[DIY] Amblight project/guide - Hyperion - WS2801/ WS2812B / APA102 (3 Viewers)

[TheBatfink]

Ahh round faced trunking I used that exact same stuff for hiding cables they stock it at B&Q in the UK

Question. If I'm understanding correctly, using the rPi in addition to the Arduino has two benefits? 1 is the ability to incorporate HDMI capture of sources other than MePo and 2 offload the CPU load to the rPi? So even if you don't want multiple HDMI capture you could still ignore the capture portion and still benefit not having the PC working harder?

What if you omit the rPi and just go with Arduino? I'm assuming Atmowin controls the show and the Arduino just drives the LEDs? In this setup, how is the Arduino connected to the host machine.. just USB? I notice on the Uno boards they don't have Ethernet?

Thanks Awesome guide.

 

[RicoHTPC]

By the way - there's a way to completely outsource the ambilight stuff to the rpi thus not affecting the cpu at all.
With lightberry for example (you can also find complete diy solutions in the net) you can capture every hdmi source to power an ambilight system.

 

[Rick164]

Ahh round faced trunking I used that exact same stuff for hiding cables they stock it at B&Q in the UK

Question. If I'm understanding correctly, using the rPi in addition to the Arduino has two benefits? 1 is the ability to incorporate HDMI capture of sources other than MePo and 2 offload the CPU load to the rPi? So even if you don't want multiple HDMI capture you could still ignore the capture portion and still benefit not having the PC working harder?

What if you omit the rPi and just go with Arduino? I'm assuming Atmowin controls the show and the Arduino just drives the LEDs? In this setup, how is the Arduino connected to the host machine.. just USB? I notice on the Uno boards they don't have Ethernet?

Thanks Awesome guide.

The Arduino has 2 benefits mainly to offload the rPI and allow for a broad support of leds supported by FastSPI (Arduino) , for video capture it will work without an Arduino however you can only use the WS2801 and other older led chips

If you go with an Arduino and leave out the rPI there are a few other options like AtmoDuino V1 or V2 (Nevcariel) and SEDU, all can be used with AtmoWin which is also supported by AtmoLight.
The Arduino would only need to be connected via USB to your Windows machine and will acts as an COM port which allows AtmoWin to communicate with it.

It works just as fine as Hyperion however you lose the ability for video capture and a few other cool features of Hyperion
Believe @azzuro had an AtmoDuino sketch for the latest version of FastSPI, haven't used AtmoDuino in years but made a tutorial for it:

https://bitbucket.org/RickDB/atmoduino/wiki/Home

It's a bit dated as FastSPI moved to github and you can use more led chips now.
Also a newer/better version of AtmoWin is listed in the Mediaportal Extension Manager, used SEDU (similar to AtmoDuino) with AtmoWin for years and worked great.
Since you can always just update the Arduino sketch and stick an rPI between later this will work as well.

Will be doing some benchmarks on an old AMD APU which is very low end with Hyperion (WS2801) + AtmoLight soon to see how much CPU power is exactly needed, doubt that it needs much considering we get the image straight from Mediaportal and forward that to Hyperion for processing.

By the way - there's a way to completely outsource the ambilight stuff to the rpi thus not affecting the cpu at all.
With lightberry for example (you can also find complete diy solutions in the net) you can capture every hdmi source to power an ambilight system.

Most off it is already offloaded when using AtmoLight as it's very efficient in getting the image and forwarding that to Hyperion , with the video capture solution you do have one downside and that is losing 24P mode which in my opinion is a big one.
Technical reason is that component signals are in 50/60hz and you can't divide that into 24hz without some serious number crunching and frame insertion which those tiny boxes can't do, haven't seen any solutions out there that can resolve this as well.

Still find it a bit odd that most of the guides don't mention this as there's no way around it as I used the same approach as the AIO solutions.
Also tested it on my AVR (Denon) and with HDMI splitter and both had the same results (50/60hz restrictions) because the AVR will stick with the signal information that is limited as otherwise one of the signals wouldn't work.
Only fix that might work is that if someone were to make an HDMI->USB stick that functioned under Linux as that will remove the analog signal conversion.

So would stick with AtmoLight for video playback and only use that for consoles / pc gaming / set top boxes etc. , you can use a remote controlled power brick for the HDMI->Composite device to allow for easily toggling off the video capture solution (which allows for 24P mode again).

 

[RicoHTPC]

Still find it a bit odd that most of the guides don't mention this as there's no way around it as I used the same approach as the AIO solutions.

I contacted a guy from lightberry support and he claimed that it would be capable of handling 24p content...
If it wasn't a bit too expensive to just try I would do so.

 

[Rick164]

Looked at the LightBerry site but can't find any exact information so far, do notice a few odd things in this picture:

In one of the HDMI connectors there's some sort of dongle and in the below picture the premium kit is listed as an HDMI to USB device.

If they somehow made an device that would allow 24hz composite input/output than that would certainly solve it but sadly don't see enough information on the site itself.
Also what they could have meant in the email is that it can handle 24P media however can it actually output an 24P signal to the television as well is the question

They're still using the stk1160 chip for video grabbing which is known to have issues with Hyperion/rPI so would definitely skip that HDMI kit or replace the videograbber (~15 euro), bit skeptical about LightBerry so maybe someone who owns one can post here.

/edit: found one German thread which got into the 24P support as well:

http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-216-670-3.html

and this one:

http://www.forum-raspberrypi.de/Thread-ambi-tv-24p

 

[ixdvc]

In these threads they mention that also the HDMI Splitter could cause problems with 24p or 3D. Do you have problems with that or do your AVR has two HDMI outs?

 

[Rick164]

Have 2 HDMI outs on my AVR, so tested a few things:

- ARC works with video capture on
- 3D Blu-Ray required 24P so that was a no go with video capture on

If you use an splitter you don't have an dedicated line to and from your receiver which ARC needs so ARC link isn't gonna work in that situation.
No Blu-Ray 3D+ambilight I can live with as 99% of the movies out there using it are crap and I get an headache after 30 minutes

Hard to find detailed information on this as only the Germans seemed to have done some extended testing as well, will be doing a new Hyperion install for family soon so will be taking new step by step pictures and new videos
Did some testing with GTA 5 with video capture enabled and it was great, no delay and colors were accurate.

 

[ixdvc]

I also do not need the 3D function (glasses on top of glasses is not that much fun), but it would be nice to have the option
I think I'll try the video capture version (being one more german who does extended testing) and if it is not that nice those parts were only 75 euro extra and can be returned anyway if I am fast enough

 

[RicoHTPC]

I think I'll try the video capture version

You are talking about the lightberry premium kit, right?
I am very curious about the 24p issue with this!

 

[ixdvc]

No, I don't meant the Lightberry Premium. I want to build it by myself using the following parts (only the video capture stuff):

Generic Mini HDMI RCA 2 AV-Konverter
Ligawo ® HDMI Splitter 1x2 2-fach
EasyCap Video USB Grabber Fushicai UT007
Cinch Kabel - Video
USB 2.0 4-Port Hub mit Netzteil

I think 24p will definitely not work because of the HDMI converter, but the splitter is the only HDMI-1.4 one I found and I hope that at least 3D and ARC are working then.