Posts Tagged ‘light’
led holiday light
led holiday light
Plasma, LCD, LED TVs?
I’m looking to buy a 50″+ TV for my parents. I cannot believe how difficult it is to make a decision on what to get.
From what I can tell, an LED TV is basically the same as LCD, just it uses LED for back lighting. Cool idea, but it jacks the price up a bit from the standard LCD and I can’t imagine it would add enough of a performance increase to justify the additional cost.
Therefore I am focusing on LCD and Plasma.
My parents will have this TV in their living room which gets plenty of light — I’ve read that Plasma TVs are hard to see in the light so that makes me think that LCD is probably the way to go?
The main thing that scares me from Plasma is the thought of burn in. I’ve had enough computer monitors over the year with burn in — I don’t want to be seeing sports/news/ticker ghosts when I go home during holidays.
Any comments? Thanks
You are correct in that LED is just a lighting source change for LCD HDTVs. The quality difference can be quite substantial. But is it worth the cost? That’s a personal choice that’s different for everyone. But the image difference is rather noticeable.
Plasmas are more reflective than LCDs, yes. But modern ones also have far better anti-reflective screens than the original ones did (which gave it its reputation). And LCDs aren’t completely devoid of issues against light, they might just be a bit better than Plasma. If there’s too much light, it needs to be blocked, LCD won’t save you.
Modern Plasmas don’t suffer burn-in. Especially something from Panasonic. They have additional anti-image retention features above and beyond the advances in the technology. Its more myth now that anything else.
If you are concerned though (as some people still are), just condition the Plasma TV. For the first 100-200 hours of use, keep the brightness and contrast cranked down. Then do the optimizations for the TV. And don’t let them tilt it (it must always be upright, no exceptions).
Plasma has a near instantaneous response time (0.001ms). It plays back fast motion flawlessly. This is inherent to the technology, so nothing extra to pay for.
LCDs have slower response times and suffer from motion blur issues. They try to help this with 120Hz/240Hz refresh rate options. But those are premium features YOU are expected to pay for. And they aren’t 100%.
Plasmas deliver vivid colors, true blacks, and deep contrast. Again, inherent to the technology. So it comes like that out of the box, nothing extra to pay for.
CCFL LCDs (most) can sometimes suffer from muted colors, grey blacks, and weaker contrast. So this is fixed with the LED LCD. As mentioned it makes a big difference. But as you’ve seen they charge you a tone of money for it.
I would recommend a Panasonic Viera Plasma hands down, period. Look at the TC-P50S1 or TC-P50G10 options. The G10 adds more contrast basically. Both are 1080p. The G10 model is on for $1,100 on Amazon right now. That’s a pretty sweet price for a top of the line 50″ HDTV.
Commercial Christmas Lighting
For anyone with a retail or service business, you will likely see an upswing in your revenues during the holiday season, but only if your customers are made to feel welcome as they enter. The best way to draw people into your business will be to catch their eye. This can easily be done with a vivid show of commercial Christmas lighting. December marks the month where many consumers have shopping on their minds, but all their thoughts are geared toward the upcoming christmas holiday. By having eye-catching commercial Christmas lighting strings on display, you can remind your customers that you are thinking about Christmas in the same manner that they are, and you are open to their entering your workplace to do their holiday business. Bright holiday string lights can help boost your bottom line at the end of year, which is often the make or break season for many companies.
Commercial Christmas lighting is the siren call of the store front. Not only do they bring in customers to your place of business, but they also can help your employees get into the holiday spirit. The winter holidays are an exciting time, whether or not you celebrate them yourself. The celebratory mood is infectious, and with a display of bright lights in your windows, you can bring some of that goodwill and joy inside your company. Both your customers and employees will feel more welcome as they come in since a business without blow out Christmas lights during the holiday season seems like a scrooge.
The difference between residential displays and commercial Christmas lighting is that those for business are crafted on a larger scale to be seen from a greater distance away. While a light lawn sculpture for a home might be up to five or six feet tall, commercial light sculptures and pre lit Christmas trees can be up to sixteen feet tall. This also takes into account the proportionately larger size many business are over their residential counterparts. If you were to simply put residential lights in front of your business, the size of your store front might dwarf them, rending them almost unnoticeable. This defeats the purpose of the lights being eye-catching to potential consumers. In the case of commercial Christmas decorations and lighting, bigger is better. You do, however, need to be sure that you are adhering to local municipal lighting codes for these displays. Nothing can dampen your holiday spirit quicker than a citation from the city.
Due to the size of commercial Christmas lighting displays, you will need to take into account the amount of electricity that they will use. One way to save on your December electric bill even with these extra lights is to opt for LED Christmas lighting. LED stands for light emitting diodes. These are LED low voltage string lights which put out a lot of brightness. They are much more energy efficient and cooler than traditional incandescent bulbs. Many lighting experts predict that these lights are the new wave of the future. Their low voltage and durability ensures that they will last for many years to come, and hence they prove to be a wise investment when you are deciding upon types of lights for your commercial Christmas lighting.
Odyssey Solar Tube 102-LED Holiday Light Strand