Ambilight - worth resurrecting?

Pleiades

Pleiades

Pleiades

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I popped into the local no competitors! yesterday and noticed they had some Phillips TVs with Ambilight.

Just wondered why they're still continuing with the technology when they've given up on the PC monitor side (which I very much enjoyed)?

The Ambi-everything (including rumble strip, fans and whatnot) was of course very gimmicky, but the lighting I thought was very restful in movies and also effective whilst gaming.

Doesn't seem to be anything similar about nowadays... :(
 
Keep your eyes on IFA in September. Philips will have some new Ambilight monitors there. As well as a lot of other stuff including their take on the LG 34UM95.
 
PCM2 said:
Keep your eyes on IFA in September. Philips will have some new Ambilight monitors there. As well as a lot of other stuff including their take on the LG 34UM95.
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Oooh thanks for that I will keep an eye out. Hope they integrate it into an LG 34" panel tho I suspect they won't :(
 
andybird123 said:
For PC you can use any monitor and just get a lightpack
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Wot is this 'lightpack' of which you speak? I know you can make up your own system using bits n bobs but I'd rather have a bespoke model ready to go...

Actually I'm pretty sure I could get my old Ambilight working with Win 8.1 if I could be bothered with it - lots of horrible wiring and VGA (spit) type connectors (I'm sure they could've used USB).... :confused:
 
Philips TVs and Monitors no longer exist. Just the name and Ambilight are licensed to a company in HK that design and market everything. Philips has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Anyway, Ambilight in my view is great.
 
pmc25 said:
Philips TVs and Monitors no longer exist. Just the name and Ambilight are licensed to a company in HK that design and market everything. Philips has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Anyway, Ambilight in my view is great.
Click to expand...

Darn those re-branding exercises. I guess that tells us not to have *any* brand loyalty, which makes sense - it's the product that counts, whether its cars or computers

Found an OCUK thread about Raspberry Pi projects including Ambilight 'clone':

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=25802860
 
In its purest and simplest form when setup correctly with the right background (distance, color, texture, etc.) its brilliant, anything else is just unnecessary gimmicks IMO (though if someone wants to do that thats their business).
 
Pleiades said:
Wot is this 'lightpack' of which you speak? I know you can make up your own system using bits n bobs but I'd rather have a bespoke model ready to go...

Actually I'm pretty sure I could get my old Ambilight working with Win 8.1 if I could be bothered with it - lots of horrible wiring and VGA (spit) type connectors (I'm sure they could've used USB).... :confused:
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When I Google "lightpack" it is the first thing that comes up
 
Monitor back lightning is a whole different ball game, amazing to watch but painful if you forget its turned on and go to plug in a USB... Trust me on this!
 
andybird123 said:
For PC you can use any monitor and just get a lightpack
Click to expand...

Which is rubbish. The software is buggy and taxes CPU cycles and slows DWM down if you leave it in the auto/dynamic mode. Put it in static mode and it's fine though but that defeats the objective of Lightpack and you may as well get a static coloured LED strip for <£10.

On top of that one of my Lightpack strips came DOA, I wanted a refund, they offered a small amount back instead and then spent weeks of emails until I got the money back after returning them at my own cost.

Their return address is also different to the address PayPal have on their DB so when you do send it back to the address they send you the return label for PayPal will say no because that's not what they have on record so your dealing is only direct with Lightpack's reps in HK or wherever they are based.
 
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In all seriousness I have two of the lightpacks, one on 30" computer monitor and one on the tv in the living room.. I moved from a cheap RGB dial a colour type setup..
The software is poor, crashes on restarts and in auto mode is no good for films/gaming... It harms the refresh rate/responsiveness too much, so as above I use it in static mode.... So may as well have stuck with the cheap setup.

If you are feeling fancy but an adafruit fadecandy and some of their LED kits and build your own dial a colour setup, can make it do exactly what you want then.
 
Ive got lightpacks and they work flawlessly for me

Do you gents have AMD cards by any chance, as there is a big message on the lightpack website about them not working due to an AMD driver issue
 
No I was on no idea. Their support response was merely to update the software which I'd already done and firmware before contacting them.
 
andybird123 said:
Ive got lightpacks and they work flawlessly for me

Do you gents have AMD cards by any chance, as there is a big message on the lightpack website about them not working due to an AMD driver issue
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Damn, I have AMD cards. Hopefully they can fix it (though I doubt AMD will spend much effort for such a small market).

Guess I'll have to wait a bit then, don't really want to risk all those hassles previously mentioned.

That's why a monitor with built-in Ambilight would be preferable, without need for drivers and all processing done by ASIC; along with G-sync/Freesync would be awesome. Or, I could be talking crap :D
 
andybird123 said:
Ive got lightpacks and they work flawlessly for me

Do you gents have AMD cards by any chance, as there is a big message on the lightpack website about them not working due to an AMD driver issue
Click to expand...

Study system runs a pair of AMD 290x, living room is a 770GTX... Both have issues.

I backed them very early via kickstarter and they made many assurances about broad hardware compatibility...
 
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