And just as with HDMI, copy protection schemes can gum up the works when it comes to syncing bias lights with video on your computer.Ī third method of syncing your TV picture with bias lights is by using a camera to scan the screen. Syncing bias lighting via your computer can be as precise as it is over HDMI, but mirroring video on your desktop or laptop computer can be a cumbersome process. If it has just one HDMI input, you’ll need to choose whether to use it with your Ultra HD Blu-ray player, your media streamer, your gaming console, or your set-top box for example.Īnother method of syncing bias lights with your TV is to use your computer as a go-between, with the lights syncing with video on your PC or Mac that is then mirrored on your TV. It’s one of the more precise ways to sync bias lights with your TV picture, but it can also lead to compatibility issues with HDCP-protected video, and you might be limited by number of HDMI inputs your bias lights provide. Some of them connect via HDMI, essentially sitting between a video source and your TV. If you’re looking for an effect that makes your TV screen look like it’s extending onto the wall, consider a so-called “responsive” bias lighting system.īias lights that sync with your TV do so in a variety of ways. Some bias lights can sync with your display When shopping for a bias light, be sure to pick one that says it has a 6500K color temperature mode it’s the easiest way to help ensure that your bias light doesn’t throw off the colors on your screen. By using the 6500K standard, videographers and filmmakers can be reasonably sure that (for example) the particular hue of a yellow car in a scene looks the same shade of yellow on your TV as it does in their cameras and monitors. Why 6500K? Because that’s the color temperature that the video industry uses as their standard for what “white” looks like. If your bias light is too warm (think red), you’ll make the picture on your screen look cooler (more blue) than it should, and vice versa.Īsk any professional TV calibrator, and they’ll tell you that bias lights for TVs should be tuned to a color temperature of about 6500K (or, to be more precise, to the D65 color point), which can be roughly described as the color of daylight on a hazy day. But if your bias lights are red, yellow, blue, green, or some other color besides a precise shade of white, that’s exactly what you’re doing. If you care about seeing the same image on your screen that the creators of your favorite movies and TV shows intended, the last thing you want to do is distort the colors on the screen. 6500K is the magic (Kelvin) numberīrightness is only one factor when it comes to bias lighting color is another, and it’s crucial. And if you’re a PC gamer looking for some extra immersion, look for a bias lighting system that can sync with a desktop system. If you spend all day looking at a computer monitor, a bias light can do wonders for your eyes, particularly if you’re working in a dark office. The TV screen in your living room isn’t the only display that can benefit from bias lighting. In the parlance of videophiles, this loss of detail in darker areas is called “black crush.”īias lights are great for computer monitors The problem with watching TV in a lit room is that the ambient light tends to rob dark areas in the picture of detail you’d probably see in a dimly lit or completely dark room. The same principle works when it comes to the colors on a TV screen: In a brightly lit room, the dark areas in a TV’s picture will appear darker than they do in a pitch-black room. In a nutshell, if you take the a single shade of gray, your eyes will see it as darker on a lighter background, and lighter on a dark background. Once you’ve set your bias lights to the correct brightness, they can improve the contrast on your TV screen more precisely, they can boost the perceived contrast on your TV.Ĭheck out this fascinating article on How-To Geek for the nitty-gritty on how this illusion works. How bias lighting boosts your TV’s contrast Needless to say, there are many schools of thought about which kind of bias lighting for TVs is the best. Other bias lights cast more of a static light, sometimes only white but often with color. The fancier bias lighting systems can sync with the picture on your screen, which makes it look like the colors on your TV are bleeding onto the wall. Besides their form factors, some bias lights function differently than others to achieve different effects.
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