Post by priceyrice on Nov 9, 2016 17:21:33 GMT
So I received my dreamscreen last week, 11 days after ordering it arrived at my home in the UK with a surprisingly small amount of customs to pay. It appears that it was the UK customs which held up delivery since it was dispatched the day I ordered and in the UK the day after. Still I'm quite impressed with this delivery time.
I haven't had that much time to mess around with it due to going away the day after I received it but I thought it would still be worth giving a quick review for any potential buyers who come across this board the same way I did.
Anyway to the actual device. I found this extremely easy to set up on my own. Basic instructions since the thing is pretty much plug and play. I ordered the mega and it fits my 55 inch TV perfectly. The led strips have all stuck properly to the TV so any concerns I had about that were quickly dismissed. Total set up time was around 15 minutes. Would have been quicker if my dog had left me alone!
The one slight issue, if you can call it an issue, was deciding on the placement of the leds at the top of the TV. First time I set it up I had the leds facing the ceiling rather than the wall. I subsequently changed them to face the wall since that's what the set up pictures show. However I didn't mess around with this enough to know which positioning was better. They both looked quite similar to me.
Now, how do the lights look? I have to admit I have been blown away by the effect from the light. I had a little mess with ambient mode and it's cool, I haven't tried music mode yet but where the device really comes into its own is tv mode. There is next to no latency between what is on the TV and the colour of the led. Any slight delay and it would ruin the effect, so big props for this. The lights are also brighter than I was expecting having read some reviews. You don't need total darkness to appreciate it. I watch TV in the evenings with a corner lamp on in the room and the effect is still great.
I did the obligatory star wars light saber battle scene which looked incredible, I then messed around with some light shows on YouTube and found myself mesmerised by these for an hour (will post a video of one on the correct thread later). However, the best was yet to come as I discovered yesterday while watching the new planet earth. This literally blew my mind. The vivid colours in the show and the incredible picture must make this one of the beast shows to watch with the lights. Changing from the dark red of the volcano scene to the bright green during the forest scenes was incredible. The lights really made viewing this show twice as enjoyable. I'm now struggling to watch TV without the damn lights! I may consider getting a second set for my bedroom tv!
I have been watching while having my sky box plugged into the splitter and then switching out to my x box one s hdmi cable when gaming. I have to say as well that i was expecting to have to change the resolution manually on my x box when playing games from 4k to 1080p but this hasn't been required so either the splitter or the x box is automatically downgrading the resolution. Either way this was an unexpected nice surprise.
I should add that I haven't had issues with the Bluetooth either. I know some people have. I have mine right behind my TV and always seems to connecthe first time.
I should also add that customer service has been exceptional. All my initial queries before buying were dealt with very efficiently.
My only qualms with the lights are the price, but that's mainly due to the pound being so weak at the time of buying. However, Compared against other products (I researched quite heavily) the price seems average and this was one of the only kits which was pretty much plug and play. My second issue is the light on the splitter itself. This often seems to shine bright red and can interfere with the leds that I have in that part of the TV. I know I can fix this with getting a longer hdmi and moving the splitter away from my TV, I just haven't got round to it yet.
Sorry for the long review, i had meant it to be shorter. I hope it helps someone though as it was tough finding a review from someone who wasn't given a free use of the product for review purposes. If your on the fence about this product my advice is buy it! I know there is a 4k WiFi version potentially coming out later in 2017 however I understand that you will be able to upgrade the splitter rather than buying a completely new set of leds. So I recommend taking the plunge now and upgrading later of needed.
Thanks dreamscreen!
Sorry for any formatting issues, review has been written on my phone.
I haven't had that much time to mess around with it due to going away the day after I received it but I thought it would still be worth giving a quick review for any potential buyers who come across this board the same way I did.
Anyway to the actual device. I found this extremely easy to set up on my own. Basic instructions since the thing is pretty much plug and play. I ordered the mega and it fits my 55 inch TV perfectly. The led strips have all stuck properly to the TV so any concerns I had about that were quickly dismissed. Total set up time was around 15 minutes. Would have been quicker if my dog had left me alone!
The one slight issue, if you can call it an issue, was deciding on the placement of the leds at the top of the TV. First time I set it up I had the leds facing the ceiling rather than the wall. I subsequently changed them to face the wall since that's what the set up pictures show. However I didn't mess around with this enough to know which positioning was better. They both looked quite similar to me.
Now, how do the lights look? I have to admit I have been blown away by the effect from the light. I had a little mess with ambient mode and it's cool, I haven't tried music mode yet but where the device really comes into its own is tv mode. There is next to no latency between what is on the TV and the colour of the led. Any slight delay and it would ruin the effect, so big props for this. The lights are also brighter than I was expecting having read some reviews. You don't need total darkness to appreciate it. I watch TV in the evenings with a corner lamp on in the room and the effect is still great.
I did the obligatory star wars light saber battle scene which looked incredible, I then messed around with some light shows on YouTube and found myself mesmerised by these for an hour (will post a video of one on the correct thread later). However, the best was yet to come as I discovered yesterday while watching the new planet earth. This literally blew my mind. The vivid colours in the show and the incredible picture must make this one of the beast shows to watch with the lights. Changing from the dark red of the volcano scene to the bright green during the forest scenes was incredible. The lights really made viewing this show twice as enjoyable. I'm now struggling to watch TV without the damn lights! I may consider getting a second set for my bedroom tv!
I have been watching while having my sky box plugged into the splitter and then switching out to my x box one s hdmi cable when gaming. I have to say as well that i was expecting to have to change the resolution manually on my x box when playing games from 4k to 1080p but this hasn't been required so either the splitter or the x box is automatically downgrading the resolution. Either way this was an unexpected nice surprise.
I should add that I haven't had issues with the Bluetooth either. I know some people have. I have mine right behind my TV and always seems to connecthe first time.
I should also add that customer service has been exceptional. All my initial queries before buying were dealt with very efficiently.
My only qualms with the lights are the price, but that's mainly due to the pound being so weak at the time of buying. However, Compared against other products (I researched quite heavily) the price seems average and this was one of the only kits which was pretty much plug and play. My second issue is the light on the splitter itself. This often seems to shine bright red and can interfere with the leds that I have in that part of the TV. I know I can fix this with getting a longer hdmi and moving the splitter away from my TV, I just haven't got round to it yet.
Sorry for the long review, i had meant it to be shorter. I hope it helps someone though as it was tough finding a review from someone who wasn't given a free use of the product for review purposes. If your on the fence about this product my advice is buy it! I know there is a 4k WiFi version potentially coming out later in 2017 however I understand that you will be able to upgrade the splitter rather than buying a completely new set of leds. So I recommend taking the plunge now and upgrading later of needed.
Thanks dreamscreen!
Sorry for any formatting issues, review has been written on my phone.