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Xmas lights 2024 - there's wonderful news!

Huzzah! At last, someone understood the assignment!

https://youtu.be/qSFNufruSKw

This might be the last year I make this video - that is, of course, unless this doesn't pick up steam in the way I hope it will. If any of you out there are interested in ordering some of these lights, better make it quick. I don't have any idea what sort of inventory they may have left and when this is released tomorrow, it's likely to be gone quick.

There's a link in the video description but I'll put one here, too.
https://www.seasonsreflection.com/vintaglo

Alright, so... I'm gonna be taking a bit of a break after this. You'll definitely see a video in December, hopefully two, but I'm gonna rest for a bit. Captions will be done as soon as I can get them done.

Xmas lights 2024 - there's wonderful news!

Comments

Thank you for the Pink Floyd joke.

Paul McCombs

Hi Alec! New patron here. Just wanted you to know that I absolutely love your channel. And so much so that I’ve finally joined Patreon for the first time just to support you. Even though it’s only a meager amount, I’m happy to contribute my little bit to making sure you keep the content coming! Love it!! Thank you!!!

Gabe Bouck

I've been planning to de-twit myself for a couple of months, but Just liked your post, so I'll keep it going till the end of the year.

DrumBrakes

Exactly. Now they only wish they had ordered more stock so they could have sold even more. The YT video has 1.4M views already..

Jonas

This would make a great follow-up video!

Jonas

He got them sold out alright! 🎅

Jonas

Vote for it! https://x.com/xkr47/status/1866235270024290616

Jonas

Thanks for flagging!

Dean NYC

Yes please!

Jonas

Check Ben's comment, fifth-last/oldest comment.

Jonas

Yes! https://x.com/xkr47/status/1866235270024290616

Jonas

Haha sold out for 2024! And they found out who emptied their stock(ings) as well :D https://x.com/Alt_Name7/status/1862980969893900447

Jonas

Is there any way you can make a Christmas lights play list on YouTube? Sorting through them to watch in order has somehow gotten more rather than less bothersome as the years have gone on.

Ryan Butler

So, I by no means want you to keep doing annual christmas lights vids if you don't want to, but it's honestly something of a tradition for me by now. Since it's low effort november, even something that's a simple update of "here's new brands that also do the thing!" or "here's how these brands held out over the year." or "look, this brand now has solid color options" would be great updates every year or two or three. Also, at one point you had a line about "people clearly want new technology but vintage looking christmas lights" or something to that effect, but honestly I think you could have left off "Christmas Lights" (or was it just "Lights"?). Retro stuff has some solid style that's really kinda lost these days, with most things just being really plain and bland. Retro nearly *anything* with new tech in it still has a large enough interest to demand way high prices.

Nicolas Pereira

Is there any way to join the discord w/o giving my discord info to Patreon?

Derekl1963

What is it called in Europe tho?

Marat

Finally! The quest is over! 2024 is SOLD OUT. I pre-ordered for next year

Markintosh

Now we just need an equivalent in 240V!

Scott Rowland

I ordered these and am excited to check them out but what I'm REALLY looking for is these, but that twinkle. Unfortunately most lights marketed as "twinkling" just flash. A true twinkle should be a slow fade on and off (at least in my family's book!). We have trouble finding lights that do this, regardless of LED vs incandescent. These used to be super common, you just bought the incandescent lights with a controller box, and select the slow twinkle setting, but now they're impossible to find.

Dean NYC

It makes me so happy that when somebody took a chance on this idea, Alec gives them the recognition they deserve and this community descends like locusts, snapping up every last one overnight! Imagine this business owner checking their sales this morning 😂😂😂

Daniel Pritchard

I'm re-watching all the Xmas light video (that you should collect into a playlist on both of your channels) and the first one is more on the twinkling fairy lights. Now that the color issue seems to be solved, next year you could focus your attention to try and replicate the twinkling effect. Maybe a little device could be placed in one of the sockets that cut the circuit randomly. Electroboom might be able to help you or maybe there are already some devices, like the flashers of a car indicator. Just an idea to keep the tradition rolling :)

Dukefazon

You should reach out to Brainiac75, he has a lot of light measuring methods and he loves to stuff like that. It could be a neat collab.

Dukefazon

Just wanted to point out that I do agree that a more distributed wavelength band of light tends to me more pleasing than light that is spectrally peaky but I’d also point out that that harshness is typically a function of how small the source of light is for a given total energy output. LED’s typically have an incredibly small junction that emits the light compared to a “relatively” chonky tungsten filament. One solution is to place an intermediary diffuser between the source and the shell of the bulb or a larger glob of a phosphor that becomes the new emitter after being excited by the LED’s light.

Ash

Next series: Warm white keyboards.

Tyler G.

Awesome find! In your past Christmas lights video where you were coloring the plastic caps on warm white LEDs, you (unsuccessfully) attempted to dye them using "RIT" brand fabric dye. I just want (or need) to say: DO NOT use the "RIT" brand, as it's incompatible with plastics. I've experimented with several other fabric dyes, the brand "iDye Poly" is my personal favorite for dying plastics, I've gotten good results without having any sort of issues. If you ever decide to give the plastic dying thing a try again (especially with some of that faulty blue coating), just keep this in mind. :)

JJ

They are cleaned out now for both color and clear sets.

Michael Dragone

Grabbed two boxes of the color last night, on sale and free shipping too! Looks like they are now only taking pre-orders for next year for the color.

