One of the big advantages of having a smart home is taking advantage of all the smart lighting options today. Personally, I’m a big fan of LED strip lights. The secret is strategic placement so you don’t see the light strip itself. Place them above cabinets, under desks, or behind TVs so the light reflects off walls. Today, I’m going to take it up a notch with smart lights that have literally gotten smarter.
I’m reviewing the Nanoleaf 4D Screen Wi-Fi Mirror. It is an LED strip light that goes behind any TV up to 65”. It comes with a screen mirror camera that—in real-time—syncs the lights on the TV screen to the lights on the back. At the price point, it comes at, it almost seems too good to be true. Is it? Let’s find out.
Inside the box is everything you need to get the Nanoleaf 4D setup. The three main parts are the physical controller, the 65” LED light strip, and the 4D screen mirror camera. A power adapter, instruction manual, camera mount, and double-sided tape are also included. You’ll also find four plastic corner pieces with an angular curve that go on each corner. The LED strip curves through each corner while still having a flat surface where the tape sticks.
Unlike most people, I don’t have a TV in my living room. I moved my desk into the living room. Now I’m surrounded by windows and natural lighting. The only TV I have in my house is in my home studio. It’s mounted on the wall. I took it down for this review.
First, I used the tape to secure the corner pieces behind my TV. I then proceeded to tape the LED strip around the corners. The LED strip cuts to size with dedicated lines on the strip to cut it. However, I decided to just double-wrap the leftover end. Since this TV is mounted to the wall, I placed the camera mount on the top. It basically clips to the top of the TV and you can adjust the arm until the camera is pointed to the TV. Once that was done, I mounted the TV back up and connected the camera and LED strip to the controller.
The rest of the installation happens in the app. I scanned the QR code on the instruction manual to add the Nanofeaf 4D device to the Nanoleaf app. You definitely don’t want to lose the instruction manual in case you need to install it again. My Handy Andy tip is to tape the instruction manual to the back of the TV.
This is the point where I ran into issues. While the controller was successfully added, the LED lights never came on during the calibration stage. For the life of me, I could not troubleshoot my way out of this issue. After searching on Reddit, I noticed others were having the same issue. One person mentioned that you really had to push the USB-C end of the light strip into the controller. When I did that, I could get the lights to blink once but then it went out. After trying this over and over again, the lights finally came on. Hallelujah, the tech gods answered my prayers. From there, I was able to successfully calibrate the lights on the TV.
Once the Nanoleaf was working, I was finally able to put it through its paces. Inside the app, there are a lot of customization options and pre-built scene modes. 4D screen mirroring and the rhythm mode is what I focused on. I played some Animal Planet on Netflix and sure enough, the LED strip lights matched the colours on the screen. When the scene was showing whales underwater in the ocean, the strip lights turned blue. Best of all, the lights were changing in almost real-time. It definitely adds to the television viewing experience.
Next, I tried the Rhythm mode. This is where the lights react to music. It works great. In a way, you get to visualize the music you’re listening to with the lights. However, I used it while I was watching a movie on Netflix. The cool thing is the lights react to the dialogue on screen. In the app, I went to the custom colour section and picked red. Afterward, the light effect totally reminded me of the car “Kit” on Knightrider. As people would talk, the lights would wave back and forth. It sure took me back, I felt like a kid again.
The Nanoleaf 4D Screen Wi-Fi Mirror transforms your television experience. Movie and gaming nights will never be the same. I’ve used LED strips behind TVs but the 4D screen mirroring takes it to a whole new level. It’s all happening in real-time. There is very little latency. Kids, gamers, and techies like myself are going to love this. However, it’s ideal for nighttime viewing. The effect is not the same during the daytime so I would only use it at night.
I did not have a good experience setting this up. I spent hours troubleshooting and to be honest, I almost gave up. I reached out to Nanoleaf support, and they tried but could not fix the issue. They suggested a power cycle, reset, reinstall, and update to the firmware. After I did all that, they were out of suggestions. Thankfully I found a Reddit thread with a solution. The app also seems a little buggy. I’m still getting error messages and requests to set up the 4D screen mirroring calibration again. I’m sure it will get fixed in future updates. The installation was painful for me. Still, once it was working, I soon realized it was worth all that time and trouble. I hope Nanoleaf figures out the issue so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
(Editor’s note: Nanoleaf sent a sample for the blog’s French reviewer, Myriam, and she did not experience any problems with her sample.)
If you don’t have a smart home, start with smart lights. If you’re a gamer, movie watcher, or music lover, check out the Nanoleaf 4D Screen Wi-Fi Mirror. It’s perfect for any entertainment, gaming, or home theatre room. Kids will love it. Impress your friends and family with a light show. Remember, life is short. So do yourself a favour and take your TV experience to the next level with the Nanoleaf 4D Screen Wifi Mirror.