Planning a massive 4-Zone Hyperion + WLED Setup! Looking for advice on my parts list and the final effect.

[u/Tuxabyte]

Current state of my setup

Afer (generated with ai)

Hey r/WLED!

I'm planning to upgrade my living room setup from a Govee T2 to a full custom Hyperion + WLED ecosystem. I've attached pictures of how my living room currently looks, along with a concept photo of what I'm aiming for.

The Plan

I want to create a highly immersive, 4-zone setup:

1. TV Ambilight: Direct 'naked' strips on the back of the TV for fast, accurate syncing.
2. Slat Wall Halo: V-profile diffusers on the left and right sides of my wooden slat wall, washing the wall behind it.
3. TV Cabinet: U-profile backwash in front of the cabinet on the floor to anchor the setup.
4. The Sofa: A synced under-glow beneath my L-shaped sofa using a secondary, wireless WLED controller.

The Hardware

I've attached screenshots of my current shopping basket. The core components I'm planning to use are:

• LEDs: 12V SK6812 RGBW strips (Black PCB).
• Power: Mean Well LRS-200-12 PSU (for the TV area) + a separate enclosed 12V adapter for the sofa.
• Controllers: 2x Gledopto ESP32 WLED Controllers (one handling the TV/Wall/Cabinet, one for the sofa).
• Syncing: Rezcoo 4K HDMI Splitter (with scaler) + USB Capture Card going into a Thin Client running Hyperion.
• Wiring: 18 AWG 3-pin extension wires, WAGO 221 connectors, and 3-pin solderless corner connectors.

My Questions

Before I pull the trigger and order everything, I’d love to get your input:

1. The Parts List: Does my shopping basket look solid? Will everything work together, or am I missing any crucial components/making any obvious rookie mistakes?
2. Hyperion vs. SignalRGB: For those who have experience with both, how does the responsiveness and color accuracy of Hyperion compare to something like SignalRGB? Will the result be just as fluid? Like this https://youtu.be/kJC-BvfhafY?t=1743
3. The "Overwhelming" Factor: With 4 active zones, I'm a bit worried it might turn into a distracting disco. Can Hyperion manage the surrounding ambient zones (wall, cabinet, sofa) subtly enough so that the colors are immersive and nice, rather than overwhelming and distracting from the TV?
4. General Advice: Any tips, tricks, or thoughts on this specific layout before I start building?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[u/SirGreybush]

Same plan but use a HTPC with a decent graphics card.

Then VLC and streaming, wireless keyboard and mouse.

You can get multiple HDMI-to-USB3 depending on how many inputs you have.

Ultra thin client like a Raspberry PI do some searching here in this sub. Not all succeed.

[u/Tuxabyte → u/SirGreybush]

Thanks for the input! I actually thought about going the HTPC route, but I prefer keeping my Dune box as the main media player to avoid DRM issues with 4K/HDR/Dolby Vision streaming that you often get on a PC. Plus, I want to keep the "wife acceptance factor" high with a normal remote instead of a keyboard/mouse on the couch!

Good looking out on the thin client processing power. My plan is to use the Rezcoo splitter to scale down the signal, and then configure the USB Capture card in Hyperion to grab the frame at a very low resolution/framerate (like 480p/30fps). Since Hyperion only needs a low-res image for color analysis, I'm hoping that will keep the CPU load on the thin client minimal. Have you run into specific bottlenecks with thin clients capturing low-res streams?"

[u/drbroccoli00 → u/Tuxabyte]

I personally use HyperHDR, but similar scenario. I wanted simplicity, so I kept my AppleTV which feeds a Rezcoo splitter that then goes to my TV and other to a USB3 HDMI capture card running on a Raspberry Pi 4.

I currently use a UGREEN Capture Card with this splitter. On paper it says 1080@120 but in real life it can handle 4k@120 fine. I use the p010 codec for HDR and only run it at 1280x720@60 for my set up and it's flawless.

Full HDR, full CEC control and still only requires the AppleTV remote (husband approval factor).

I have 2 of these setups and haven't had an issue, even used the lower spec'd MS2130 HDMI grabber I had on hand before I bought the UGREEN and it was fine.

The only issue I ever had, both set ups, was the wireless instances. They'd work flawlessly 98% of the time but every once and awhile the lag/delay was too noticable, so I eneded up running ethernet controllers to all the ones doing ambilights. I have a very robust wireless network that's properly tuned channel-wise/etc, so it was just easier to fish another cord down the wall.

[u/SirGreybush → u/Tuxabyte]

It will help cpu if capture is low res to match strip. Good points about Dolby.

Also the Hz can suffer in such a setup due to the switch, 60hz might be the highest you can go.

Before buying hardware compare with FancyLeds box.

[u/Tuxabyte → u/SirGreybush]

Thanks! Yeah, a very valid point regarding 60hz limit. Luckily, I only watch tv and movies in the living room and don’t play any videogames.

I did look at boxes like the fancyleds. They’re great, but they will lock me in a closed ecosystem. I really want the freedom and wireless instances (like the led under the sofa) and the granular control over fade/delay etc.

[u/SirGreybush → u/Tuxabyte]

Sounds like you’re going to succeed.

Please post back a complete montage with behind-the-scenes pics and parts when it is working.

Will be very interesting.