Ted Ledbetter

Rather than using a spectro-scope, could you shine the light through a triangular glass prism to split it into it's rainbow components? (See the cover of Dark Side of the Moon for details) That should make it fairly clear in a nice visual way the difference between an incandescent light source and a white LED. It might also work for Blue LED vs white LED with blue coating.

DrumBrakes

Thanks, the power will indeed be a problem. Hopefully they (or another company) will produce something for outside the US.

Ginko

They do ship outside the US. However, they are not compatible with power frequency outside the US so they tend to flicker🤷‍♂️

Propagandalf The Red

Thanks Alec, this is wonderful news. If only they were available outside the US ......... :-)

Ginko

Aaaaaand the colour ones are new showing as out of stock

LifeSizeTeddyBear

I resemble that remark :)

Peter

I haven’t even opened YouTube, I just went to the website and ordered 3 sets. Now to watch the video!

David Wirths

Couldn't help myself. Immediately ordered a couple boxes. Gonna try adding some smoothing if my overly sensitive eyes get that 120hz flickering but either way I'm so excited to throw these up in the room!

ast_rsk

I agrree, I can see 100 hz flicker if it's moving rapidly enough. There's medical studies suggesting under some circumstances the human eye are capable of distinguish between steady and modulated light at over 500 Hz (PMC4314649) during fast eye movement (saccades). The human vision system OTOH is frequently quoted at somewhere around 60-90Hz so it's not *normally* visible but is under the right (or wrong) circumstances. OTOH, I've talked to people who DO claim to be able to see 120 Hz flicker even when looking directly at an unsmoothed LED and I'm not ruling that out. We're also more sensitive to flicker at lower light levels which definitely could happen with Christmas lights. Related: PWM dimming - should always be done using at least 1000 Hz IMHO just to be safe.

Torbjörn Lindgren

Alec, you're amazing! I've just bought some, and while I was completing the order, their site was CRAWLING slow! I think you might crash their site when this video is released. 😆

Shaun Puzon

Vintaglow has C7 and C9 sizes “coming soon.” Will be interesting to see how they compare to the Tru-Tone.

Michael Dragone

What perfect timing. My wife and I just realized we needed some Christmas lights.

Megan Lovett

Tru Tone sells lights like this. I have two strands and absolutely phenomenal.

Daniel Cayea

I can't see if when I'm starting directly at them or even in my peripheral vision, but I definitely see it when I move my eyes.

Technology Connections

Hold on... You can see 120 Hz flicker? Even my own eyesight, which I consider very sensitive to higher flicker frequencies, tops out at around 90 Hz before I stop seeing the flicker. (Yes, I found a way to test this several years ago.) I wonder... does this mean you can see the colour cycling on old DLP televisions? :o

Kris Asick

It's the end of an era!

Matt Deres

Someday, I hope it becomes public why so many companies struggle to make them even just okay. I guess the coloured caps on a string of identical soft white LEDs must be just that little bit more expensive or less efficient in manufacturing. The sets with the yellow-only caps are easily the most frustrating to me. I'm glad this series is finally done—at least until somebody makes a set with coloured plastic caps, not just coated—it's been a lot of frustration over something which ought to be easy.

Kevin Kostka

Amazing, but not for Europe (easily) yet 🙈

Ben Kern

As much fun as it is to watch Alec doing his colorful takedowns of not-so-colorful Xmas lights--I'm actually a little bit stoked that he finally got his Christmas wish. There may even be a solution to the problem of spiky spectra producing green tinges. I hear there's a fellow who is able to repair Christmas tree lights that only light on one side, so may be able to correct the minuscule problems with the VintaGlo. His name escapes me, but he lives near Whoville.

Mark Hesse

From the Vintaglo FAQ page: "In 2016, our family had enough of white LED Christmas lights, they hurt the eyes, are far too yellow or pink—colors looked more akin to a runway strip than charming Christmas lights. That's when we decided we needed to bring back the vintage glow!"

Crash Cash

"Or worse, a gaming PC" - hit my biggest pet peeve right there, especially the goddamn lit-up keyboards.

Crash Cash

For those who may find it helpful, I have done countless videos comparing damn near every LED option out there that is supposed to look incandescent/vintage: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9GRreP6Z5BUZvwwZTknpczJwxcBUBRHV

Dan ''Spiffy'' Neuman

Fantastic! There are many of us who appreciate your dedication to this!

Ryan Benson

"This is what a vape shop looks like" BURNNNN

christie

Hell yeah!! Would it be possible to color the cap to filter out more green?

Jasper LaFleur

YAYAYAYAYAY! I loooooove Christmas lights! I have always loved looking at all of the pretty colors. Unfortunately, I also have very, very broken eyeballs and then LED lights came out they basically ruined Christmas for me. I am very sensitive to how bright they are and I can in fact SEE THE FLICKER. Now I am blinded by trees and houses that colorfully "vibrate" while I look at them. The "flicker free" lights have done a good job of taking care of that problem (most of the time) but the harshness is still there. I am THRILLED to know some company is taking the initiative to not make every house look like a rave. Very cool video! Hope you enjoy your lights, your break, and your holidays!

GCAT01

You should try checking out these twinkling led Christmas lights. I was really impressed by them. Warm white, each light individually twinkles, and it has a rectifier so it doesn't flicker! https://a.co/d/3V6l6TV

Ben

Yay!

Joseph Catrambone

Horray!

koala kop

The pricing is more then reasonable too. I'm going to buy all of them thanks

Gradyn Wursten

We love you 💘

Matheus Bitencourt


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