🌟 AmbilightTV

Philips Ambilight-style ambient lighting for any TV or monitor — using a Tapo L920 LED strip with NO EXTRA HARDWARE!!!

AmbilightTV turns a Tapo L920 LED strip into a real-time ambient light synced to your screen.

• A Kotlin app running on your Android TV captures screen-edge colors
• Then streams them over UDP to a Python script on your laptop
• This scipt then drives the strip to match what's on screen (all with no microcontrollers, no custom firmware)

---

🎬 Demo Showcase

Demo_showcase.mp4

Main — Start/Stop screen-rec service and an IP feild for the receiver device's address.

Demo Mode — The Android TV app includes a built-in demo that cycles through colors so you can instantly see your strip respond in real time without any content playing.

Settings — Let's you tweak screen capture fps and the resolution at which color data is streamed.

---

🗺️ How It Works

┌─────────────────────────┐      UDP       ┌──────────────────────────┐   Tapo API  ┌─────────────┐
│  Android TV             │  ───────────▶ |  Python Script (Laptop)  │ ──────────▶ │  Tapo L920  │
│  (Kotlin App)           │    low-res     │                          │ single RGB  │  LED Strip  │
│  Screen Edge Sampling   │    pixel array │  Color Analysis Engine   │    color    └─────────────┘
└─────────────────────────┘                └──────────────────────────┘

1. Android TV App (Kotlin)

• Captures the whole/edges of the TV screen at low resolution (~30 FPS) using Android's screen capture API
• Packages the pixel array and streams it to the laptop over UDP
• Includes a Demo Mode that cycles through colors for setup/testing without needing any content to be playing

2. Python Controller (Laptop)

• Receives the pixel array from the TV app over UDP
• Runs a color analysis algorithm to determine the best single color for the strip — configurable via the UI:
  • Most dominant color across the frame
  • Screen edge sampling focus
  • Smoothing, saturation boost, brightness floor, and stability controls
• Sends the resulting color to the Tapo L920 via its local network API

⚠️ Important: This is NOT addressable LED control

The Tapo L920 is controlled as a single color unit — the whole strip outputs one color at a time. The algorithm's job is to find the best representative color from the screen at any moment.

NOTE: The strip itself is addresible, although the Tapo API for addresible color mapping is unfit as it introduces an on/off strobing glitch.

---

🖥️ Two Input Modes - Python script

The python script also has it's own native screen-rec function that let's it work without the TV app.

Mode	Use Case	Input Source
TV Mode	Android TV with LED strip behind it	UDP stream from Kotlin app
Screen Mode	PC/laptop as main display (or PC connected to TV via HDMI)	Direct screen capture on the laptop

In Screen Mode, the Python script captures your laptop screen directly — no Android app needed. This is ideal if your PC is connected to a TV via HDMI or you just want ambilight on your monitor.

---

📂 Project Structure

AmbilightTV/
├── app/                        # Android TV Kotlin app
│   └── src/main/java/
│       ├── MainActivity.kt         # UI + service control
│       ├── ScreenCaptureService.kt # Screen edge sampling
│       └── UdpSender.kt            # UDP streaming
├── Laptop python script/       # Python controller
│   └── ...                         # Color analysis + Tapo API control
└── README.md

---

🚀 Setup

Requirements

• Android TV running the Kotlin app
• Laptop/PC on the same local network as the TV and the Tapo L920
• Tapo L920 LED strip set up via the Tapo app

Step 1 — Android TV App

1. Build and sideload the APK onto your Android TV via Android Studio
2. Open the app and enter your laptop's local IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.xx)
3. Tap START SERVICE — the app will begin streaming screen data

Step 2 — Python Controller

1. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Enter your Tapo L920's IP address along with Tapo login credentials and then press Enter

   # ===================== CONFIG & DEFAULTS =====================
    DEFAULT_IP = "192.168.1.xx"
    TAPO_EMAIL = "TAPO_EMAIL"
    TAPO_PASSWORD = "TAPO_PASSWORD"
   

3. Run the controller:

   python main.py

4. Select your input source:

   • SCREEN (TV) — receives UDP from the Android app
   • SCREEN (PC) — captures your laptop screen directly

5. Tune the color parameters to your taste and hit START

---

⚙️ Python Controller Parameters

I've highlighed in bold the options that give the best output in my trial runs.

Parameter	Description
Input Source	TV Receiver or Direct screen capture
Scan Logic	Entire Screen or Only Edges
Color Smoothing	Python-Based Smoothing or Tapo Native Smoothing (in-app settings)
Min Brightness	Floor brightness to control dynamic range (keep 60-80)
Saturation Boost	Punch up colors for more vivid output (personally 1.6)
Stability %	How dominant a color needs to be before it's considered the main color (keep at 1%)
Calculation	Default (avg of colors and black) or Vivid (avg of only colors, blacks will be ignored)

---

🎮 In-Action

Gow_demo.mp4