General Newbie Questions

[vanc_trough]

Hello all! First of all, let me thank everyone here for seeming so friendly! I've been stalking the forums for a bit and am happy to see how positive and helpful everyone is. I have a few general questions that I would like to ask in preparation for this season. Let me first state that I have not yet purchased any LOR items, but would like to do so in the near future (Showtime Starter Pack). The eventual plan would be to add more complex items (RGB, etc) in the future. Right now,the plan would be to just do mainly static lights with a few props that work with music (small trees and maybe a small face).

 

1. I noticed that everyone talks about a summer sale for LOR. How much are items typically discounted during this time? I'm way late to the game this year, but would consider going ahead and buying the Showtime Starter Pack if the price isn't typically dropped too much during the summer sale.

2. Do any other sales typically occurr prior to the christmas season?

3. Seeing as how I just purchased a house, I will need to buy a bunch of Christmas lights this year (whether it be for static purposes or for LOR purposes). I saw in a forum post that most people use big box store lights without problem. If I were to decide to just do static lights this year, with the hope of buying the starter pack and integrating LOR next year, are there any particular type of Christmas lights that I should avoid (i don't want to buy lights just to have them not integrate into the LOR system)? Are there any particular lights/other things that I should look to buy when I find a good deal?

4. Is the Showtime Started Pack either w/ or w/o the sequences a good deal? Would I be better off purchasing just the Residential Series 16 Channel Starter Package since I have a PC and can just buy a few simple sequences off of the store/find them on the forums? It's approximately $300 cheaper.

 

Thanks for your time!

Edited October 23, 2017 by vanc_trough

[k6ccc]

6 hours ago, vanc_trough said:

Hello all! First of all, let me thank everyone here for seeming so friendly! I've been stalking the forums for a bit and am happy to see how positive and helpful everyone is. I have a few general questions that I would like to ask in preparation for this season. Let me first state that I have not yet purchased any LOR items, but would like to do so in the near future (Showtime Starter Pack). The eventual plan would be to add more complex items (RGB, etc) in the future. Right now,the plan would be to just do mainly static lights with a few props that work with music (small trees and maybe a small face).

Welcome to the addiction known as Christmas lighting.  Realisticly, you should plan on running completely static this year and make 2018 your first LOR year.  You really are very late to get stuff bought and learn enough and be set up a month from now.  However you CAN make purchases of your static lights that you will be able to use once you start using LOR.

6 hours ago, vanc_trough said:

1. I noticed that everyone talks about a summer sale for LOR. How much are items typically discounted during this time? I'm way late to the game this year, but would consider going ahead and buying the Showtime Starter Pack if the price isn't typically dropped too much during the summer sale.

A lot of the manufacturers have sales in the January / February timeframe.  Also right after Christmas, most of the retail stores discount the living daylights on Christmas stuff so plan on going shopping on December 26th.  LOR has a spring sale in around late March / early April.  This has better pricing than the summer sale, but quantities are limited and some things run out in minutes (yes, in minutes).  They call it a mad grab sale for a reason.  Some stuff lasts for a day or two.  The LOR summer sale is around August or so and does not have quite the discount as the spring sale, but quantities are not limited.

6 hours ago, vanc_trough said:

2. Do any other sales typically occurr prior to the christmas season?

None that I know of this time of year.

6 hours ago, vanc_trough said:

3. Seeing as how I just purchased a house, I will need to buy a bunch of Christmas lights this year (whether it be for static purposes or for LOR purposes). I saw in a forum post that most people use big box store lights without problem. If I were to decide to just do static lights this year, with the hope of buying the starter pack and integrating LOR next year, are there any particular type of Christmas lights that I should avoid (i don't want to buy lights just to have them not integrate into the LOR system)? Are there any particular lights/other things that I should look to buy when I find a good deal?

A lot of people use "big box" brands without any trouble.  One to avoid like the plague is the Martha Stewart brand - they don't like being dimmed.  There are been a number of cases reported of Martha Stewart brad lights catching fire when dimmed.  Some people swear by some of the more expensive lights - and generally for good reason.

6 hours ago, vanc_trough said:

4. Is the Showtime Started Pack either w/ or w/o the sequences a good deal? Would I be better off purchasing just the Residential Series 16 Channel Starter Package since I have a PC and can just buy a few simple sequences off of the store/find them on the forums? It's approximately $300 cheaper.

One of the perpetual questions is to run a show from a computer or a director.  Personally I use a computer and always have.  I have to run to get to a Doctor's appointment so I can't give a long answer.  Others will chime in, and I likely will give more later.

 

[ericm]

i have about 80k lights from walmart and a couple thousand from lowes and home depot.all work fine for a couple years now.  however I do not get snow, thats sometimes an issue for people.

[LightsWithSoul]

- At this point in the game I may make 2018 the first year you attempt an LOR setup. There's quite a bit of software and hardware to figure out and you can save some money on the lights and controllers during sales after Christmas.

- Speaking of sales, as Jim mentioned there is a "spring mad grab sale" around April and the cost savings on controllers is pretty substantial. I have purchased all of my items during sales and have saved a lot of money (which I of course immediately spent on more controllers haha)

 

- When it comes down to what lights to purchase, there's a few different answers depending on what you want...

- If you want to go the incandescent light route places like Lowe's and Home Depot will meet all your needs very cheaply. A 100 count mini light set is about $2.50 at either place. Incandescents will offer a warm "classic" Christmas feel but of course will draw substantially more power than LEDs.

If you plan to purchase LEDs there is quite a large quality gap between purchasing lights at the aforementioned Lowe's and Home Depot and the various online suppliers that many of the forum members use. Buying at the big box stores will yield initially cheaper prices however the life span of the lights and the color consistency/brightness of the strands will be inconsistent at best. The vast majority of "big box" lights are also half-wave rectified, which results in a very evident flickering which can make them a little bit harder to look at. Most big box lights will however work fine with LOR. Purchasing from a high quality online supplier will reap better color consistency and substantially brighter light strands that tend to last a bit longer due to higher quality construction that prevents water from entering the sockets. They are also full-wave rectified which eliminates the flickering issue. I personally use all full-wave lights in my display and it really stands out against all of my neighbor's lights that they purchased at the store. The online vendors typically run sales around or just after Christmas time. Expect to pay (even factoring in sale prices) about twice as much for the higher quality LED strings vs the big box stuff.

- Running your show on a computer gives you more options on building shows, scheduling times and organizing files. It's a much easier way to run a show -in my opinion- assuming that you have an available Windows PC. 

[k6ccc]

58 minutes ago, LightsWithSoul said:

- Running your show on a computer gives you more options on building shows, scheduling times and organizing files. It's a much easier way to run a show -in my opinion- assuming that you have an available Windows PC. 

Amen to that!  Especially during testing, it is so handy to be able to run a show on demand, or individual songs from SE.  In the past I have actually created a testing show for each song.  That way if I want to see "Wizards in Winter", I start a show on demand that just has that song.  I can even start a show from my phone by remoting into the show computer.

This year I'm doing something a little different in that I have a box that has a push button for each song that works with a special testing show.  So I will be able to start any sequence simply by pushing a button.