Whether you’re souping up your home cinema system or you’re a gamer looking to get your setup just right, getting some backlights for your screen can make a huge difference. Not only does a backlight make your screen pop, but if you’ve got smart lights that reflect what’s being shown on-screen, you can get a whole new level of immersion. Beyond the practical elements, they look great too!
Right now you can get in on the action with the 3.6-metre Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite for £67.49 down from £89.99. Different options are available to cover different screen sizes. The 3.6m option is best for screens of 55 to 65 inches, while the 2.4m one for £52.49 is best for 40 to 50-inch screens. For the biggest panels, the 5m option for £82.99 will cover 75 to 85-inches.
It works via a built-in processor and a camera that keeps track of what’s on-screen, changing the backlight’s colour dynamically to match it. Govee has upgraded its lights to include fish-eye correction for greater colour accuracy, too.
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The backlight syncs up with smart home systems as well, with a companion app for easy control from your smartphone. It works with Google Assistant and Alexa for voice commands as well. For best results, Govee recommends having your screen somewhere between 10 and 20cm from the wall.
Elsewhere on the market, there’s also the ValueLights Smart Colour TV Backlight for £45.04 at Debenhams, as well as the Twinkly Line Smart LED Light Strip for £44.97 at Currys to consider.
Amazon customers have been chuffed with theirs, awarding an average of 4.2 out of 5 stars from almost 1,000 ratings. “This is amazing, works really well once set up,” said one five-star review. “You might have to do a little tweaking in the app but it’s very easy to understand and simple. It makes my setup look a lot better, and I’m overall really pleased with the product.”
“Colour is brilliant, matches the screen perfectly when calibrated,” said another happy customer. “Extremely vibrant and easy to setup. Ready to go from box to viewing in 30 minutes. Makes movie night all the more special!”
Another added: “Overall, I’m very happy. It gives a decent glow and reacts well to a camera-based system, particularly given I’m using it on a curved TV. If you want lightning-fast, accurate reactions, then you’ll be better served by getting an HDMI-based system. It does sometimes give off strange colours that don’t entirely match what’s on the screen, but given what it costs, it does quite well.”
Some feel the camera lets down the overall performance, however. “Why they used a cheap camera that basically doesn’t have a good colour reproduction is anyone’s guess,” said a three-star review. “Sometimes the LEDs will stay on when the screen goes black in certain areas and then fix itself the next time there is a colour change. They need a better camera and a software fix that would allow individual LEDs to be controlled I stead of groups of three. It would make the effects better.”
“I was initially excited to install this backlight. However, it just didn’t perform well,” said another. “It struggled to colour-match the image on the TV. It was particularly poor with yellow and orange. I tried adjusting the colour balance and saturation multiple times but to no avail. A real shame as the concept could be great. Ultimately, I have had to return it.”