Govee Immersion Wi-Fi TV Backlight Review: A lightshow to go with your TV
Verdict
Considerably cheaper than its rivals, the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi TV Backlight adds a scrap of fun to what you're watching, with the smart LED strip changing colour to match the on-screen action. Its a niggling fiddly to prepare, and the camera command wasn't quite as skillful at matching on-screen colours as the HDMI-based Hue Play HDMI Sync. Yet, the far lower price here makes this a simpler, cheaper upgrade – and it's bully fun.
Pros
- Cracking toll
- Works with all video sources
- Adds a bit of fun to your Tv
Cons
- Fiddly to install
- Doesn't turn off automatically
- Colour changes tin be jarring
Availability
- UK RRP: £71.99
- U.s.a. RRP: $74.99
Key Features
- Idiot box compatibility This light strip is designed for 55-inch to 65-inch TVs
- Light type This LED strip changes colour in multiple segments to match the on-screen action
Introduction
Philips' Ambilight is i of the most enduring Tv set inventions, using coloured lights around the television to make it feel as though the screen is extending across the confines of its frame. If you don't have a Philips TV, but wish to add a similar outcome, the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync box is the obvious upgrade. But if your budget is tight and so the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi TV Backlight delivers something similar, only for a far cheaper price.
Since there's no HDMI box in sight (Govee uses a camera to lookout the screen), the lights volition change colour to lucifer what's on-screen and volition work with any content, from internal apps to external players. It'south a touch on fiddly to prepare, and light changes can be a little behind the pace of the action, but it'southward hard to fault the quality of the lights at this cost.
Design and installation
- You lot tin can attach lights to a Television receiver or wall
- Designed for 55-inch to 65-inch TVs
- Slightly fiddly gear up-up process
Before you even get started, I recommend that you lot download the app and follow the setup instructions within. It'southward important that you follow the exact instructions, step-past-stride, so that you lot become the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi Boob tube Backlight installed correctly.
As with the Hue Slope lightstrip for TVs, the Govee backlight is designed for larger TVs: 55-inch or 65-inch in size. Here, you lot have the pick to stick the strip to the back of the Goggle box, or yous tin stick it to a wall backside if yous prefer.
The light strip is split into iv sections: two longer ones to run horizontally, and two shorter ones that run vertically. This ways that these lights run all around your screen, while the Philips Hue equivalent only go effectually the peak and two vertical sides. Follow the instructions to start at the correct corner and brand a annotation of which way the arrows are pointing. It will take you lot a few minutes to go the strip into identify.
Once the strip is in identify, yous attach the control panel, which tin can also be stuck to the back of your Tv. This provides power to the calorie-free strip, plus manual controls.
This box is too the hub for connecting the camera, which can exist placed at the height or lesser of your Goggle box's screen, in the centre of the brandish.
Once this is out of the way, the app then takes you through calibrating the camera. Since it can be attached to a diverseness of screens, the camera has a super fish-eye lens, which hugely distorts the picture. Your job is to draw a box around the screen so that the camera only takes its colour data from that zone.
To brand life easier, Govee provides a set of orange cream squares that you lot take to stick onto your Television receiver'south screen. This resulted in a moment of slight panic, as I'g ever nervous about touching a TV's screen, let alone sticking things to information technology.
Fortunately, there's very piffling actual adhesive on the foam pads, and they do peel off hands enough at the end. More importantly, they stick out in the image, and then you can find the 4 corners of your TV, drawing the bounding box, with an boosted indicate for the centre of the TV. If y'all get things incorrect and the lights don't react to what's on-screen, and then you can re-run calibration. For this reason, I recommend leaving the orange foam cubes on the display until you're happy with the results.
Features
- Works as a standard light strip
- The light can react to music
- Simple command over Tv content
Once configured, the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi Television Backlight acts much like Govee'southward other lights, including the Lyra Flooring Lamp. Hither, the LED strip has 15 different segments, which you tin set to i color or control individually.
There's a range of cool effects, too, from mimicking candlelight, to lights that spin and move around the light strip. You tin build your own scenes, too, if there's nothing built-in that you like. This kind of control is handy, as the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi Television Backlight becomes an accessory and lite in its own right, non just an addition for your Television set.
