Light up your TV setup with the Govee backlight kit, now 36% off
A few months ago, I was looking for a way to update my living room without completely replacing my TV — something I’m probably hoping to do around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. What I found instead was Govee’s TV Backlight Kit, which uses a small, mountable camera to read the colors on your TV and make the lights extend beyond the screen itself. It’s an added bit of luxury ambiance that I love, and now through September 7, you can get a full set Govee Dreamview TV Backlight and Light Bar Set at Best Buy for just $89.99 (was $139.99). That’s less than I paid for my own setup, and I’m very happy with it.
For those new to TV backlighting, here’s how it works: A small camera is placed on top of your TV, which you can calibrate via the Govee app to ensure that it can properly see the quadrants of your TV set from a comfortably narrow viewing angle. That image syncs up with strips of backlighting that are attached via adhesive on or near the back of your TV, as well as two light bars that can be positioned nearby. From there, you can set the lights to match what’s on screen and “expand” adjacent colors. In an ideal world, the image would look like it does here (from The Verge excellent review from a similar 2021 Govee backlight kit):
I’ll admit that my own personal setup here has never looked better: the colors don’t always line up very nicely, and when watching particularly dark scenes, my docked Nintendo Switch would sometimes be picked up by the camera via the reflection of the screen, which in turn can make the bottom row of backlights turn the same color as my Joy-Cons. I see this as more of a fun feature than a bug, but it’s worth pointing out.
But despite the minor quirks and imperfections in my own experience, there’s a delightful set-it-and-forget-it quality to having something that makes the image appear larger than it actually is, or at least makes it pop off the wall more. Yes, it’s a bit of a gimmick, but it’s also a gimmick that has made my 55-inch TV appear a lot bigger than it actually is (my colleague Cameron Faulkner feels the same way). And for under $90, it’s an easy upgrade, one I suspect I’ll stick with no matter which TV I buy next.