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This blog contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on these links and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the site and allows us to continue providing helpful content. Thank you for your support!
Visited a friend recently and been wowed by how their new entertainment setup lit up their living room? The colours, the brightness was so strong and vivid that you really felt like you were inside the show you were watching with them. When you ask them “how?”, they’ll have probably said that they installed backlighting onto their smart TV recently which really brings the room to life when they’re watching their favourite series, leaving you pining to find a way to do it yourself. Thankfully, we here at Systems Insights are here to help by providing a handy guide on what backlighting really is and the various ways to implement it and bring your viewing experience to a new level of immersion.
What is backlighting?
Backlighting systems help to expand your experience by lighting up your room with whatever you’re watching. By adding LED lights behind your TV which sync up with the action occurring on your screen, you and the whole room are lit up to become part of the experience. Evidence shows that backlighting increases your level of immersion when watching films, showing the power of this technology in bringing whatever you’re watching to life! Backlighting can be done in various ways, which we’ll dive into with the rest of this blog.
Can I use my current Smart TV?
Yes! There’s no need to worry about having to buy a whole new TV just for backlighting as there’s several addons that can do this for you. Here’s some of the easiest ways to do so:
Sync Box
One option that might suit you is a sync box which connects to your TV. While these are on the pricey side, it’s one of the easiest ways to set up and sync backlighting by just plugging it in through a HDMI cable to your entertainment system of choice. This makes the sync between the light and the action instant as it uses AI to extract colour data to match and sync up lighting to the action in real time. This way, there’s no irritating lag or delay which will distract you from whatever you’re watching. For this, we recommend Fancyleds’ Fancy Sync Box as one of the most popular and trustworthy options in this market. With RGBW LEDs, the colours will be bright and perfect to draw you right into the world of your favourite show.
Camera Systems
Instead, a camera system for backlighting might be a better option for you. These can be a bit cheaper than sync boxes depending on the size of your screen and also easier to set up without taking up precious HDMI slots that you may already be using. These systems, unsurprisingly, use a camera that overlooks your screen in order to scan and sync with what’s happening on your TV in real time. Don’t worry though, it won’t block your screen at all as seen below!
We personally recommend the Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite, as it’s one of the most trustworthy products available with a ranking of 4.3 stars out of 5 on over 1,500 Amazon reviews. All you need to do is set up the camera above your screen, attach the lights where you want either on the back or side of your smart TV, plug it in and then connect to the Govee app on your phone. Using the app, you can also connect and sync up other Govee lights around your home to control everything at once wherever you are. With Amazon Alexa capabilities as well, it becomes even easier to control and customise the viewing experience to your own needs without even needing to leave your seat!
What smart TVs can I buy with backlighting installed?
If you don’t want the hassle of having to set up one of those options or are maybe just looking to upgrade your smart TV anyway, there are some options currently on the market with backlighting installed and ready to go out of the box. That’s right, there’s no need to go digging around in the dust behind your current TV to get tangled in wires trying to put up light strips, these smart TVs are ready to go once plugged in!
Phillips currently offer the only smart TVs with built-in backlights with their Ambilight TV series. These TVs use LEDs built into the back to sync up with the action in real time. With these TVs already having 4K capabilities using the Philips Pixel Precise Ultra HD engine and Dolby Atmos to give you surround sound, we recommend this as your number one option for a Smart TV with backlighting already installed due to its quality. It even becomes easier to control and customise the lighting of your experience with Ambilight functionality installed into the remote, making it a click of a button to light up the room! We recommend the Philips Ambilight 55PUS8109 4K LED Smart TV as the top of the line in the Ambilight series.
Conclusion
So, what are you waiting for? Backlighting will help to draw you in just that little bit more to whatever you’re watching by going beyond the TV and lighting up your room with the action. There’s multiple ways of setting it up with your current smart TV, such as a sync box or camera system, or if you’re willing to splash the cash then the Phillips Ambilight TV series will give you a top of the range TV without the hassle of having to setup lights or plug in cables yourself. So, check out some of our recommendations and take your viewing experience to a new level of immersion with backlighting!