I slapped this $30 LED strip on the again of my TV. My eyes thank me every day

You understand these colour LED mild strips that sync with the photographs in your TV display? I’m not a fan. They’re eye-catching, certain, however they’re additionally distracting (particularly once they’re not working correctly, which occurs often), they mess with the perceived image colour, they usually’re costly. 

There’s a much better and cheaper technique to enhance the image in your TV, and as a bonus, you’ll be easing the attention pressure that comes from watching a vivid picture in a darkish room. This product—the Scenic Labs LX1 Bias Lighting strip—is one I’ve been utilizing for years, and I swear by it. 

Sure, it’s nonetheless a light-weight strip, however as an alternative of the flamboyant color-syncing selection, it’s a white-light LED strip that’s tuned to 6500 Kelvin, the identical daylight colour temperature used as a reference by TV calibrators, video professionals, and filmmakers.  

As an alternative of placing on a stunning mild present, this “bias” mild strip shines dimly however steadily, at a brightness that’s roughly 10 to fifteen p.c of the utmost brightness of your TV display. With the brightness set good, you’ll barely discover the sunshine in any respect throughout, say, a Netflix binge-watching session. However the faint glow of the LED strip is there, and it does just a few key issues.  

First, as a result of it’s tuned to 6500K (assuming you decide a light-weight strip that’s been correctly temperature tuned), the colours in your display will look extra pure. For video execs, 6500K is taken into account the usual for “white,” they usually use it when color-grading their creations. So with a faint 6500K glow behind your TV, the colours in your display have a greater probability of showing the way in which the filmmakers supposed. Conversely, the garish colour reveals served up by picture-syncing LED mild strips will distort your notion of the image. 

Second, a correctly tuned 6500K mild strip can do wonders for the perceived distinction of your TV photos, particularly for those who personal a non-OLED TV. The pale halo from the strip will make darkish or grey areas on the display seem darker than they might in a pitch-black room (you possibly can learn extra about this impact right here), providing you with a quasi HDR-type enhance. The impact received’t be as dramatic on an OLED TV, which already has terrific distinction ratios. However on an older LCD TV, a LED mild strip might present an immediate and cheap distinction improve. 

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Lastly, a white-light LED mild strip can scale back the attention pressure that comes with watching a vivid picture in a darkish room for prolonged intervals. By boosting the sunshine within the room only a tad, the faint LED glow eases the distinction between your total darkish environment and the intense display, thus giving your pupils a break and avoiding eye pressure signs like soreness, watery eyes, blurred imaginative and prescient, and complications. 

The Scenic Labs LX1 Bias Lighting strip (which, in addition to being my private alternative, can also be a TechHive’s Editors’ Selection) could be ordered instantly from the corporate at costs starting from $26.95 (for a one-meter strip) to $51.95 (for six meters). That’s just a little pricier than the LED lights strips you’ll discover on Amazon, however this mannequin is understood for its colour accuracy, and it’s been serving me properly for 3 years with none hiccups. 

That stated, there are cheaper choices out there on Amazon, together with this 6500K mild strip from Govee for about $30 (16.4 ft).  

Both manner, I extremely advocate an LED bias mild strip for any TV proprietor—and by the way in which, they work nice with PC displays, too (I’ve a pair in my workplace).