[Pillo]

I would like to buy something like a lightbar for better visual comfort. I was wondering if a bias light, maybe just simple LED strips, would be enough to mitigate visual fatigue in the evening, or if a lightbar is really necessary. The Benq in the ‘Halo’ version (apart from the resemblance to one of my favorite games :D) has both.
But above all, i have doubts that the lamp directed at the monitor (not just the backlight) could excessively “condition” the brightness of the display or the calibration i obtained, for instance, in sRGB mode.

Mod edit: Two threads merged together and the dates got a bit messed up, reply to this specific post here.

[sblantipodi]

Hi all,

Luciferin is ambilight clone, really simple to setup if you are a bit into DIY or into the Arduino world.

This is the final effect.

and this is the web page where you can get more infos if you are interested.

https://github.com/sblantipodi/firefly_luciferin

I think that a solution like this widely improves the experience while gaming or watching movies and it really helps with eye strain.

I hope you’ll like it.

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing details of your lighting project. That is impressively reactive and saturated in its output and I’d say that puts any ambient lighting solution I’ve seen on a monitor to shame. The most impressive lighting I’ve seen integrated into monitors is Philips ‘Amiglow’, found on some of their recent Evnia models (example) and a few of their older gaming monitors. It’s like a cut down version of the ‘Ambilight’ solution they have on some TVs and which you’re familiar with. I found ‘Ambiglow’ works well with the lighting in a static mode, acting as a bias light.

But thinking about the ‘Ambiglow’ solution, the number of LEDs and their saturation levels meant they had much less of a ‘wow’ factor when reacting to on-screen content. Your system looks to offer a much more engaging and dynamic experience – and the level of customisation I can see in you software looks great. On a personal level I certainly enjoy using systems like this in the night for viewing comfort reasons, so I like that you’ve built the system with time-specific ‘eye care’ settings in mind.

[sblantipodi]

I always loved the ambilight effect but I always felt that it was lacking “some options” and so Luciferin.

In the video I’m using a new feature called smoothing that increases the latency in favour or a more “fluid” image.

The smoothing feature is used to smooth the transitions from one color to another, this is particularly useful to reduce eye strain with contents that produces fast flashing like fast peaced games or similar.

There are six level of smoothing,
higher levels will increase the smoothing effect but LEDs will be less responsive to quick changes.

This is how it look behind the monitor xD

[PCM2]

I usually find the dynamic modes for monitor lighting to be more of an annoyance than anything, due to the frequent rapid changes and flashing. And it not really adding enough to the experience in my view, aside from a flashing and lightly saturated colour. So it’s a great idea being able to ‘smooth’ that out so it’s (in my view) less obnoxious. And yeah, that’s a lot of lighting behind the monitor – I’d love to see what your house looks like at Christmas! 😀

[sblantipodi]

On Christmas I have very few lights xD

[PCM2]

Hi Pillo,

I can’t speak from personal experience about the effectiveness of BenQ’s ScreenBar or a similar light bar solution as an aid to viewing comfort, but it does seem to be generally well-received in that regard. Although I do have experience with bias lighting behind the monitor, which the ScreenBar Halo achieves, and find that as long as the solution is reasonably bright (doesn’t have to be super bright) it does the trick for me to reduce visual fatigue in the evenings or in dimmer lighting. And it also aids perceived contrast, which is a nice bonus. It doesn’t turn an LCD into an OLED, not even close – but it still helps. I’m a particular fan of the Philips Hue range of light strips (and their Hue Play Smart Light Bar either mounted to a monitor or standing beside it). And I really like Philips Ambiglow as a solution integrated into some monitors – refer to my earlier posts. You’d think I was sponsored by Philips to say that, but I’m not – I just like their lighting solutions. 😉

Even without striking the screen directly, light will affect our perception of colour. This will include ambient lighting in the room or any lighting behind the monitor. If you’re very serious about colour accuracy you will account for this and specifically calibrate the colour temperature of the monitor based on your lighting environment. Direct light striking the screen directly can have unpredictable effects due to glare or reflections affecting the screen in an uneven fashion. But the screen bar is not angled in a way that will strike the screen directly, so it shouldn’t adversely affect your perception of the screen or interfere with it in a way that ambient lighting wouldn’t anyway.

[Pillo]

Yes! Also in Philips TV, the Ambilight variant has always been excellent, as for all philips lamp. Thanks for sharing your experience, after reading your answer i think i’m going just with backlight strips or bars

[Pillo]

about the Hue Play Smart Light Bar, on my 27 inches two bars would be needed or just one could be enough?
Maybe only one attached to the center-back of the monitor, or resting down on the desk (thanks to the possibility of slightly tilting it upwards). The wall is around 15 cm away

[PCM2]

If you’re mounting it to the monitor then one mounted horizontally towards the top of the screen should be sufficient. And if it’s free-standing then one will still work well, though you may find you prefer two (one at either end) for extra brightness. The nice thing about the Smart Light Bars is that it’s easy to add more to your setup later if you wish, you can plug up to three into the same power adaptor. I know you get a discount by buying a set of two, though.

[Pillo]

great! Then I’m going to start with only one. Thanks

[Author]

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