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since the introduction of the Gobi camera color since technology over five years ago
the Gobi dream you like it formerly known as the immersion has continued to get faster more
reliable and more accurate with each new model release but in spite of these advancements in the
increased adoption in the smart lighting space there's always been a subset of the community
and critics curious about the possibility of an HDMI color tracking system that could
improve on performance even further with better accuracy speed reliability while simultaneously
eliminating the need for an external camera well with the introduction of the Gobi AI
gaming sync box that possibility is finally realized but this new sync box has Ambitions
to push Dynamic interactive lighting into an entirely new territory with the addition
of the AI learning chipset for this video we'll do a deep dive on the new Gobi HDMI
sync box we'll take a closer look at the AI Tech behind it to better understand what it
is and what it's capable of we'll cover off on specification limitations and key features
as well as HDMI color matching performance in general for not only PC and console gaming but
for TV shows and movie streaming as well we'll also see our performs with dream view surround
lighting using a handful of new Govi products including the new rgbic wraparound desk light
the new Gobi HDMI sync box is confirmed to be hdcp compatible meaning that we shouldn't run
into any DRM protection issues with any streaming content Netflix Prime video Disney plus no issues
there it's also compatible with Dolby Vision CC Arc and HDR and it supports three primary
resolutions and refresh rate combinations 4K is 60 hertz 2K at 144 Hertz and 1080p at 240 hertz
which caught me by surprise because no other sync box on the market can currently support this now
you'll notice that 4K and 120 hertz was omitted and that's because the ports are unfortunately
using HDMI 2.0 Tech but we're going to talk more on this in a little bit and what the future could
hold as we push forward towards 2024. in addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth the device supports Alexa
Google home assistant and IFTTT the AI box itself features four HDMI ports three in and one out and
it's designed to accommodate monitors between 27 and 34 inches but I do want to point out that I'm
using a 49 inch super ultra wide monitor that that has a native aspect ratio of 32x9 and with
the combination of the four section light strip and 16 inch light bars coverage still turned out
very very well now I can't speak a whole lot on this at the moment but just to get out in
front of some questions yes an HDMI sync box kit designed specifically for TVs 55 and 65 and 75 to
85 is currently in the works stick around and we'll talk more on this as well the kit ships
inside of a Sleek rectangular box with a really nice midnight color scheme and Graphics they give
it a premium feel and it encompasses virtually everything you need to get up and running this
all-inclusive kit retails for 2.99 at a glance here's what's included inside we have the Gobi
service card user manual and quick start guide mounting clips for additional Corner support if
needed a mini screwdriver and screws used to affix the light bars to the tabletop stands power brick
two high quality braided 4K HDMI cables the high bead density light strip very similar to the one
that ships with the g2 the 16 inch aluminum finish rgbic light bars and finally the heart and soul of
the kit the HDMI sync box itself it has a slim rectangular build with precise squared off edges
and a predominant matte finish with the exception of the front face which has a more glossy texture
as well as the rgbic ring which we'll discuss in more details during the features again there are
four HDMI ports on the very back three in and one out as well as two USBC ports one for the
light strip and one for the light bars if you're in any way familiar with installing a backlight
on the back of a monitor or TV installation for the light strip itself should be a breeze you
have four sections separated by a short bendable wire for each Corner next you'll attach the base
onto each light bar using the provided screws and then place on each side of the display now if your
display is mounted to the wall you can even use a high-speed USBC extension cable so that you can
feed the wires through your wall or down a Raceway as I did originally I was actually planning on
hiding the box but after seeing how well the ring light mimics the light strip in the bars I
decided to keep the Box front and center I think goalie did a backup job with this design making
the sync box itself fill a part of the immersion experience anyway for the two provided HDMI cables
you'll want to use those for your Source devices so a PC or a Nintendo switch for example you'll
plug one end into the device and the other end into one of the three HDMI in ports as for the
HDMI out Port you'll want to use your own high quality cable that supports 4K 60hz at minimum to
pass the signal from the sync box through to your display having the sync box at arm's limp also
means that you can quickly toggle in between the three ports without accessing the Gobi home app
in the interest of timing I won't run through the app installation process itself but the app walks
you through it step by step and there are official setup guides over ongovi the first feature that I
want to get into is the Gobi sync box AI because this technology is an industry first and a key
highlight that separates the Gobi sync box from other HDMI boxes already out on the market now
the marketing around this Tech is a little hazy so I'm going to do my best to summarize the AI
