Seriously Thinking About Lor However?!1

[G Host Rider 0]

To everyone here on PC I would like to say "thank you"  first of all for welcoming me back when I first discovered PC when I was using my Lights & Sounds of Christmas.

 

Secondly; I have upgraded recently (last year 2011) to the Gemmy 6 channel MP3 with timer unit & have used it again this year with my mp3 player with 53 songs on it. (2 1/2 hrs. worth of music)

 

I have been looking over the forums between the compatibilities (differences) between 2 products I am interested in. (Animated Lighting & LOR) I'm not going to sit here & bash either corporation or product as I have seen everyone has his/her own prefererances.

 

I do have concerns though as to how difficult sequencing might be as I am not very computer/software savvy & do have & like the idea of AL's plug & play feature with the songs already preloaded. (sounds like this would be the way to go; however I would like to use my own songs since I already have most of my collection converted from wma files to mp3.

 

Only thing I'm wondering is just how hard can this be?? LOL

 

I'm seriously thinking of going with 16 - 32 channels to start with as I know I can always upgrade at a later time & not have to worry about things going "out of style" & not being able to work with newer versions.

 

Not 100% sure where to start or even who to talk to, however my main priority is waiting until February when I have the money to afford the LOR. Any & all advice is welcome & am greatful for all input.

 

Thank you in advance for helping to  shed light onto a future LOR user.

 

Ghost Rider (Michael Swiskoski)

[ernie18 10]

first paypal has a cool feature called bill me later, you can  buy anything over 99 $ and finance it over 6+ months (depending on the price ...so thats something to think about when purchasing controllers...

 

 

2nd thing

 

do yourself a favor and download the LOR software, play with it, learn it...if you do it now with no pressure you'll have more fun with it...its not really that complicated, just tell the lights to turn on then off at certain times...pretty easy....only when it  gets difficult is when you start getting really intricate.

[ruskinfladisplay 1]

I am an animated lighting customer and I also did like the plug and play. When it came to changing g my shows Paul and his crew always came through. This year was a bad year since hurricane sandy destroyed the displays the built in new York city and the sxhoe changes came in the middle of December that I requested in the middle of November.

I am changing over to lor due to a few people close to me use it and the software is very User friendly even for a not so computer wavy person like myself. As Ernie 18 said try the software sample.

I am going to get my lor controllers from the classifieds here on planet Christmas and the sales they have.

Both good systems but lot has easier software to use. Hope this helps.

[JHolmes 2]

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the insanity. How hard can it be? Harder than it looks .

 

 

Here are my thoughts:

 

 

IF you are not a programmer, never going to be a programmer, and the idea of programming your own songs scares you to death:

Go with Animated Lighting. They have a wonderful collection of pre-programmed songs and your purchase comes on an easy-to-use SD card.

 

But, if you want to want a good software program that is sturdy and supported and will allow you to customize start/end times, show order, and even allow you to program songs or borrow songs from friends or have a community of programmers create songs for you, go with LOR.

 

Animated Lighting has no support-model. I have never been able to get good customer service/support from them and it is especially difficult to get equipment fixed or replaced (especially if I find myself in a pinch during the peak season).

However, when the product works, it works steady and well.

 

LOR has a much larger community here and so, even when LORs customer support desk gets full (and they have a VERY good support desk) there is a large community able to assist. I personally like LOR better because the software AND the hardware are constantly being updated and therefore is considerably more stable. LOR is also considerably cheaper, but without losing quality.

 

So there are a few pros and a few cons for you. You'll find a LOT of people are switching to LOR these days.

I started with Animated Lighting and ran it for years. I was always nervous about making the switch but I am so glad I did.

[Mcas4380 49]

I use LOR I was scared at first but it really easy to learn if you spend time playing with it and watch the YouTube help video's 

[JackFrost 0]

And if you want an even easier program ... try VIXEN , plus its free .   ( and the controllers are cheaper as well and can use a larger number of different controllers as well  )

[joeengler 11]

I have used D-lights controllers for years with no issues, there are also DYI kits out there even cheaper. No matter which one you use, you will have a great time and good support on the board for your questions. Get everything early so you have time to learn.

[SPaschall 9]

I am an animated lighting customer and I also did like the plug and play. When it came to changing g my shows Paul and his crew always came through. This year was a bad year since hurricane sandy destroyed the displays the built in new York city and the sxhoe changes came in the middle of December that I requested in the middle of November.

I am changing over to lor due to a few people close to me use it and the software is very User friendly even for a not so computer wavy person like myself. As Ernie 18 said try the software sample.

I am going to get my lor controllers from the classifieds here on planet Christmas and the sales they have.

Both good systems but lot has easier software to use. Hope this helps.

 

 

If you are planning to make the switch to LOR, before you sell your AL controllers contact Drew Hickman at Holiday Technologies He converted 17 AL controllers to LOR protocol for me this season and they worked great. It was a whole lot cheaper than trying to purchase all new controllers.

 

SPaschall

[JeffRo 0]

Heh, welcome to the insanity. Indeed.

 

Adding my two cents to this conversation. I'm a software programmer, so jumping in didn't feel like such a high threshold for me. Nonetheless, it didn't necessarily make this a slam-dunk.

 

Given that LOR is an unknown for you, one question to answer for yourself: have you ever worked with anything that was new to you, maybe you didn't know much about it, but became more savvy with it and then realized you needed more power/control/this/that/whatever? Welcome to light synchronization. LOR is right in your sweet spot.

 

LOR is a step-up in control, granularity, capability, etc. Most of us that I've talked with before that moved from static displays into synchronized may have had a learning curve with the software, but that disappeared rapidly. Concerns about ability to synchronize lights rapidly dissipated, and bigger "problems" emerged. Problems like "I need more controllers" or "how do I connect these other things" or questions like that.

 

The LOR software thing is temporary; the need to constantly improve your display never goes away. Take the plunge, it's worth it. :-)