MediaLight Mk2 Flex TV Bias Lighting Review & Comments

To be clear, each size includes a different number of cables. the largest strip (6m) includes 8 clips. Number increases with length of the strip. 2m strip includes 2 clips.

It comes with eight stick-on black plastic cable clips.
 
The adhesive was changed from 3m adhesive to 3m VHB in August 2017.

I've had a set of these for years now (imported from the US) and it's fantastic. The use of a remote where light can be controlled was a huge selling point for me.

I assume mine has the older sticky backing but I found it easy to take off my older TV and stick onto my newer one once I upgraded. I ended up helping it to stick by using some sticky tape at a few intervals around the strip.
 
The cables are gone.
I had purchased the previous version last year, but could not manage the cables. It included these red plastic clips which i used instead of sticking the led strip directly on the tv. Does this new model still offer those red plastic pieces?
 
You don't necessarily need accurate bias lights on an uncalibrated display because the accurate lighting isn't going to magically calibrate an uncalibrated display in the way that bad lighting will negatively impact a calibrated display.

On a calibrated display, accurate lighting can make a significant difference. The focus of MediaLight is calibrated displays. There are ways of building things with varying degrees of accuracy and quality. There are a huge number of LED strips on the low end and when you put them side by side you see that there is little consistency in chromaticity, color temp and spectral power distribution.

And there I was happy with my £4.99 led strip from Amazon :/
 
I did wonder about that, thanks for the clarification Jason.
Sorry, i meant cable clips! It seems that people do sometimes use them to attach the strips. I don’t think that’s a great solution and there are actually flat clips for led strips. I would like to start to offer mini gaffer tape rolls, which to me, is perfect and very adaptable.
 
Used to use these ( or a variant of them ) when I had LCD displays mainly to mask poor black levels ( grey bars etc) of said displays .

Never used them purely for eyestrain purposes, just a mask for my displays back then .

Since going OLED I don't feel the need for them myself and I feel it would be more a distraction than benefit . My OLED is on a stand and when watching a flick in dark room I prefer how the image floats in that space .
 
With OLED, despite the lower maximum brightness compared to other displays, there is higher contrast due to the so-called perfect black levels. This often causes more, not less, eye strain. It's probably not as much of an issue if you are watching a movie for a few hours, but for a professional colorist spending 10-16 hours in front of a monitor at a time, OLED can cause more strain than LED. Same goes for heavy bingeing or at the end of a night of viewing. OLED is better at doing the things that cause eye strain (alternating from very dark to very bright scenes).

The limit of black levels is not display technology. It's human factors. Even with perfect blacks, there is veiling glare that prevents us from seeing the perfect blacks. These are the kinds of issues that are solved by biasing the irises.

Again, a $1 incandescent bulb behind a TV will bias your irises (with a CRI of 100, to be honest) Christmas lights will bias your irises, but you will bias the irises while altering the perceived colors on screen. The goal with this product is to bias the irises while providing an accurate white point reference for your visual system to balance the screen's colors against.

Used to use these ( or a variant of them ) when I had LCD displays mainly to mask poor black levels ( grey bars etc) of said displays .

Never used them purely for eyestrain purposes, just a mask for my displays back then .

Since going OLED I don't feel the need for them myself and I feel it would be more a distraction than benefit . My OLED is on a stand and when watching a flick in dark room I prefer how the image floats in that space .
 
With OLED, despite the lower maximum brightness compared to other displays, there is higher contrast due to the so-called perfect black levels. This often causes more, not less, eye strain. It's probably not as much of an issue if you are watching a movie for a few hours, but for a professional colorist spending 10-16 hours in front of a monitor at a time, OLED can cause more strain than LED. Same goes for heavy bingeing or at the end of a night of viewing. OLED is better at doing the things that cause eye strain (alternating from very dark to very bright scenes).

The limit of black levels is not display technology. It's human factors. Even with perfect blacks, there is veiling glare that prevents us from seeing the perfect blacks. These are the kinds of issues that are solved by biasing the irises.

Again, a $1 incandescent bulb behind a TV will bias your irises (with a CRI of 100, to be honest) Christmas lights will bias your irises, but you will bias the irises while altering the perceived colors on screen. The goal with this product is to bias the irises while providing an accurate white point reference for your visual system to balance the screen's colors against.

Useful info but ( personally for myself ) I only ever used bias lighting to mask the my displays shortcomings in the past .

I don't have those shortcomings with my OLED display or suffer from eyestrain .

All bias lighting would do now is be a distraction on my set up as it was in the past . It would light up the stand ( I have a E9 ) and surround speakers on the rear wall .

