Pixels, LEDS, or Ican,s?

[shfr26]

Talked to a freind who did mostly pixels this year and does not really like the look. I hate my icans, and wish I go all LED's, but can't afford it this year

So do you replace icans, buy LED's or go pixel route???

You be the judge and jury, sorry, no poll, or pole, for George.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

_{Leds for now.}

[n_gifford]

My entire display is RGB pixels, and I love it! For you though, the only person that can answer that question is YOU! I can tell you all day long why I like my pixels, but that doesn't mean a thing at the end of the day if you don't like the way they look.

[WilliamS]

I do miss the old feel and glow of incans. The chaos of how the lights lay the warmth of and old school light. I went with all LED's last year and while they were m5's they still had the randomness of incans the warmth was gone. This year 100% pixels. The lines are laser straight which is good and bad, and the colors are whatever I want. I do love the look of it as the windows are trimmed perfect, the shutters are dead even, the arches are smooth. I love the pixels for the tidyness but hate them for it too. Its going to come down to budget.

When I get my other 3 songs up you should ride over and make up that decision yourself.

[jem5136]

There are pros and cons with each. I am going to switch my display to mostly RGB pixels for next year, and what isn't RGB will be LED because I too am tired of incans. The pros of LED is you get a cheaper running cost, but they're expensive to purchase and you can run into dimming problems if you're not careful. With RGB, depending if you go DIY or if you use LOR, they can be expensive or a little bit cheaper than LEDs, but they are cheaper to run than incans. But they are a little more difficult to hook up, it's not just simply plugging the lights in, but your channel count will skyrocket. One of the possible layout I was looking at for next year I had over 6,000 channels (but that was with almost everything being RGB).

[harrison0550]

Its subjective of course but there are also different types of pixels to consider i.e. strip, string, modules. I'm personally using incans, leds, and pixel strings. I tested all sorts of things throughout this year and even though I know some dont agree but I dont like the look of strip pixels. They remind me of the gas filled "Bar Open" signs when you look at them from a distance. I wanted the traditional look of c9 bulbs with the control of pixels so I went with WS2811 strings and modules. There are several places in my show where from the road the color and spacing matches my incans on my mega tree perfectly. I say explore different types of pixels first and find one that really mimics the look you want.

Just realized I have no pics where the pixels are "Gold" but I will try to dig one up or snap one this week. Again its really just what works best for your particular setup. As for me, I will continue to keep adding pixels each year. Good Luck!

[harrison0550]

Grabbed one last night. If I didnt already know better I wouldnt be able to tell the difference between the pixels and the actual incans. They really do give that nice warm affect we all love from incans IMHO.

[n_gifford]

Grabbed one last night. If I didnt already know better I wouldnt be able to tell the difference between the pixels and the actual incans. They really do give that nice warm affect we all love from incans IMHO.

Honestly, I think it's simply a matter of knowing how to program them. Since you can dim them (Duh), you can make them look like virtually anything you want. Using standard primary colors at full intensities, they can look like any other seasonal LED. Start mixing colors to create more pastels, and they begin to show their full potential as RGB lights. Or, go back to primary colors and ramp them down to 50-60% intensity and they give a warmer glow similar to that of seasonal incandescent lights. They will never look exactly like incandescent minis upon close inspection, but from a distance you can do a lot with them!