hello fellow ambilight builders.
First of all this is just a personal story in general and I wonder why a lot of builders always tend to use the most difficult ledstrip route there is (seems) to get it to lite...
The one and only SK6812!! 
why this strip, why the choice to use it. Especially for beginner builders. It's a clone strip...
see in this forum, the only thing you read about is (big) problems to get it to work. Even with PWM or SPI signal this strip isn't for the weak 
to get it to bloom into full colour spectrum.
And no it isn't the best, the HD107S is really really good without the white channel separate..
If you don't believe me I will put a video on the tube to prove it to you.
You see, alot has to do with proper PSU and solder connections. That will also improve or make the ledstrip worse than it is capable to.
So make sure using good voltage ⚡️ see and check specifications of the strip. Check the specs!
if you want a easy build on a raspi then. . Read along. Just used a standard Hyperbian build with build in controller.
when I first started I used the WS2801 and it was a walk in the park running on SPI with 96 leds only.
My second strip was a APA102, using the SPI controller with 130 leds was a walk in the park.
My thirth strip was a HD107s, again it run flawlessly with 300 leds on APA102 controller, only resizing SPI buffer and that was it.
in this case i like easy, easy is fine and good
All those ledstrips run flawlessly on a Raspi 3b....
With Hyperion.NG 2.013, so not even the newest branche. I never had to deal with extra modules or channel converters to increase signal from GPIO. Just standard GPIO 10/11 and SOLDERING directly onto the GPIO. Voltage inserted in 3 points on the strip.
so there you have it, it's a insight and maybe a plan how you also can build it.
First try it the easy way and then the intermediate way to expert.
That would be my advice.
happy builds.
Greetings.