Not disputing its benefits as I've used them in the past , just don't feel I now need it .
 
Most people with a stand don't light the bottom of the display for this reason. I don't like using lights on the bottom when there is a sound bar or centre channel speaker either.

We design our products for people who need them. We don't try to foist them on people who don't and we don't try to push accuracy on people who don't require accuracy. And because bias lights work on the individual and not on the TV, it's perfectly understandable that they don't work for you.

Useful info but ( personally for myself ) I only ever used bias lighting to mask the my displays shortcomings in the past .

I don't have those shortcomings with my OLED display or suffer from eyestrain .

All bias lighting would do now is be a distraction on my set up as it was in the past . It would light up the stand ( I have a E9 ) and surround speakers on the rear wall .

Not disputing its benefits as I've used them in the past , just don't feel I now need it .
 
I ordered Gafa Tape. Just waiting for Stock and ready to order MediaLight. Thank you Jason fir your excellent support on this thread.
 
I've not seen it mentioned here but, the SMPTE, whom define how a display should be calibrated, also define the level of ambient light that should be available in your viewing environment, which will include these as a back light. Those levels are a maximum of 10% of the peak white light output of the display, for SDR. And 5 nits maximum for HDR. I'd argue that the latter is more important as if you set the backlight up to be too bright, you'll lose perceived near black detail, as your eyes won't be able to discern it.

Getting the install right, for uniform coverage on the surface behind the TV is also important as you don't want bright spots. This of course is more of an issue with TV's that are in corners, than flat to a wall.

I've used a MediaLight 140cm strip (more inverted horse shoe, in my install) on the back of my GZ2000 since I bought it, using various flavours of 'D65' LED strips on other TVs going back to my Panasonic V30 plasma in 2012. The MediaLight is far superior to anything else I've used in the past for not much more money.
I control it off a TP-Link smart plug, via Google Assistant which is very convenient.

Paul
 
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I've never seen the attraction of 'Bias Lighting' but this looks like a really good set.

I have my TeeVee in front of thick black velvet curtains. I like it pitch black. Mind, the older I get I'm finding that I fancy some sort of ambient lighting in my room.

It doesn't help that when I switch off my TV (a 65" ZD9) the room goes pitch black and I feel like Ive been banished to limbo for eternity :)
 
My usb 3 port is already in use as hard drive attached to record, it will not work on a usb 2. Guessing a splitter or hub will not work.
 
If anyone was interested here’s what my Dulux machine shows for the paint code , if it helps
 

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I have one of these and I would say it works great. I have a slightly off white wall which works really well. As for price. You get what you pay for. I have tried cheap ones from Amazon and straight away you can see they are the wrong colour with your eyes, not measuring tools required.
 
I had one. Not this particular model, but one made for a 65" TV. Came in four strips with four connectors with a hub to connect all the strips into a USB port. Came with a remote too. The sensor for the IR remote would never stay stuck to the TV. Looked cool, but did not help with eye fatigue. Was so gangly to try and put together after taking it off my old TV to put on my new TV and the tape didn't stick so I just ended up throwing it in the trash. Ended up being a waste of money. Like I said looks cool, but ended up being a one TV product.
 
Well got this today in the post and was going to install this and post some pictures and review but the dimmer seems to be broken 😔
will take a while I suspect to ship a replacement from the US
 
Is bias light worth bothering with if you have lamps on in each corner?

I rarely watch tv in pitch black conditions these days, despite buying my oled for that reason!
 
I'm sorry that we couldn't revive that dimmer. It doesn't seem fried because the flash that you saw indicates that it's cycling. You confirmed that the IR remote was working too, so that means that maybe the receiver broke in transit. I sent both the original remote and dimmer and an alternative model to try just in case there's something about our standard dimmer that doesn't work for you.

I don't think that's the issue, though. If a dimmer does get stuck, the trick of flicking the on/off switch about 20 times usually solves it (like smacking an old hard drive when it stops spinning...). So, I think it's the receiver. 😬

Well got this today in the post and was going to install this and post some pictures and review but the dimmer seems to be broken 😔
will take a while I suspect to ship a replacement from the US
 
If you have lamps, you have ambient light, so you tick off one of the benefits of bias lighting. Glare could be an issue, and the bulbs are likely much warmer than 6500K, but it is better than watching in the dark in terms of eye strain.

Is bias light worth bothering with if you have lamps on in each corner?

I rarely watch tv in pitch black conditions these days, despite buying my oled for that reason!
 

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