine in the eyes. Well, like one well-known company - Ambilight technology.
For this purpose, I purchased a warm white LED strip powered by USB. I didn't want to bother with a separate on-off of this very backlight. Well, why didn't I take the RGB tape - I am quite satisfied with the white mono light and I don't need another remote control on the sofa. Well, here, as they say, who what - choose yourself.
The ribbon came in a bag, wound on a spool, total weight - 45 grams. 
I ordered the length of the tape - 2m. I decided to place it on three sides (except the bottom) of a 46-inch TV. I think this will be enough for normal backlighting.
The ribbon shines quite brightly from the USB connector 
As you can see, the tape consists of a base with LEDs and resistors applied to it. FROM back side - double sided tape. 
There are 120 LEDs on two meters. 
I started by trying on 
I distributed these 120 diodes as follows: top - 60 pieces, right and left - 30 each. 
Since bending the tape normally and beautifully at 90 degrees at the corners of the TV will not work well, I cut it into these same 3 parts. Fortunately, the places where you can cut are indicated (see photo above).
I applied the tape to the selected and previously degreased places. Then, taking precautions, I soldered these parts 
It remains only to connect the structure to the standard USB port TV 
And - this is what I wanted, rear view 
And now - in front 
Well, a little on top, just in case 
As planned - the backlight turns on when you turn on the TV and turns off with it. No unnecessary gestures.
Everything about everything, without haste, took about an hour, including cleaning the workplace and tools.
I "drove" the homemade product a little - the diodes practically did not heat up, you cannot feel it with your finger. There are doubts about the reliability of the complete scotch tape, I don't know how it is? If necessary, I think it will not be difficult to replace it with something stronger (I mean good scotch tape).
Somehow like this. Good luck to all.
And the 6th Lightpack goes on sale. Just the other day, I received the coveted package with the latest revision of the device. In short, Lightpack is backlight monitor or TV. There are 2 types of backlight on sale, this is a monitor version and a TV version. The TV version has a separate power supply and uses 30 strip LEDs instead of 10 separate LEDs. As a result, 3 diodes per channel are obtained, and due to this, the illumination area increases. I put the backlight on a monitor with a diagonal of 24 ". In the future I plan to buy a TV for movies, so I took the TV version with a margin. A computer is required for Lightpack!
The device is sold in a small box, to open it you need to cut a sticker with a description and equipment. 
The whole set is packed in a bubble wrap. The card is in a separate anti-static bag. 
Included:
- Lightpack Master Board 6 V protective glass 70x70x17 mm
- 10 RGB light strip segments (each 10 cm long and contains 3 LEDs)
- Power supply unit from the network 110-240V (cord length 1.8 m)
- USB cable Am / Bm mini 1.8m
- A pair of mounting posts and ties
The new controller has a pleasant appearance... Now it's not just open printed circuit board, and a nice transparent acrylic box. The developers do not call it a body. In fact, this is a protection, curved acrylic, and inside the board is attached to two countersunk bolts. The holes are selected everywhere in such a way that no effort is required on the nuts themselves. They are mostly decorative. Thus, access to all connectors on the board remains: USB, power, diodes and the firmware update button. A very original approach, stylish and functional. 
Mini USB and 12V power. 
New diode connectors are more convenient. Now there is no need to clean and fasten anything. 
To achieve illumination around the entire monitor, I decided to hang it on the wall.
Initially, I wanted to mount the monitor on a thin mount. On the one hand, this is a plus - short distance between the wall and the monitor, but for Lightpack it turned out to be a minus. For smoother light diffusion, the distance between the monitor and the wall should be more than 10-15 cm. I had to install a mount that allows you to change this distance. 
Before fixing everything, we first calculate correct location to accommodate diodes. There are many diode placement options on the site in the documentation section. 
For the test, I fixed the diodes at the top and on the right. On a thin mount, the distance to the wall is minimal, about 3-4 cm. Light is poorly scattered and dark voids are formed between the diodes. 
The diode tape has an adhesive surface. Before gluing, thoroughly clean the surface of the monitor. 
Having calculated everything according to the ruler, I get such a configuration. 
