in 2018 gobi set themselves apart from the
majority of rgb lightstrip manufacturers when they released their very first tv
color sinking immersion light kit it helped boost the brand's notoriety
and put the leading company in the space phillips hue directly in his crosshairs
users can now enjoy tv color syncing rgb ic lighting
without breaking the bank and best of all there were no video source
limitations as with the philips hue hdmi sync box
which often frustrated core cutters who prefer to power their content
through the use of smart tv apps the first govi immersion light kit
was well received for the most part but it wasn't without its flaws
most specifically the inaccuracies in the color matching science
along with a handful of other small gripes but nevertheless
the potential was there you could see it feel it and with a few improvements and
tweaks here and there the govi immersion light kit could
really be something special well the govi immersion 2.0 light kit
has arrived but is it any good is it worth shelling
out 70 bucks for and most importantly for those who
already own the first generation kit is it even worth the upgrade all of this
and more coming up
okay guys before i jump in here i'd like to give you guys some time
stamps the review will be organized as such first we'll take a look at the
specs for each of the two light kits and then we'll briefly take a look at
what you get inside of the box for the 2.0 version
followed by some installation tips and tricks and then we'll do a head-to-head
color seeking demo of each of the light kits
and finally i'll wrap things up with my final thoughts key takeaways
and what i think the next steps for gobi should be in the space
in order to further improve their offerings and remain competitive with
philips hue let's kick things off taking a look at
the specs for the immersion 2.0 kit versus the first gen we are now getting
four feet of additional length with the 2.0
because it now includes a fourth section to cover off on the bottom of your tv
now right off the bat this is a huge step in the right direction with a
significant improvement over the first gen
which only covered the top and the size of your tv and even the philips hue
gradient light strips don't even cover off on this bottom
section and i just never really understood this
i mean i suppose it's not a huge deal if your tv is sitting on top of a tv stand
but if you have your tv mounted on the wall as most people are doing today
the absence of a bottom section just leaves this dark
fantasmic void beneath your tv as with the previous version
55 to 65 inch tvs are the only recommended size
which i wasn't so thrilled about because i do have a 75 inch tv in my living room
that could really use some sprucing up so i was really hoping that gopher will
release a second immersion kit this year suitable for 70 to 80 inch tvs of course
both generations feature the rgb ic chip technology
that allows the light strips to produce multiple colors simultaneously
but we are getting an improved 1080p camera with the 2.0
that i am happy to say makes a significant difference
in terms of the color matching science and the speed in which the camera
translates the colors being displayed across your screen
power supply input and virtual assistant capabilities are virtually the same but
i would have loved to see support for apple home kit
as well as for ifttt now the 2.0 version has
36 additional lamp beads with 114 as opposed to the 78
on the original model now obviously these lights are packed with a wealth of
features and capabilities such as music modes and dynamic scenes
but if you're paying 70 bucks for light strips
i'm gonna assume that the predominant technology that you're after is the tv
color sinking science so that is where the focus of this video
is going to be so when you get the gobi immersion light
kit in hand you'll see that it ships in a very compact
bright and colorful little box but don't be deterred
because there's actually a ton of items crammed inside you'll get the star of
the show the 12.5 foot light strip which in
addition to the increased length is now coated with the silicone
protectant they feel thicker and more premium as opposed to the first
gen and i'm really glad to see that gobi got rid of the coil wires connecting
each of the sections as with the old model the mini input
controller now comes with three physical buttons
that allow you to power on and off the device
swap between single solid colors and there is a music slash
dimmer button you can tap the button once to switch to music mode
or long press to adjust the brightness the 1080p camera has also been improved
in design over its predecessor you'll notice that rather than extending
the camera eye upward like an antenna as with the first version the camera is
projected further outward sort of like a microphone boom arm this
allows the fisheye camera to capture an even better angle of your screen
to see more real estate from corner to corner of course the power supply
adapter is included as well along with eight mini foam squares that
are used to assist in camera calibration and that is a great segue into the
installation tips and tricks now again gobi recommends that you
install the 2.0 immersion kit onto 55 to 65 inch tvs during the making
of this video i actually upgraded my old 55
samsung where i previously installed the first generation immersion kit
to a 65 this is where the 2.0 kit has been installed
pro tip number one before you begin the peel and stick process for the light
strips it's really important to scrub your tv