technology and how it works you can think of the AI as an additional interactive layer on top of
traditional HDMI signal pass-through technology so it doesn't function independently of color
sync Tech rather it's designed to enhance it while traditional HDMI sync boxes simply process color
information to in turn to the light source which colors patterns and behaviors to use the Govi sync
box houses a dedicated AI chip which allows it to administer a process that Gobi refers to as
algorithmic learning this means that instead of seeing any and all content as one of the same the
AI is capable of recognizing in-game actions for specific content to provide users with an
enhanced unique color syncing experience take this clip from Apex legend for example rather
than simply matching the environmental colors to the backlight and light bars the AI recognizes
that your character is administering a health pack and as a result the lights momentarily shift red
from corner to corner signifying damage but as your character's health is restored the lights
gradually shift green emerging on the left side of the screen and slowly fading across the entire
entertainment center until the health pack is fully used let's take a look at that one more time
here's another effect as your partner is being revived
the more interactive lighting as you skydive with your crew from a launch point in these
kind of scenarios the AI technology creates an environment where the lights don't just enhance
the experience they become a part of it when I think about the possibilities that something like
this could unlock in the future I get excited Gobi confirms that a full host of in-game actions has
already been learned by the AI and that by April at the latest users can customize these effects
to tailor their experience but the catches that this AI Tech is still very green and therefore
can only support these extra interactive effects for the following game titles League of Legends
Apex valorant and OverWatch however I'm told that by the end of the year the game Library
will expand to as many as 15 game titles while unspecified I'm really hoping that cyberpunk
2077 is a title that's among them but we'll see Switching gears over to the HDMI color matching
feature after over five years of only offering the camera color tracking kits the AI sync box
is golvis first entry product into the HDMI color matching space now I've been using the new box for
syncing colors for various types of content and across a good deal of varying video Source devices
for weeks and I'm happy to say that it appears to be a high quality piece of tech now my screen
resolution is slightly below 4K it's 5120 by 1440p so I did temporarily dock the sync box to my 4K
120hz TV to double check on some compatibility areas the box is indeed HDMI 2.0 which means
that 4K 120 is unfortunately unsupported however dropping resolution to 2K yields 144 Hertz and at
a 1080p resolution you can hit a ridiculous 240 hertz assuming your PC and display can handle it
in my case given my display limitations for games like bright memory I was able to hit 120 at 1080p
on my TV while pushing the signal through the sync box and it performs surprisingly well but
the biggest takeaway if you're coming from one of goby's camera TV light kits is that accuracy and
latency is exponentially improved in the color syncing experience is 100 unaffected by other
external light sources inside your room there's also additional fine-tune adjustment layers for
tailored accuracy you can make yellow Indigo and purple tint display optimizations on the
fly in addition to saturation and sensitivity for smoother transitions I definitely recommend
bringing down sensitivity to roughly 15 to 20 percent inside the video color match setting
there are four primary video syncing options solid same solid varied whole bar and bar segment
another benefit of coming from the camera kit to the box is that that Improvement in accuracy and
latency is immediately inherited by each and every separately sold Govi light product that you group
with the sync box inside the dreamview sync Center and you can now add a total of 10 devices versus
five for the Govi T1 and T2 camera backlight kits you can see that I added two sets of the Gobi wall
lights above my monitor and I also added the Gobi M1 light strip up top inside a diffuser
but my absolute favorite new product to use right now in dreamview is the rgbic neon rope desk light
this new rope light is specifically designed to wrap around the border of your desk or tabletop
the new diffuser housing uses an optical inverse light emission for a more uniform surface and
glare reductions this time around the rope light can even be cut to get the best fit and it's going
to be offered in various lengths this is the 3 meter or 9.8 foot version that I'm currently
using I'm also told that a 5 meter version will hit the market sometime around Q3 demo
foreign
to release an HDMI sync box but the upside of later entry is that a lot of The Kinks have
been ironed out I can't say enough how glad I am to see that their box doesn't come at the cost of
losing features such as Dolby Vision HDR CEC or Arc and it's a breath of fresh air to see Kobe
bringing something new to the table after many years of much of the same though even with the
later entry there's still a couple of limitations here that are still present which we'll get into
but overall I think that the AI in-game learning technology has a lot of potential though at
the moment only four game titles are currently supported however as previously mentioned Gobi
is planning to expand that library to 15 games by the end of the year and they also say that the AI
