Have you seen those colorful LED light strips that sync with your TV screen’s visuals? Personally, I’m not a fan. While they certainly grab attention, they can be quite distracting, especially when they malfunction—which tends to happen more often than you’d think. Plus, they can alter the colors you see on screen and come with a hefty price tag.
Fortunately, there’s a simpler and more affordable method to enhance your TV viewing experience while also alleviating some of the eye strain associated with watching a bright screen in a dim room. I’ve been using this alternative for years, and I can’t recommend it enough.
It’s an LED light strip, but instead of the flashy, color-syncing types, this one emits a soft white light adjusted to around 6500 Kelvin—the ideal daylight color temperature recognized by TV calibrators, filmmakers, and video professionals.
Rather than creating a vibrant light spectacle, this “bias” light strip casts a gentle glow, operating at about 10 to 15 percent of your TV’s maximum brightness. When set correctly, you might hardly notice it during an extensive Netflix marathon. Nevertheless, that subtle LED illumination serves several important purposes.
A properly calibrated 6500K LED bias strip gives off a faint glow, but offers big benefits.
Ben Patterson/Foundry
First off, because it’s tuned to 6500K (provided you choose a well-calibrated strip), the colors on your screen will appear more authentic. For professionals, 6500K serves as the standard for “white,” essential for color grading. Thus, having a gentle 6500K light behind your TV increases the chances of seeing the colors as the filmmakers intended. In contrast, those vibrant lights from synchronized LED strips can distort your perception.
Furthermore, a 6500K light strip remarkably enhances the perceived contrast of your TV images, especially if you don’t own an OLED display. The subtle aura from the strip creates a darker impression in dimly lit areas of the screen, enhancing the visuals almost like HDR without needing to splurge on a new TV. While OLEDs already possess fantastic contrast ratios, older LCD models can undoubtedly benefit from this affordable upgrade.
It’s a quick process to affix the LED strip to your TV.
Ben Patterson/Foundry
Lastly, a white-light LED strip can significantly minimize the eye strain that occurs when watching bright images in a dark environment for extended periods. By slightly increasing the ambient light, the gentle glow helps reduce the sharp contrast between the dark surroundings and the illuminated screen, providing a reprieve for your eyes and preventing discomfort like blurred vision, watery eyes, and headaches.
For my setup, I prefer the Scenic Labs LX1 Bias Lighting strip, which ranges from $26.95 for a one-meter strip to $51.95 for six meters directly from the manufacturer. While this price point is slightly higher than what you might find on Amazon, the color accuracy of this model is commendable, and it has performed reliably for me over the past three years.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly alternative, you can find a 6500K light strip from Govee for around $30 for 16.4 feet.
Regardless of your choice, I highly recommend incorporating an LED bias light strip into your TV setup—and they work brilliantly with computer monitors, too! (I have a couple enhancing my office setup).
