The ULTIMATE Guide to Building an Ambilight TV with Hyperion

It's finally here! Today we will be going through the ultimate DIY guide for building your own Ambilight TV with Hyperion and a Raspberry Pi with absolutely everything you need to know from start to finish! This is an alternative to the Philips Ambilight range of TV's, or the Philips Hue play HDMI Sync Box using open source software called Hyperion/Hyperbian or HyperHDR which runs on a cheap and low power Raspberry Pi controlling an LED strip such as a WS2812B or SK6812 and gives you ambient or bias lighting for your TV, and the result is amazing!

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Parts Used:
Raspberry Pi Zero W:

Raspberry Pi 3B:

SD Card:

4K Capture Card:

1080P Capture Card:

HDMI Splitter:

LED Strip:

Alternative LED Strip (RGBW)

Power Supply:

Barrel Jack Connectors:

Wiring:

Links:

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Written Article:

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#homeassistant #smarthome
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0:00 - Intro
1:57 - Hardware selection and choices
10:42 - Software choices
12:50 - Preparing the Pi OS
15:37 - Installing Hyperion/HyperHDR
16:37 - Installing the hardware to the TV
22:22 - Configuring Hyperion/HyperHDR
28:33 - The final result!

[pangit]

I installed an early Hyperion version years ago, that's still working today. It's so much simpler and more user friendly than it used to be, I might upgrade it

[elidavidson]

This is the first video I watched from this channel, and im subscribing simply because of how deep the explanations go. Not only do I now know what to do, I fully understand what it is I am doing, what choices to make, and why. This is the caliber of tutorial my neardy self loves to rave about.

[bartverwijst]

Great video! I do want to mention that if you want to use HDR content you have to tick the HDR to SDR Tone Mapping box, this corrects the washed out image you get when using HDR10 content. I'm using a PS5/Series X and Apple TV all with HDR on and only when I tick the box I get the right colors. Without it the LEDs are washed out. Another thing to keep into mind when using HDR content is to use smoothing. Took me some time, but with the hardware you recommend I finally have everything set up brilliantly on my OLED TV.

[acanbakir]

I've been interesting in ambilight for a long time. I decided to do it by myself and this video helped me so much. I just ordered the materials which i needed for now. Thank you so much for this revealing video from Turkey bro <3

[locomax]

Excellent video, I followed some of your advice, in my case I do not use a USB capture device because I have the LG TV with root, I transmit the content through PicCap directly to the Hyperion, this helps me since I have less hardware to connect and I do not have content restrictions or hdmi inputs.
Thank you very much for generating this content!

[PoisonWaffle]

Thanks for the awesome guide! This is definitely on my list of projects to do in the new house that were building. We need to upgrade from 55" 4k to a 65" 4k TV after were moved in, so I can't do this quite yet. I didn't see in any other guides that Hyperion integrates with HA, so I was pretty excited to see that!

Also, I wanted to mention that every time you said HDMI splitter, you were referring to an HDMI switch. A splitter will split one input to multiple outputs. A switch will let you switch between multiple inputs for one output. Its a pretty common thing to mix up (just read the Amazon reviews from people who ordered the wrong thing), just thought I'd let you know 👍

Keep the great content coming! Thanks!

[Ellington_Industrial_Arts]

I think it's worth mentioning here, that you got lucky that this worked, connected directly to the RPi GPIO pin. The LED strip is expecting a 5V PWM data signal...and the RPi only provides 3.3V. Trying this setup with SK6812 RGBW LEDs... doesn't work, and apparently requires a high speed voltage converter, between the GPIO pin, and the LED strip data connection, to step up the voltage. I have yet to make mine function...but I'm exploring the voltage converter IC solution, soon.

[LuisPerez-stbt]

I followed your tutorial yeeears ago and it saved my life.
Sadly I tried to update the HyperHDR Version to the latest and now my lights wont work at all.
Apparenly I need and ESP32 but I'm not finding any tutorials that explain well how the the connection is supposed to go.
Please make an updated version of this toturial so people don't have to struggle since you explain everything so well!

Help I just want to enjoy everything as I used to thanks to my lights :(

[dewie-der-katzenbock]

If your LED strips don't light up as mine did, check your control signal (green cable). Using WS2812 strips (don't know about other standards), the signal is *one-way*! Unlike 5V and Ground, it is important on which side you connect it to your RPi. I assume the direction is indicated on the strip itself by arrows for most products. If not, don't hesitate to try out, you can't damage it by doing so.

[joshward]

A project that I would like to try myself!

However, we watch streaming platforms natively on the TV apps, so I assume this wouldn't get captured by the HDMI capture box :(.
So I would have to invest in a Roku 4K box or something, which have stumbling blocks of their own:
- It would take up the final HDMI socket on my AV receiver (I don't like the thought of losing expansion capabilities, basically just for bias lighting)
- An extra £40+
- No ethernet (stop congesting my WiFi!)

[Ashleyhandz]

I've just completed this project, after some tweaking in the settings I managed to get it to work. The one thing that I now need to sort out is a power supply issue, on the hyperhdr ui in the performance tab it states Undervoltage detected: YES, should I buy a seperate power supply for the Pi and connect the ground cables between power supplies?
or do I just need a micro usb cable with thicker cables. I have everything wired up the same as in the video, thanks

[joshuadavis]

I was having hell with setting this up! Finally opted to power pi zero w from its own power supply and jumped the grounds together between power supplies and now it works perfectly with both Home Assistant integration and the usb capture card.

[PhilippinesScam]

you can also look for video out on your TV or reciever, if you have a 2nd hdmi out you can use that to power this.

[NunoLeal]

Perfect. I quited trying something like this a long ago but now I’m interested again. Clearly explained!

[rob]

Another awesome video Lewis - clear and easy to follow as usual 👍🏻

[IzeIzeBaby]

i finally got around to changing my analog setup (hdmi to av -> av -> usb capture -> pi) to your suggested hdmi capture card and my ambilight FINALLY works after literally months of struggling with my old setup.
color calibration took me a while to make it look how i wanted it to but now it's looking awesome :D

[dakotabennett]

I've followed everything in this tutorial, and wired the LED strip the same way as instructed. The LED strip I purchased will not turn on. The Raspberry Pi turns on but the strip does not. I'm using the SK6812 strip. What am I doing incorrectly?

[kieran.thejasperhouse]

My Hyperion is now setup and working with an 100 inch screen. The 24v system is working perfect.

[richardwooley]

Thanks for answering my comment on your other Hyperion video. I finally got it set up and absolutely love it.

[TLuyten]

Thank you for the instructions. Was able to get this one working. I did have flickering of the LED strip. Managed to get rid of it by adding an extra ground wire from the pi to the power supply.