Spiral Tree vs Pixel Tree

[Darrell]

Just finished the shows for 2023 and now working on the videos.  There's occasionally posts about "old fashioned" LED spiral trees vs pixel trees.  Here's a video showing a side-by-side comparison.  I've now been running this spiral tree for 12 years. The pixel tree has been running for 8 years. 

The spiral tree is 71 channels.  16 each of cool white, red, green, and blue; 2 of warm white; 1 with the new "sparkles" led strings, and 4 (2-CW, 2-WW) for the star.  The pixel tree is 16 strings of 50 each bulb pixels zip-tied to a wire cable for each strand and then pegged into a 180 arc.  Both have held up well.  I've never lost a single pixel.  On the spiral tree, I've lost a section on about 1/4 of the green led strings in the last couple of years that needed repairs.  I don't know if this was a batch or typical of green leds.  All the RGBW leds were bought at the same time from the same source.

Here's the link to the video to watch. 

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/900658942

I will also add that for some reason the colors on the pixel tree don't seem to be as clear as the spiral tree even though it's the same camera and same settings.  Additionally, I originally used Xlights for the pixel tree sequences and pasted them into LOR.  However, I switched from S4 to S6 over the summer and am really impressed with how much easier it is to work with pixels now.  This video has some of the Xlights effects and some from LOR S6.  I'll be converting it all to S6 with some new updates for next year.

 

[Brian Mitchell]

Spiral tree wins. 

[Orville]

Don't know why, but Vimeo won't play the video unless you log in now.☹️

  I used to be able to watch videos on Vimeo and never had to log in to view them.  When did this start?  Been quite some time since I viewed a video on Vimeo, and it wasn't like this then.

.

[ebrown1972]

1 hour ago, Orville said:

Don't know why, but Vimeo won't play the video unless you log in now.☹️

  I used to be able to watch videos on Vimeo and never had to log in to view them.  When did this start?  Been quite some time since I viewed a video on Vimeo, and it wasn't like this then.

.

I just watched the video without being logged in so not sure what's up with you not being able to watch it

[Orville]

42 minutes ago, ebrown1972 said:

I just watched the video without being logged in so not sure what's up with you not being able to watch it

Maybe due to I'm using my cell phone to view it, never had isdues with Vimeo watching videos without a log in.  Don't even have an account with them.

One thing I got the last time I tried was Vimeo popped up a message stating "Video is not rated, you must log in to view it." 

Perhaps Vimeo thinks the video not being rated sets it to adult only, so you have to log in and verify you're not too young for viewing? 

I'm speculating, but that's about the only reason that makes sense as to why I can't view it without having to log in.

[Darrell]

I just updated the video on Vimeo to "All Audiences".  Let me know if this rating change makes it viewable to all.  Never thought to do that before.

[Orville]

38 minutes ago, Darrell said:

I just updated the video on Vimeo to "All Audiences".  Let me know if this rating change makes it viewable to all.  Never thought to do that before.

Worked perfectly Darrell.  Was able to view the video with no issues.  Thanks.

Now for the vote: honestly, I love both of them, each in their own perspective. 

If I had room for both types in my yard, I'd have both.  Unfortunately, my yard space is extremely limited, so I can't have either one.😥  Just not enough space to do it, not even a very small one or even a quarter or half of one.

But they BOTH WIN, in my opinion.

 

[dgander]

One thing I like to point out is that spiraling (AC) and/or animation (RGB) looks much better on faster movements. Even on my Spiral tree I like the faster movements otherwise it looks "choppy". I have several songs where the spiral just doesn't move fast enough to look great. Slow moving can be made to look better with fades but I still like to use the spiral for faster parts of the song.

The AC Spiral definitely takes longer to set up. :)

[Darrell]

I definitely agree that the AC Spiral tree takes longer to put it.  It usually takes me 2 days to get mine put up and adjusted.  That compares to the <4 hours for the pixel tree.  My spiral tree is only about 10' tall (to the string topper - not the star) so I can reach the top with a ladder to adjust and position the strands on the spirals.  Both houses I've run displays in (VA & TX) had standard/small front lawns so there was never the space for a larger tree.  I do still like both but at this point I still keep pure LED's on the main house and the pixels on the other side of the driveway.  It makes a nice perspective of different style lights and their respective looks.  I still really like the higher small bulb density that I get with AC LEDs and multiple colors lit together.

[Tim Fischer]

12 hours ago, Brian Mitchell said:

Spiral tree wins. 

Kind of an Apple to Oranges comparison though. Spiral tree is MUCH more dense. One of the reasons I went with a pixel MT in 2012 was so I could do standard MT spinny effects, spiral effects, Z-tree horizontal effects, and then all the effects you can generate with software on top of that.

Mine's not terribly dense either but I've always considered it a big win in terms of setup time/display bang

[Mica]

I love the look of the Spiral tree it is stunning! But I think I am going to go for ease vs complication.. lol My 1st ever season for light shows was Halloween and Christmas 2023. Almost made me crazy!