I just found out about Lightberry yesterday and got excited to update my setup a little bit.
What I want to do is get ambient light behind my TV for all my current devices, without adding another RPI2 just for controlling the Lightberry LED strip. My current RPI is running OSMC.
Lightberry website isn’t too good, lots of mixed terminology especially when it comes to product line and I just couldn’t figure out some details I need to know.
Here’s a picture of my setup, and how I think Lightberry could be set up with it: http://imgur.com/a/UAOoe
The question is, can I use my current RPI2, which I’m using as a media player to play local content via local network sharing from my computer?
The Lightberry 4K or HD Kit only has one HDMI-out, so I figure that is connected to my TV’s HDMI input, but how the hell do I feed my RPI2 the video feed, it has no HDMI in, so correct me if I’m wrong, I’m supposed to run USB-cable from the Lightberry’s 4K/HD kit to my RPI2 and RPI2 analyzes that signal and controls the LED strip via GPIO?
I’m also planning to upgrade my tv with lightberry. I’ve looked into this a bit and for now I will use my old rpi that is lying around unused. Later I will try to integrate lighberry to vero2, if possible. Hardware setup is easy. Software part bothers me…But for Raspberry Pi there are prebuild images that are already configurated to work with lightberry setup. Even a osmc image for RPi2.
First thing: Check if your AV Receiver has 2 HDMI outs. If thats the case let one go to your tv, second goes to a hdmi2av converter like this one:
And from this converter you go to the usb video grabber which connects to a free usb port on your rpi.
If there’s no second hdmi out: With the Hdmi premium kit converter the usb grabber is obsolete. Look at the pictures of the lighberry converter. There is a mini usb port. From this port you directly get you AV signal and go to your rpi.
Conclusion: If your av receiver has 2 hdmi outs you already have your hdmi splitter in the avr and need a hdmi2av converter and a usb video grabber. (waaaay cheaper)
If not you either could get yourself hdmi splitter, hdmi2av converter and usb video grabber or you buy the lightberry hdmi premium kit. (I think the 3 single devices are also cheaper than the hdmi premium kit but of course it’s messier, more cables and stuff takes more space. I’ll trow all the stuff in a drawer and close it so I don’t care about that. )
Edit: Consider buying the led set with option usb converter not gpio… maybe your future devices you want to use for ambilight don’t have a gpio port…Obviosly in this case you need one more free Usb port on your rpi2: One “usb in” to get the av signal second one “usb out” to send the info to the led converter and ultimately to the led stripe.
Thanks for your reply trohn_javolta, I’m starting to get the hang of it all! I wonder if I’m the only one having difficulties to understand all the hardware quirks of this. I’ll probably be fine with the drivers and software part when it comes to that…
I’ve got Onkyo NR636 AV Receiver, which does have two HDMI outputs, but I’m not sure how it actually works. Quick googling tells me it should simultaneously output the same source to both outputs, so that’s good! I’m gonna try it out tonight if it works.
Here’s the datasheet for the receiver (I’ll just leave the link here if someone’s too nice to help me out :)) Onkyo - Sound Acoustics
So what I need is:
Lightberry HD USB model
HDMI2AV converter
USB Video grabber
Some RCA cable to connect HDMI2AV → USB Video Grabber
And setting up like this:
A/V HDMI Output 1 → TV HDMI input
A/V HDMI Output 2 → HDMI2AV → USB video grabber → RPI2 USB
So I need 2 available USB ports on my RPI2, right? One for USB video grabber, and another for the lightberry led-strip.
I guess RPI2 doesn’t support USB3.0, so I could just get HDMI to USB converter and drop the HDMI2AV converter altogether?
I have the exact same receiver, theres main out and sub out yes. What bothers me, is that I read somewhere that for some reason sub out has to go to tv and main out to hdmi2av converter → usbgrabber → pi.
That wouldn’t be nice because on the receiver only main out has arc and cec function. =/
Yes, or just some “male to male” adaptor…[quote=“wiqu, post:3, topic:13657”]
I guess RPI2 doesn’t support USB3.0, so I could just get HDMI to USB converter and drop the HDMI2AV converter altogether?