The USB connectors on the side of the monitor messed things up a bit. But this did not affect the result. 
There are simple speakers at the bottom of the monitor. Although the diodes are arranged differently, the illumination is uniform. 
We lay all the wires so that nothing hangs and there is no load on the diodes. There are a lot of wires, the length of each is 70 cm, and in the version for monitors it is 50 cm. This set is designed for large TVs. The 2 ties included in the kit are definitely not enough here. The adhesive base of the diode tape did not adhere very tightly to the monitor, possibly due to the glossy plastic. I had to modify the design a little. 
Via utilities testing the monitor, let's see what happened. 
The result is something like this. Of course, for complete happiness, I would like to remove the cable channel with wires, but I don’t want to groove my wall. 
The controller connected to the computer is detected as a normal HID device. We install the program from the site and start setting up.
When the program starts, 10 colored digital blocks appear. Each block is a capture zone. The program analyzes the picture that falls into this zone several tens of times per second, calculates its average color and sends it to the device, which already makes the corresponding block of three LEDs glow with the desired color. Blocks are capture areas. They can be moved around the screen and resized. The larger the capture area, the higher the CPU load. But for movies, in fact, it is easier to set dimensions in the form of narrow stripes along the edges of the monitor. So zoning 100% of your desktop is almost always useless. For greater effect in films, some areas should be overlapped. 
In fact, everything is very simple. By default, there are acceptable settings and you don't have to dig into them once again. 
The Lightpack has another mode of operation, similar to Philips LivingColors lamps, the backlight will smoothly change colors at an adjustable speed or not change the selected color at all.
In games, the backlight also works, but not in all. In DirectX 9 everything is fine, but in 10 and 11 there are problems. In any case, Lightpack is being finalized full time job: There is already a community of users and developers who are constantly solving problems and adding new features. There is an API for developers, for example there is a plugin for Winamp, which I will show in the video at the end.
The resulting result met my expectations. It's really nice to watch movies with this effect. The immersion is certainly not 3D, but also spectacular. What to say, watch everything on the video.
TVs with dynamic backlighting around the display frame is one of the proprietary chips of Philips. And unlike many others, it works. Everything comes at a price, though, and TVs with Ambilight and immersive presence are more expensive than many others.
Russian developers have proposed a method that will equip monitors of any manufacturer with dynamic backlighting. To do this, you don't even have to take the device to the service center: it will only take a little time and perseverance.
In general, such a backlight can be purchased as radio components and configured on your own. But, as practice shows, this is almost comparable to the ready-made options from PaintPack.
There are two main models available: a monitor version (30 LEDs) and a TV version (60 LEDs). There is also a very simple one - for 10 LEDs, but it is suitable only for the smallest monitors.
The TV version is equipped with an external power supply. Also, a larger number of LEDs speaks in its favor, which gives a larger illumination area (it will shine wider and higher, in other words). If such options are not suitable for any reason, you can contact the developers: for a small surcharge, they will offer a modified version.
mindrunway.ruPaintPack, in fact, is a small case, to which removable LED strips are connected from both sides. The box with the filling carries indicators and a power connector, as well as a microUSB for connecting to a PC. There is also a master connector (proprietary) for daisy chaining two devices.
The device body is located on the back of the TV or monitor. Then LED strips are laid in accordance with the instructions, power is connected and witchcraft begins. When connecting PaintPack to a computer via a USB connector, you need to install drivers and configure the device in the bundled program.
mysku.ru The setting is done using the AmbiBox package. It is necessary to go to the "Intelligent backlight" menu, select a screen capture method and one of the operating modes offered in the program:
- Static background - any color can be set, LED glow is regulated.
- Color music - the backlight will flash in time with the sound of music. The backlight color is set to green-yellow.
- Dynamic background - smooth flow of one color into another.
- Screen capture is the main mode of operation.
In this mode, you can capture color from the movies and games you are watching. The backlight color will change in accordance with the image on the screen, dividing into top, bottom and side zones (each separately).
PaintPack works a little slower than the official Philips counterpart. But taking into account the difference in cost and the possibility of upgrading any device, the choice is obvious.
