First thing to report is that this lamp is way too bright, I'd usually have the lights dimmed to a lower level than the lamp was outputting, even so it was an enjoyable way to watch a film. I have 2 rentals to watch this weekend Riddick and 2 Guns (will be a first watch for both), I chose Riddick as it was a safe bet there would be lots of dark scenes and I wanted to know how this would improve black levels.
Findings:
It is certainly a less distracting way to watch a film, the TV being back-lit really focused my attention on the screen, even during the painfully slow first 30 minutes of the Directors Cut of Riddick.
Not a hint of eye strain, as stated above I usually have the lights on as I experience some eye strain without.
No (perceivable) screen reflection, I have a Samsung with a gloss screen and can quite often see room reflections in very dark scenes.
Black levels increased, I was quite happy with my black levels but found I could make out a lot more detail.
I can't really comment on any improvement in colour perception as Riddick doesn't really have any natural colours and it's not a film I'm familiar with. Skin tones did appear more natural and all colours did seem more vivid.
All in all an enjoyable experiment, I do have more lamps but they'll take more that 2 minutes of setup time, hopefully I'll have time when I get home tonight to setup a T8 before tonight's feature, 2 Guns, gives a whole new meaning to tube rolling!
On a side note, (and I know I'm either preaching to the choir or about to start a fearsome debate
) earlier in the week I swapped my stock figure of 8 mains lead for an aftermarket one with approximately (multistrand) 2.5mm cores, this yielded a massive improvement in picture quality even when plugged into a 4 way mains block.