down with a rag dampened with alcohol don't rely solely on the tissue wipes
that gobi includes inside of the box pro tip number two carefully plan things
out first to make sure that everything fits
just like you envision it right off the back i can tell you that if you have a
65 or larger you won't be able to apply the
light strips right up to the edge on the back of the tv
i learned this the hard way after applying two of the sections
but i was actually able to remove them with no issue at all
and then i simply used the heat gun on the lowest setting to warm up the glue
paste before reapplying it if you have a 65
like i do you'll want to apply the strips on the
sides of the tv about 2 inches inward from the edge and about 1
inch inward from the top and the bottom edges
for the corners take care not to leave too much space between the sections as
this will cause unsightly breaks in the colors from the front of the tv
i was able to wrap the cord securely enough to where they lay flush against
the back of the tv and i didn't require any of the
additional included clips if you have a particular side of your tv
where you want your input remote to go for easier access
make sure to begin applying the strips on that side as well
with the first immersion kit this wasn't even an option because the govi app
would only recognize the light strips in one specific sequence
but this time around during the calibration stage gobi gives you the
ability to customize the position of the sections to your liking
as long as you follow the directional arrows now as you can see
i have a sound bar attached to the bottom of my tv so i decided to place
the bottom section of the lights there as well
so the colors are a bit more visible from the front
but because my sound bar isn't a perfectly flat surface
i decided to use a few third-party adhesive clips instead of sticking the
light strip down directly i decided to go with these black ones
over the ones that govi provides because they blend much better and
they're a lot less permanent if i do decide to place the bottom strip
directly to the tv later on i can simply slip the light strip out of
the loop versus having to pull off the entire
goldi clip and these types of clips don't generally reapply very well like
the strips themselves all right let's talk a little bit about
the camera placement because it's a very important step in
the installation process pro tip number three if your primary
seating is low enough to the point where you need to tilt your tv downward for a
more comfortable viewing experience then i recommend placing your camera at
the bottom of the tv for best results however if you don't
really have much of a tilt on your tv then either the top or bottom mount
should work just fine as long as you don't find the top mount
too distracting and i have to say i'm very pleased to find that the govi
app can now recognize a bottom mounted camera
unlike the first immersion kit and because of this inability to modify the
settings and really dial them in inside of the app i was never really
able to get consistent performance when mounting the camera on the bottom with
the first immersion kit and so i ended up placing the camera on
the top and spray painting it white to help it vanish against my bright
white backdrop and that brings us to pro tip number four
if you have your tv mounted to the wall and you're using a sound bar
consider mounting the sound bar to the tv with brackets
and then mount the camera to the sound bar especially if you have a tv that's
crazy thin this will also protect your tv from
damage if you ever need to remove the camera down the road
because if something's gonna happen i certainly rather it happened to the
sound bar because tvs are way more expensive and
don't worry i'll drop a few links down below for some affordable soundbar
mounting brackets another pro for the soundbar mounting
option that i neglected to mention earlier
is that it places the camera nearly three inches further away from your tv
screen this allows the camera eye to capture an
even wider angle from corner to corner now when it comes to the calibration
process for the 2.0 light kit it's a little more intensive this time
around with the addition of the foam squares
but i definitely recommend doing this at least once in the very beginning
that brings us to pro tip number five do not stick the foam squares directly to
the tv screen as instructed because the adhesive that
govi applied to the back of these is way too strong trust me you could end up
damaging your tv screen when it comes time to peeling them off
instead use a tiny roll of masking tape with
mild adhesive roll it into a small square
to create a double-sided tape effect and then
stick that to the non-adhesive side of the foam squares
now you'll still need to remove the adhesive backing on the squares so that
your camera can pick them up properly but this strong adhesive won't come in
contact with your tv screen at all and as you can see the masking tape will
secure the foam squares in place just fine for the calibration process
and they peel off with zero effort or worry at all from there the
govi app will clearly walk you through the rest of the calibration process
positioning the white dots to the corners of your tv image
and fine tuning using the squares to make sure that everything is captured
and looking good okay guys enough talk time for the
head-to-head demonstration because as they say a picture or a video
in this case is worth a thousand words
so
all right guys time to wrap things up and share my final thoughts and key
takeaways the new 2.0 emerging tv color syncing
