Pixel brightness

[stan780953]

What the best brightness level for pixels? I ran my small show at 100% last year as I didn’t really know what I was doing! This year I have added a mega a tree and some candy canes. I’m just interested what other people are doing and is it good practice to apply at the the controller level or in XLights?
Thanks.

 

[Mark_M]

What ever brightness you want.

I suggest the brightness plugin into FPP and you can change the brightness as needed.
With FPP brightness plugin, I schedule the brightness to go from 100% while it's still daylight and dim down to 50% when it's dark.

 

[Katekate]

i run most things at 30%

 

[orchidman33]

I run most of my show at 30%, but have two models that nee to be at 75% to be at the same briliance

 

[DarkwinX]

I used to run mine at 80% but am running 100% to be seen during the day - I like that brightness plugin though!

 

[Skymaster]

100% at start of show at 7pm, fading to 40% by 9pm darkness. Props are brightness balanced at the controller level from 100% to 60% prior to the above show brightness.

 

[ryanschristmaslights]

I settled on a mix of 45% to 60%* last year, depending on the element. I may bump up the brightness slightly this year with fewer older LED lights in my show needing consideration (I found that these older lights get lost amongst pixels when the pixels are too bright).

* But note: 'my' 60% etc might not be the same as yours. This is because most of the pixels in my show (for the last few years) have have built-in gamma correction, which alters the dimming curve to make intensity fades appear more even (see quick and dirty video comparison between 0:31 and 0:44).

 

[merryoncherry]

What the best brightness level for pixels? I ran my small show at 100% last year as I didn’t really know what I was doing! This year I have added a mega a tree and some candy canes. I’m just interested what other people are doing and is it good practice to apply at the the controller level or in XLights?
Thanks.

100% is good for 12V resistor pixels. I have a few exceptions (either dense regulated pixels that are brighter than everything else, or won't run at 100% because of insufficient power), which I applied in xLights. I adjust brightness in the controller but only in case of emergency, which was necessary in 2021 but not last year.

If you are changing the brightness dynamically using any of a variety of software, be sure that anything that isn't a pixel is skipped... you don't want to apply value scaling to the control channel for DMX wands, fobbles machine, moving heads, that sort of thing.

 

[algerdes]

Ran the show at 100% brightness many years back. Had people asking if I could "tone it down a bit." After they informed me the show was great, but they needed sunglasses to watch it - we backed off. First at 50%, then eventually back to 30% for most props. There are a few that require higher levels, but they are specific and getting fewer each year. Believe it or not, several of our high-density props are backed down to 20%.

 

[stan780953]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Lots of great tips.