technology will be supported over the next couple of years which is inspiring knowing that they are
committed to the new technology that said I think it's going to be up to Govi to continue to expand
and evolve the AI technology Beyond simply the addition of game titles because I have a
feeling that the market for HDMI sync boxes is going to become even more saturated in 2023 in
the year to follow however even as that market grows for the vast majority of competing Brands
an established ecosystem and continual product support will most likely be lacking nanoleaf is
still a worthy mention here but it utilizes PC screen mirroring software rather than a sync box
which comes along with its own set of obstacles and limitations such as DRM restrictions and PC
casting requirements whenever you're away from your desk so as it stands now there are but two
primary providers that offer sync boxes along with their own comprehensive surround lighting
ecosystem Philips Hue and Gobi one of which frankly has a much lower entry price point
for 299 or less you'll get an all-inclusive HDMI color seeking light kit with the addition of The
Cutting Edge AI technology that Philips nor any other brand in the space is currently leveraging
you'll get the backlight a pair of 16 inch light bars two 4K HDMI cables and a 4 Port AI sync box
itself the cost of this kit is nearly the same price as the Philips sync box alone excluding
the light bars and light strips to get you up and running and as with Philips Hue the Govi
ecosystem is already primed and ready if you have a handful of products lying around already and it
has the ability to sync a Max of 10 separately sold products not including the kit light bars
or light strips themselves so you can go as over the top or subtle with your entertainment space as
you please and as I mentioned during the specs we'll be seeing an HDMI sync box kit designed
specifically for TVs 55 to 65 and 75 to 85 as well though I'll level with you we honestly may be a
little ways out before those models finally drop now I can share a whole lot more details beyond
that unfortunately but I can say that there are some very exciting features coming up ahead for
the TV design models as well but in the meantime do keep in mind I installed this kit recommended
for displays between 27 and 34 inches on a 49 inch super ultra wide monitor you could even
use a second longer lens light strip and set the zones accordingly for better coverage for larger
displays as I've done in the past however at the end of the day the biggest hurdle for the AI sync
box is that at a 4K resolution the device is going to cap at 60 hertz and 60fps which I have been
very very vocal and adamant about with Govi and they understand that Gamers want 4K 120 for the
new generation of gaming I'll leave it at that now in addition to the 4K 60 limitation another
feature that I honestly assume will be a given is actually not currently supported at the moment vrr
unfortunately variable refresh rate has to remain locked whenever that signal is being passed to the
AI sync box for Spider-Man on PS5 I was able to hit 4K locked at 60 and 1080p locked at 120 also
while we're getting into the drawbacks as with any sync box product the system is simply not
going to work with Smart TV streaming apps you'll have to use a dedicated streaming box such as a
fire Cube or Roku in order to pass the signal through this continues to be a major advantage
for golby's external camera cap technology any and every video Source at any resolution and refresh
rate combination will be uninhibited but you're going to incur more latency and more inaccuracies
both as a result of the lens color translation and other external light sources those issues
are virtually non-existent for the sync box color accuracy isn't 100 perfect but the new kit is most
certainly in the 90 percentile where accuracy is concerned and it's just a beautiful thing
to watch CGI content animations and just good old-fashioned films and TV shows the sync box
flat out knocks it out of the park if you've been following the channel for some time now
you'll know that I love to use this specific scene to test Govi like kit models in order to
see how they fare with skin tones an area that has traditionally been the most challenging for
the camera color Sense Technology at a glance you can see that the sync box is the unquestionable
winner and while the camera science continues to impress and improve with each new iteration
is safe to say that it still has a long way to go to catch up to the sink box but is certainly
understandable there's just so many variables and obstacles to overcome for an external based system
but that's okay because the camera can support technical features that the Box cannot pros and
cons guys pros and cons before I wrap things up there's one other area that I have to mention so
you guys aren't caught off guard which is that in the video color matching settings the bar segment
option doesn't currently function 100 correctly for Linux based devices such as the steam deck
this problem doesn't exist whatsoever for Windows OS the PS5 Nintendo switch or the Xbox series X so
be mindful if you're predominantly docking a steam deck to your monitor I hope you guys enjoyed this
review and found it helpful before you jet let me know what you think about the Gobi AI HDMI
sync box and when it comes to color syncing technology and Surround Lighting in general
what features and capabilities are most important to you also let me know what you think about the
new neon rgbic desk light and if you have any follow-ups make sure to drop them down below
as always thanks for watching and supporting the channel and I will see you guys in the next one
you know this is