Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,928
39,914


Nanoleaf today announced the launch of the PC Screen Mirror Lightstrip, a new desktop lighting option that is designed to make desktop gaming and entertainment more immersive with rainbow lighting effects.

nanoleaf-light-strip.jpg

The Screen Mirror Lightstrip connects to a computer using USB-C, and it is able to provide real-time dynamic mirroring that matches whatever is on your screen. It can match the output of a game or a movie, or it can sync to music, with the lights changing to match the rhythm of a song. There is also an Orchestrator mode that provides access to different moods for music experience customization. One mood is included, with more available through a Nanoleaf Premium subscription.

Nanoleaf designed the Screen Mirror Lightstrip for displays up to 32 inches in size, and it features a flexible zigzag design for simple and precise installation.

The Lightstrip pairs to a display using the Nanoleaf Desktop app, which is available for both PCs and Macs. More than 16 million colors are supported for dynamic lighting animations and visual effects.

The PC Screen Mirror Lightstrip from Nanoleaf is priced at $50 and it can be pre-ordered from the Nanoleaf website. It is set to ship at the end of March.

Update: This article was updated to clarify that Nanoleaf Orchestrator is an included feature in the Nanoleaf Desktop app and does not require a subscription to use, but a Nanoleaf subscription is necessary for unlocking the full range of moods.

Article Link: Nanoleaf Launches New Screen Mirror Lightstrip for Mac Displays
 
Last edited:
"With a Nanoleaf Premium subscription, there is an Orchestrator mode that provides access to different moods for music experience customization."

Ok stop right there. Why do I need a subscription to access a hardware mode?? I couldn't find anything on the Nanoleaf site that tells me what a "Premium" subscription gets me.
 
I keep wondering, why do gamers/twitch streamers ALL seem to have this odd obsession with LED lighting setups? It’s all purple/bluish.
Well I can't speak for them, but I use colorful background lighting mostly just to annoy you, specifically. :p

I love the price of these compared to other smart/strip lights. I've been using an old desk lamp as bias lighting behind my Studio Display, but these would be much more fun. Might have to pick some up once they're more readily available.
 
So usually these sorts of things use a camera that hangs off the top front of the monitor. But if this one is monitoring video output in the software, I wonder what kind of performance hit that will bring.
 
So usually these sorts of things use a camera that hangs off the top front of the monitor. But if this one is monitoring video output in the software, I wonder what kind of performance hit that will bring.
Was thinking the same. I’d almost rather have a silly camera.
 
Which is a bit suspicious in my book as Nanoleaf is not particularly known for being affordable by any means...
Well, they announced a few weeks ago that they were making some of their basics affordable, no? Maybe this comes from that plan
 
I keep wondering, why do gamers/twitch streamers ALL seem to have this odd obsession with LED lighting setups? It’s all purple/bluish.
Hi! Not a gamer, nor a twitch streamer, nor anything to do with anything about gaming/streaming, so I can't speak for them, however, I have enough LEDs to light up my neighborhood.

Quite literally, think of a place, there are LEDs, either smart that work directly with homekit or on smart plug for easy turn on off.

The obsession is, they look so damn good! And the nano leaf 4Ds for the TV just give it a very fun experience.
Now, purple/blue/green whatever, thats just personal preference. My lights are also based on holidays, so halloween is very orange, yellow, and purple, while Christmas goes white, red and green.
 
I keep wondering, why do gamers/twitch streamers ALL seem to have this odd obsession with LED lighting setups? It’s all purple/bluish.

Easier on streamer camera for the end viewers. Purple also might be a nod to twitch’s official colors.
 
High quality, controllable, scene-matching bias lighting is actually quite expensive. For what these (claim) to do, $50 is, if anything, suspiciously inexpensive.
Yeah, I imagine that's where the "subscription" mentioned above comes in. I like bias lighting quite a lot but I'm not paying for a subscription to use it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ankaa
I love the concept of these light strips that are able to reflect/augment/mirror the colors that on your screen, but in practice I’ve found it more distracting than anything else. I purchased the Nanoleaf 4D lightstrip, which is similar to this but for TVs. It utilizes a small camera you point at the TV to determine what colors the lightstrip should produce, and while it is generally accurate, for fast moving scenes, the constant changing light of the lightstrip is just really annoying.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: ralph_sws
Out of curiosity, how exactly does the device know what colour to produce? Does Apple provide an API that reports an "average colour on the screen" or is this device / application capturing the actual screen output and analyzing this for itself? Given that this is an internet connected device / application, surely that could be an avenue for passing user screen capture data back to the company.
 
So usually these sorts of things use a camera that hangs off the top front of the monitor. But if this one is monitoring video output in the software, I wonder what kind of performance hit that will bring.
The best ones take an HDMI input signal, (presumably) decode it into a framebuffer, and for each segment of LEDs, select an average of colors near to the segment in the image, and can do it all in real time - with no lag to the display or signal source, because it's all handled just by watching the HDMI signal passing by.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.