With support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, you lot tin control the light, its colour and suit brightness using your voice – but I couldn't become scenes to piece of work.
If you'd rather have manual control, and so you tin use the control box into which that LED strip plugs in. This offers three buttons: on/off, colour select (keep pressing to alter color) and music mode. With the latter, your lights respond to audio, changing colour in time to the beat.
The main style that you're likely to apply the Govee light strip is in Video style. Here, the photographic camera to a higher place the Television samples what it can see on the screen, and so changes the lights to lucifer the colour automatically. You can adjust the brightness of this mode, merely that'due south the only control available.
One area where the rival Philips Hue organisation has an reward is that you can kickoff and terminate the light synchronisation automatically, based on whether or not an input signal is detected. Here, you lot accept to manually turn the lights on and off when you desire to use them.
Performance
- LEDs are bright
- Bright ambient lite can confuse the camera
- LED strip can be behind the activeness
Equally with the other Govee lights that I've reviewed, the light strip hither is first-class. Colour reproduction is spot-on, and the lights are squeamish and bright. When you take multiple colours displayed at the same time, Govee does a good job of blending them together smoothly, avoiding whatsoever hard transitions.
The quality of light transfers to Video mode. With the camera able to selection up what's on-screen, the lights change to match the on-screen activity, no matter what you lot're watching: 4K, HDR, congenital-in apps or anything else.
Just exist careful how much light is hitting the photographic camera. During the day, vivid sunlight tin can impact the camera'southward power to correctly detect what'due south happening, and the light strip may not match what's going on exactly.
Since the actual video signal isn't passed to the organisation, at that place are a couple of points of difference compared to the Philips Hue Play Sync HDMI. Kickoff, the Govee lights can endure some lag when changing color, which is more noticeable when scenes change and the on-screen action moves from one colour palette to the adjacent. It'due south a little jarring when it happens.
Secondly, since the camera is looking at what's on-screen, rather than the raw image, I don't think that the colour matching is as good. With the Hue Gradient light strip, you tend to get colours around the strip that closely match what's happening on-screen – say, brilliant red pinnacle-left and dark greenish bottom-right. With the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi TV Backlight, the lighting detection isn't quite as accurate, and I didn't see as much colour range effectually the strip every bit with the Hue arrangement.
Latest deals
Should you lot buy it?
If you desire to add a fleck of fun to your TV viewing experience, this is a cheap mode of adding interactive lights into the mix.
If you want the closest colour match and fastest low-cal-response times, then the Philips Hue Play HDMI Synch box may be meliorate for y'all.
Terminal thoughts
In terms of colour matching and speed, the Philips Hue organization is ahead, since it reads the picture from the HDMI betoken. I recall the finish result is more natural and blends improve – but in that location are limits to Philips' organisation. The main one is that information technology doesn't piece of work with a Goggle box'southward built-in apps. Plus, in that location's no denying that the Hue option is expensive.
With the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi Idiot box Backlight, you're getting a far cheaper system, 1 that works with anything that tin can exist displayed on your Goggle box's screen. It produces quality light that blends with the on-screen activeness. Given the low price, the occasional jarring filibuster in colour changing or issues with brilliant ambient lighting can be forgiven.
How we test
Dissimilar other sites, nosotros examination every smart calorie-free nosotros review thoroughly over an extended menses of fourth dimension. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We'll always tell yous what we find. Nosotros never, ever, have coin to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ideals policy.
Used as our primary smart light for the review period
We test compatibility with the main smart systems (HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT and more) to see how like shooting fish in a barrel each low-cal is to automate
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FAQs
How practise you calibrate the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi Telly Backlight?
You stick orange cubes to the Tv and and so use the app to draw a bounding box effectually your TV's screen.
What size TVs is the Govee Immersion Wi-Fi Tv set Backlight suitable for?
Due to the length of the strip, you tin can use this on TVs between 55 inches and 65 inches.
Full specs
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Great britain RRP
U.s.a. RRP
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Product Description
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Jargon buster
Google Assistant
A vocalisation assistant which is Google's have on Amazon's Alexa.
Alexa
Amazon's smart voice assistant
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