4K HDR 150" Hyperion + WLED Ambilight Setup

HouseOfBugs

So I have been building a huge ambilight setup for my 150" projector screen. I thought this was going to be a relatively quick project but it has turned into a huge ordeal because of poor documentation from the Hyperion project and shitty HDMI cards from China. Hopefully this post will help others with larger setups avoid some issues. I will update this as the project goes on as it's still not done yet.

Project Goal

A full Ambilight setup with 4K HDR support on my 150" projector screen using Hyperion and WLED. Will integrate with Home Assistant.

Software

Products Used

LED Strips: https://amzn.to/3BGasTD
LED Channels: https://amzn.to/2YsBSOv
Screen: https://amzn.to/3yJ13IY
Pi Setup (reflashed with Hyperbian): https://www.th3dstudio.com/product/ezpi-pro/
PSU: https://www.th3dstudio.com/product/cr-10-psu-replacement-upgrade-mean-well/
Relay for PSU: https://amzn.to/2WXPzV4
Primary Wire: https://amzn.to/3BGRUCF
Secondary Wire (12awg to led strip ends): https://amzn.to/2VcXA7O
ESP32: https://amzn.to/2YsBNdF
USB Capture Card: https://amzn.to/3h2OimL
Splitter/Downscaler: https://amzn.to/3kSfINh
Wood for Frame: https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/lumber-boards/boards/2-x-2-select-pine-board/1032100/p-1444444785353-c-13115.htm?tid=-2832622613202095510&ipos=4

Pain Points

"4K" cards from amazon. See video:
When using more than 490 LEDs with WLED and Hyperion it will not work with the WLED integration or UDP ones - use the TPM2.NET integration or use 2 WLED controllers and split up the strips then add 2 instances in Hyperion
Maintaining HDR content…..(WIP) See reply after this post below…

Videos

Testing the WLED controller and strips:

Actual test using Hyperion (have to view on Youtube due to a copyright claim from the content in the video, fuckers…)

Pictures

Heres a pic of testing the lights. They are all working and I am using 2.5 rolls of WS2815 LEDs to cover the whole area. They are mounted in aluminum 45 deg angle diffusers. 646 total lights on this setup.

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4K HDR Issues - Getting that 4K 60HZ w/ HDR signal

The NX5 projector and all my other components all support 4K HDR with 60hz refresh rate. The issue is that when you add the USB capture card into the HDMI chain some of these cheap boxes that are "4K" compatible drop the resolution to 1080P and/or drop the HDR and/or drop the 60hz refresh rate. Even looking at some higher end USB capture cards (like one from Razer) also do not work correctly.

Now my Denon AVR has a zone 2 output but that causes issues with the signal dropping down in quality as well. So the only thing I can think to do at this point is either drop HDMI capture completely and use a screen capture OR use a splitter that has a downscaler in it.

While using a direct screen capture would work for the PC thats connected to the setup this would prevent us from enjoying the Hyperion setup for my other HDMI sources (chromecast and bluray player).

I have located and ordered a splitter that claims to do what I want. What I want is pass through the full signal from the AVR to my projector while sending a 1080p signal to my capture card. I ordered this and will report back if the setup works: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZZN13RM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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Update on the capture card.

The one that I originally used does NOT work well with the splitter. I ended up using a 1080P capture card to it forces the output of the downscaler to 1080p. Last issue to sort out is black screen on the active HDMI cable from the projector to the splitter. Link is updated for the capture card used. Adding a booster/repeater for the HDMI should sort this out. Will update once I get it but thats the last piece.

Here is how I am doing the HDMI capture setup:

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9/5/21 Update

After fighting with TPM2.NET working reliably with 646 leds on ONE ESP32 controller I opted to split the TOP and RIGHT strips for the screen on the existing ESP32 and then the BOTTOM and LEFT strips on to another ESP32.

I then setup 2 instances in Hyperion and mirrored the settings except for the LED placement. Now using the native WLED integration worked BUT there was some delay. TPM2.NET still looks smoother but I will have to test out more. These are the settings for TPM2.NET for WLED. Max packet size is calculated by multiplying the LED count by 3X and then adding 6 to that. This MUST be under 1470 bytes to work (hence why I had to split things up).

So now EVERYTHING is working. The only thing I am waiting on is the HDMI booster/repeater so I can use my active HDMI cable. I tested the setup with a shorter one strung to the projector not in the ceiling.

WLED Sync - More Issues…

So now I have 2 separate controllers for the screen. I want these to be in sync. Luckily WLED has a sync feature. I set the main controller to the "master" by clicking the sync button and then leave the other one with that setting off.

NOW this introduces another issue -> Now my other WLED controllers are getting controlled by the theater screen. I now have to disable all the other WLED controller sync settings in their settings…. One thing after another eh? NOW. I could use the power of Home Assistant to "link" the 2 WLED setups but for now this will do. It works and I'm tired.

My sync settings:

Automating with NodeRed + Home Assistant

SOOOO. Now we need to make this as seamless as possible. This means so easy my wife can use it. I want my WLED setups on my speakers AND the theater screen LEDs to come on when they should. I settle on using my Denon AVR as the indicator since it is integrated with home assistant and reports within 1-2 seconds of its state changing.

