I just can't stop staring at this hypnotic DIY Ambilight project

An Arduino powered Philips ambilight project — (Image credit: LPG Youtube channel)

Colour me excited. This homebrew lighting project lets you imbue your boring, lifeless gaming monitor with the magic of your very own makeshift Philips Ambilight feature. And while it may not have all the titillating features of the Philips Momentum on our best 4K monitors guide, it'll tide you over while you save up.

It may be devoid of the Momentum's 120Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time, but this project (via Sweclockers) will provide a remarkably gaudy, somewhat spectral experience as you wander through the vast expanses of your favourite game worlds.

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Of course, it's a little more complicated than that. Accurate voltage calculations are necessary to ensure you don't blow anything up, and I expect there's a fair amount of soldering involved. Even attaching the lightstrip to the back of the TV with double sided tape looks fiddly as heck, but if you're feeling handy and want to get totally immersed in your game worlds, this will be the project for you.

There are other solutions if you want to turn your monitor into a lightshow, but this is the brightest one we've come across recently, and from the video above looks more responsive than NZXT's lighting kit.

In fact, this thing is so darn bright I'm convinced it could turn even the gloomy vistas of Metro Exodus into a freaking carnival.

Having been obsessed with game mechanics, computers and graphics for three decades, Katie took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni and has been writing about digital games, tabletop games and gaming technology for over five years since. She can be found facilitating board game design workshops and optimising everything in her path.