If you need extra out of your TV bias lights than a delicate glow that enhances distinction and eases eye pressure, this responsive LED gentle strip from Govee is price a strive. A comparatively cheap strategy to make your TV extra immersive, Govee’s DreamColor for TV bias lighting equipment comes geared up with a digicam that scans your display, which permits the LED strip to sync—to at least one diploma or one other—with the photographs in your TV. Lag is a matter, nevertheless, and the quantity of precision and drama you truly get from Govee’s lighting results varies relying on what you’re watching, in addition to the configuration of your set.
This assessment is a part of our ongoing protection of bias lighting for TVs and laptop screens. For extra info on this matter, and hyperlinks to critiques of competing merchandise, have a look at this in-depth story.
Installation and setup
The Govee lighting strip arrives on a reel like many different bias lighting strips we’ve seen, however this one is slightly completely different: Instead of a single lengthy strip, the Govee is available in three segments joined by a pair of brief coiled cords. Once you’ve peeled off a plastic movie to disclose the adhesive backing, you stick the primary a part of the strip alongside the appropriate rear fringe of your TV, then safe the second half alongside the highest fringe of your set, after which the third section down the left edge.
Govee’s DreamColor for TV bias lighting equipment features a three-segment LED gentle strip, a digicam that mounts to the highest of your TV, and a management field that sits in again.
Because the strip is available in three related items, you possibly can’t merely reduce it to suit your TV like different bias lighting strips we’ve tried. If you employ the Govee on a TV that’s smaller than 55 inches (as I found to my chagrin after I put in it on my 46-inch Sony Bravia TV), you would possibly discover that the primary two segments are too lengthy, and reducing them will disconnect the opposite sections. I used to be capable of tuck the surplus lighting across the curved corners of my set, however I’d advocate you solely set up the strip on a TV that’s the beneficial 55- to 80 inches (measured diagonally).
Next comes the compact Govee digicam, which you’re supposed to stay on high of your TV close to the center, with the digicam lens parallel to the ground. Positioned this manner, the digicam will get sufficient of a take a look at your TV display to gauge the photographs and colours within the image.
Finally, you’ll want to stay the Govee management field (which is roughly the scale of a deck of playing cards) onto the again of your TV, after which join the lighting strip and the digicam through a pair of USB Type-A ports, whereas an AC adapter plugs right into a barrel-shaped energy port.
Now comes the software program, which comes within the type of the Govee Home app for iOS and Android. Once you put in the app and fireplace it up, it’ll immediate you to create a Govee account (which you’ll solely do throughout the app, not on a desktop browser), after which to find new Govee gadgets through Bluetooth. The app rapidly discovered and paired with my Govee lighting strip.
Connecting the Govee to my Wi-Fi community proved to be a bit extra tough. As with too many different good gadgets, the Govee solely connects to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, and it refused to hook up with my dual-band community. I needed to tweak my community settings to create a 2.4GHz-only community, then faucet within the SSID manually into the Govee’s Wi-Fi settings display. (The app robotically fills within the title of the community that your cellular gadget is related to, nevertheless it received’t scan for different accessible networks.)
After you’ve got the Govee related to Wi-Fi, you possibly can combine it with Amazon Alexa or Google Home, which lets you management the lights through voice instructions (e.g., “Alexa, turn Govee light strip off.”)
Last however not least, you’ll must calibrate the digicam’s lens to make sure it’s precisely monitoring your TV’s display. Once on the calibration settings, you’ll see a nonetheless picture of what the Govee’s digicam sees, and you’ll assist focus the digicam’s gaze by dragging a sequence of 5 factors to the 4 corners and the highest of the display.
Ben Patterson/IDGYou can calibrate the Govee’s digicam by dragging 5 factors to the 4 corners and high of your TV display.
It’s price noting that the Govee strip doesn’t include a bodily distant management; as an alternative, it’s essential to management it utilizing the Govee Home app.
Usage
Once you’ve got the Govee’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections found out, you can begin taking part in with its lighting modes. At essentially the most primary degree, you possibly can swap between eight coloration presets, or use a pair of sliders to fine-tune a coloration.
The Govee additionally gives eight lighting scenes, from Sunrise and Sunset to Candlelight and Snow Flake. Sunrise, for instance, slowly (and repeatedly) fades in a heat glow, whereas Snowflake has extra of a cool, pulsating look. You can even create customized lighting scenes with your personal colours and results.
Next up is a Music mode that makes use of a built-in microphone to sync the lights with no matter music (or any noise in any respect, truly) is inside earshot. Four Music settings (Energetic, Rhythm, Spectrum, and Rolling) dial up quite a lot of pulsating results, and the outcomes are eye popping and attention-grabbing.
Finally, we get to the primary course: video syncing, which you’ll allow by tapping the Video button within the Govee Home interface. Once you faucet the button (and assuming you’ve calibrated the Govee’s digicam accurately), the Govee lights ought to start syncing with the motion in your TV display.
Performance
With all our set up and setup accomplished, how does Govee’s bias lighting look as soon as it’s syncing together with your TV? Well, it relies upon.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe Govee’s syncing results labored greatest with motion pictures like Avatar, which characteristic large, daring colours.
I acquired the most effective outcomes when watching full-screen (or 1.85:1 facet ratio) motion pictures and exhibits, which give the Govee’s digicam essentially the most image to scan. The Govee additionally loves vivid, daring colours. I discovered that the Govee labored notably effectively with James Cameron’s Avatar (which is introduced in a full-frame 1:1.85 facet ratio on residence video), with the purple Tree of Souls and the large Navee assault close to the tip of the movie yielding large, multi-color splashes of coloration on the wall. That stated, there was slightly lag because the Govee struggled to maintain up with the motion on the display, and the lights sometimes made some odd coloration selections earlier than righting themselves.
Ben Patterson/IDGGovee had a more durable time with motion pictures like Alien, which have a extra drab coloration palate. When doubtful, the Govee lighting strip tends towards blue and purple hues.
For motion pictures and exhibits with drab colours, nevertheless, the Govee’s lighting results grow to be way more subdued. As the doomed astronauts explored the derelict ship in Alien, the Govee gentle strip tended to park at a bluish-purple hue, though the lights would kick up once more throughout close-ups of fluctuating CRT shows. The identical factor occurred as Ron Howard and mates cruised of their vehicles in American Graffiti; extra purples and blues. Even the black-and-white Psycho acquired the blue therapy, an impact Hitch most likely wouldn’t approve of.
To be truthful, my explicit TV may very well be partially in charge. Not solely is its 46-inch display smaller than the beneficial 55-inch minimal, it additionally has giant bezels that depart the Govee’s digicam lens an excellent 4 inches above the precise picture, or nearer to seven inches away within the case of widescreen (2.35:1 or better) motion pictures which were letterboxed.
In any occasion, the Govee’s digicam is kind of delicate to your explicit TV setup, which implies your mileage will range by way of its syncing efficiency.
Beyond its TV syncing skills, the Govee bias lighting equipment additionally helps alleviate eye pressure by boosting the general ambient gentle within the room with out casting gentle straight on the display. The lights additionally enhance your TV’s obvious distinction, however the vivid pulsing colours may even have the impact of distorting the precise colours within the image, whereas additionally robbing element from darker areas of the display.
Bottom line
The Govee DreamColor for TV with Alexa is likely one of the least-expensive bias lighting kits we’ve seen that’s able to syncing together with your display, however its efficiency diverse wildly relying on what we have been watching. If you determine to offer the Govee a strive, hold your expectations in test.