So we head over to NodeRed and setup some flows to turn the WLED instances on and off (also set them to white and the theater LEDs to 25% brightness).

OK. So now the lights come on automatically for some sexy ambient lighting in the room. NOW we need to have Hyperion be able to be toggled on and off. Maybe sometimes we just want light and no fancy RGB image processed lighting.

Remember how we have 2 ESP32s now? Well now we have 2 entities in Home Assistant for Hyperion. I now use NodeRed to automatically set them to the same settings and the "effect" set to USB Capture so the Hyperion idle and other settings are respected. We also turn ON the WLED controllers in case they are off for some reason. I have a "master" LED instance that controls the "slave" one. Both come on and shut off at the same time.

So now I can yell at Google to "turn on Hyperion Control" and its now active. EZPZ. If I tell it to turn off Hyperion Control then the LEDs revert to basic control.

Ok that's enough. I'm tired. I'll update once the repeater comes in and then shoot a cool demo video with music that will definitely get me a copyright strike.

HouseOfBugs

9/6/21 Update

So the signal drops are 100% fixed and signal is working great with the repeater/booster I got from Amazon.

Everything is working. Hyperion and even LEDFX for music reaction. I connected the preouts for my front speakers from my Denon AVR into the line in on my PC so I can use LEDFX for awesome music visualizations on the WLED controllers. 🙂 Thanks for Tyler Savage from the WLED discord for introducing me to LedFX.

I have 2 sets of strips on the screen with 323 leds on each. Each has its own ESP32 controller running WLED. The one is called "TR" for Top and Right. The other is called "BL" for Bottom and Left. So if you see me referring to TR or BL below this is what I am referring to.

Changes to Hyperion Control Automations (NodeRed + HA)

So when you integrate Hyperion with Home assistant it makes a bunch of switches and a light entity. Now the issue with the light entity is that things can get overridden/conflicted with the WLED control. So I have disabled the light entities in home assistant and I am using the LED control switch to toggle on and off whether we are using the Hyperion system or not. I also have an automation that turns on the BL LED instance and I am using the TR LED instance as the master switch and the BL instance is the slave that just follows the state of the master.

So lets look at my NodeRed flows for the theater lighting.

Automatic Lighting Section

The section called "Automatic Lighting" just kicks on the speaker lights and the screen lights when my receiver is turned on. Now I don't want the screen lights at full chooch so we're setting those to 25% brightness and the speaker ones are set to 100%. All the lights are set to white (255,255,255) color.

When the receiver is turned off ALL the lights are turned off and so are the Hyperion LED control switches. This ensures that when we turn it all on next time Hyperion is not active. Hyperion will always be manually turned on by doing so through home assistant or yelling at the google box.

Hyperion Control Section

Moving on to the next section we see that we're using the "TR" (top and right) led instance as the control here. This entity (switch.theater_screen_leds_tr_component_led_device) is renamed to "Hyperion Control" in HA as well.

When switch.theater_screen_leds_tr_component_led_device is turned on the WLED controllers for the screen LED strips are set to 100% brightness, The BL LED instance (switch.theater_screen_leds_bl_component_led_device) is turned on, and the USB capture switch are turned on for the BL and TR led instances. This ensures parity and proper settings between both WLED controllers since we had to split into 2 controllers due to UDP datapacket limitations for the LED count we're using.

When switch.theater_screen_leds_tr_component_led_device is turned off so is the same BL switch and the screen LEDs are dimmed back to 25% and white color after a 5 second delay.

Screen WLED Sync Section

Now since we have 2 WLED installs for just the screen I want to ensure that both are set to the same brightness and color settings. I may add the effect sync later but right now its just color and brightness. I was using the WLED "sync" feature but its not reliable, NodeRED works 100% of the time so we'll be using that instead.

The 1st flow is just a simple on/off state sync (it also uses the JSON info shown below to sync color and brightness when turned on) to make sure both strips are set to the same settings when the main strip (TR) is turned on. The flow after that runs when the strips are on to sync the brightness and color settings using JSON.

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Using my Home Theater - Workflow

When I enter the theater I pickup my Harmony Elite remote and select an activity. I have my PC, ChromeCast, and Blu-Ray player to choose from. When I select the activity my Harmony kicks on the necessary devices and sets them to the proper inputs.

The projector comes on after about 30 seconds (it has to warm up) and then I see my display. At this point my speaker and screen LEDs are automatically on and set to white.

I tell google to "Turn on Hyperion Control" and now the LEDs are doing an idle pattern thats purple/blue/red and it lets me know that Hyperion is working. Shortly after that the LEDs will start doing their thing and making ambient light based off the HDMI input.

I put on my content, sit back, and enjoy it all working.

If I decide I don't want the backlights I can yell at the google box again "Turn off Theater Screen LEDs" and this will shut them off as well as stop Hyperion from sending data to them.

Once I am done, all I have to do is press the off button on my Harmony Elite remote and everything (including the LEDs) shuts off.