Does the finished product look like the AP?

[rstehle]

I am wondering how close my actual display will look compared to what I am creating in the Adjustable Preveiw. Can some of you more experienced sequencers give us an idea of how close it actually ends up being? Is there a LOT of last minute tweaking necessary because the lights DON'T look like they look on the PC??? (Ramps and fades not as smooth, blinky flashy not quite in sync with the beat, etc.) I have set up test display items over the past couple of months (mega tree, mini trees, leaping arches) to get an idea of how things look, but I know I won't get the full picture until I have everything in place and fired up.
Thanks,
Randy

[Michael]

After setting up about 5 different displays, that is what I discovered.

- Timing has never been off (Very suprised at this)
- It has always looked better than I expected
- I have never had too many lights. Sometimes too few for an area.
- Try to match the same number of pixles as strings of lights.
- Biggest problem is light intensity between colors and types of lights.
-- Flood lights are very bright compared to minis. I sometimes set max intensity to 50%, sometimes I adjust all sequences.
-- Red lights are 1/2 as bright as white lights. Sometimes need to dim whites when using in running sequences together.
-- Blue lights are 2/3 as bright, to same as white. Depends on LED or MINI, and brand.
-- Red are about 2/3 as bright as Blue - Sometimes....
-- Green are about as good a white - Usually
For our mega tree I had to balance colors during patterns or it looked bad. For elements not very close, I was able to get away with leaving each color at full brightness and let your eye compensate.
- The dimming ramp and cutoff point for LED's and MINIS are very different. I had to play with sequences to make those look right, but once you figure it out, it is easy and looks really cool.

Plan on spending about 2-3 nights to tune intensities after you get it up and running. After that it is just replacing burnt out bulbs, and resetting GFCI's.

- Michael

[BillAd]

I find it to be quite close, although at times I find there can be a slight, but noticable delay between what was created using the preview and what is seen live. I have 200+ channels running on a 1/3 ghz machine and perhaps the delay I see would not be present in a more powerful pc. Good luck.

Bill

[Virtus]

I have found the preview to pretty accurately portay what is going on outside timing wise. Color/brightness balance is something you have to do after it is built so I agree with Michael's points above.

I spent a lot of time building and playing with the preview in previous years. This year I am not even building one. I have tested individual effects, ramping speeds, and dimming amounts and I am just going to sequence without the preview. I may use preview again next year but I spent a lot of time building new effects to use this year and I really think I have enough idea of how the pieces fit together and what I want it to look like that I can try to just wing it.

I may be up pretty late on the Friday night after Thanksgiving if I am wrong!

[sandy]

The biggest difference I've seen has been the fades.
There is virtually no difference between 100% and 80% in real minis.
but quite a bit in AP.
But between 80% to 50% is on and off respectfully in minis,
but a small difference in AP.
Quick fades show a nice gradient in AP but just blink off in real use.
Slow fades look great in AP but again,
mostly do the fading between 80% and 50%.
This off course depends greatly on the ambient lighting.

btw,
using 80% as the max illumination on incandescents
can add a lot of life time to the light set.
with an almost imperceptible difference in observed output.