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…news for me, plz explain this. Could usb 3.0 get a hdmi signal and turn it to av signal??
Whoops, just got home. I got Onkyo NR709, not 636. Just got home and tested this right away, got a little worried because first I didn’t get video at all through the SUB OUT, but I had to enable the receiver to broadcast to both outputs from settings - now the receiver outputs video feed to both HDMI outs at the same time, YAY!
At least I found couple of these on amazon, they run for a lot more money though, and RPI2 only supports USB 2.0 AFAIK, and all those HDMI2USB’s i found are USB 3.0
edit: actually I was too excited, it was USB2HDMI - although they do exist, they cost several hundred of dollars, so those are out of the question for me.
D’oh! lightberry is out of 5meter LED-kits. Gotta wait a few weeks to make my order
Maybe we don’t want to solder “on” our tvs. And I couldn’t find a usb to led stripe converter, guy sticked leds on the back of tv, I plan to use the hooks provided by lightberry to get it around tv, so light won’t shine on back wall but like away from the tv on left, right, bottom, top.
I want no diy stuff, I want a ready to use setup, thats also why I will use old rpi with preconfigured image for it. Not everything has to be handmade just because you could do it yourself.
Ok you’re right, but from lightberry’s own picture it seems you’ll receive the exact same roll of led’s in their full package. On their site it seems to be possible to buy the seperate parts. When applied with the hooks (wich is a much smarter solution…) you should be able to receive the same result without cutting and soldering. But hey, I can imagine you’re not taking chances.
I asked them and they said they’ll be getting more stock in March.
I got 60" TV, so I’m gonna need the 5m. 55" is just in between the 4m and 5m models, do it’s tougher for you, I’d probably wait a few weeks to get the 5m model just to be sure
1 hour left to buy for you
I found it in a bargain hunter forum. I don’t know if you’re familiar with this site. The bad translation might seem unprofessional at first sight (it’s from china). But since all in the forum received it and seller has good feedback there are no worries. Only downside is it takes like 2-3 weeks 'til you have it.
I will buy this and the rest in lightberry shop. USB video grabber is a nice deal. Maybe also the power supply if I don’t find a fitting one lying around. I just don’t know the recommended Amps for such. They have them with 8A, 6A and 4A in the shop…?
Does anyone happen to know where to find such hooks to stick on the tv that fit?
I don’t want to stick the whole led stripe on the back of the tv, I saw that but I’m thinking it’s a bad idea since the light then shines on the backwall. It’s supposed to shine to the sides, bottom and top of the tv.
The USB grabber is definitely pretty cheap at Lightberry’s shop so I’ll prolly get the grabber and the led-to-usb-box-thingy from them.
And probably the power for the led-usb-thingy-box too, no idea about the Amps either, maybe I’ll just ask directly from them via email, they answer pretty quickly.
For the hooks for the strip, I’d guess you could find similar hooks from any home/hardware shop.
I checked out some light strips from alibaba etc too, and the prices are pretty cheap anyways, so missing that specific sale doesn’t matter too much
Maybe you could post answer here. I saw that the 8A psus are out of stock.
Forget the hooks. I asked in the forum i mentioned because everyone was talking about sticking them on back of tv, so light sheds on backwall.
If you think of it, this makes sense! How else would you see the light and its colours?
The solution with the hooks is just a compromise solution if your tv for example is wall-mounted.
The picture on the lightberry shop site is highly irritating.
The led stripe has already a sticky side for this reason. I guess I will velcro fastener for better ajustment.
Yeah, I was thinking about this too. Then again, I don’t want to use the glue-strip directly to my TV either, because I might update my TV at some point in the future so I want to be able to remove the LED strip without too much effort…
I mailed Lightberry about the power supply, I’ll update here when I get the answer.
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Forget the hooks. I asked in the forum i mentioned because everyone was talking about sticking them on back of tv, so light sheds on backwall.