kit from govi clearly outperformed its predecessor in
virtually every aspect the 2.0 actually sees greens and yellows
now and when the screen is predominantly
black the leds shift to a dim white glow which i much prefer over
using blues to represent blacks obviously the new
bottom fourth section adds a new layer of immersion to the
experience and the 1080p camera makes color recognition
snappier and less delayed as with the old model
i think govi did a fantastic job with adding additional app functionalities
and customization levers regarding the placement of the camera
and the option to install the light strips in the direction that makes the
most sense for your particular setup my router is closest to the right side
of my tv facing from the front so i place my
controller here for the best wi-fi signal possible and
i'm also right-handed which makes it easier to toggle the
buttons which again aren't even included on the original
model but when it comes to this new brighter shinier version of the
immersion kit it's not all roses and tulips because i
do feel that the old model actually gets a bit brighter than the
new immersion kit which i suppose is to compensate for the
absence of a bottom section and as with the old model the
immersion kit still struggles with browns and skin tones
most times the leds choose to represent these colors with a magenta color tone
which can be a bit distracting when scenes or camera angles are abruptly
switched in movies or in tv shows and because of this i
found that having all of the four sections color sinking as
one single dominant color works best for non-gaming
cartoon or cgi heavy content it's just less distracting and more immersive for
less color rich content but with that said
by all means definitely take advantage of the ic chip
technology for games anime music videos animations and all of the like but now
i want to pose a question where does govi go from here
because as fun and affordable as the govi color syncing light kits
are owners unfortunately cannot expand upon their setups
from a tv color sinking perspective how awesome would it be if owners could sync
their gobi light bulbs or additional light strips with what the
tv mounted camera is capturing right now there are a
number of new products on the market from govi
such as the aura table lamp which i just picked up
and there is the gobi flow pro bars but none of these cool new products can be
bridged to mimic what is being shown on the big
screen using the previously installed 1080p camera moving forward customers
want the ability to expand their setups in a
similar fashion to philips hue's ecosystem
probably the biggest missed opportunity here at the moment
is the inability to bridge the flow pro tv light bars
with the govi immersion kit because the two products operate independently
as if they were engineered by two separate companies all together
if you want the govi bars and the immersion kit to color sync with the
content being displayed on your tv guess what you'll have to use two
dedicated cameras that's right two that's pretty
disappointing i mean it's tough enough that we have to
stomach one camera but two a few weeks back i put out a
video explaining an app that uses the camera on your cell phone
to color sync multiple light strips and rgb bulbs with the content on your tv
or your monitor and it has me wondering now
why this technology couldn't be implemented within the govi app
to synchronize products using a single camera
at the very least i was hoping that the gobi flow pro bars
could be wired to the immersion controller box to eliminate the need for
a second camera but govi has already confirmed that that
is not yet possible but with that said i'm probably going to
try the two light kits together anyway that might even be my next video
drop a like or comment below if you'd like to see a head-to-head comparison of
the new govi immersion light kit versus the new govi flow pro bars
so to summarize if you're thinking about picking up either the old or the new
gobi immersion color sinking light kit go ahead and pay a few extra bucks for
the new model to take advantage of all the new features described
and if you already own the original model and you're wondering if the new
version is worth the upgrade i would say that it definitely is this
isn't just a 2021 money grabbed from govi the new model is
vastly improved over its predecessor and i think the fact that gobi is no
longer selling the original model on their website
is very telling but before you go screaming
take my money for this latest model here do taper your expectations
because while the colors are much more accurate than before
they're not going to be as accurate as a device that uses internal data
to translate colors such as the philips u hdmi sync box
or the nano leaf screen mirroring feature though the limitations for the
hue and the nano leaf are very real i was
actually planning on picking up the philips hue sync box this year
until i learned that it doesn't support hdmi 2.1
which the ps5 and the new xbox require in order to achieve 120 hertz refresh
rate the current philips hue sync box would
actually downgrade your content to 60 hertz
now if philips hue introduces a new unit that can fully support the new consoles
i'll definitely take the plunge but for now i am perfectly happy with this much
more affordable gobi alternative well that about wraps things up for this
one if you found any part of this video to be helpful
make sure to give a quick thumbs up and to subscribe for more content like this
i'll see you guys in the next video but until then peace
mr tek suggest