Great product for a great price, September 16, 2011

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Great lights, 5 minute set up!, November 11, 2011

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Great system for the price, minor quibbles, June 12, 2012

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David Harris “harddavid” (SF Bay Area, USA) – See all my reviews

  

I ordered this item on the 7th (in the evening), received a note from Amazon on the 8th that it had shipped, and it arrived on the 9th!!! For free shipping, this is amazing – granted, it was shipped directly from the seller and they are nearby (SF Bay Area), but still … way to go!

The kit (and it IS a kit, nothing more) is way more than I expected. I am using it as a halo light for my wall-mounted TV, and it works really well. Let’s do a pros and cons list:

PROS:
1. Length – it is way longer than I need for my 40″ TV and, quite, frankly, I don’t know what to do with the balance. The strip can be cut every ~2 inches, but I do not want to risk that. No doubt I will find a way to accommodate the extra length.
2. Brightness – these tiny LEDs are much brighter than I anticipated, and they can be dimmed.
3. Variety – there are a number of options for controlling the lights. There are 20 presets, but some are barely different than their neighbor.
4. Remote – This kit contains the 44-key remote, but see cons below. Besides the presets, there are two options for flash (3- and 7-color), and two options for fade in/out (also 3- and 7-color). There are “quick” and “slow” buttons which do what you think, an “auto” function which appears to be random selection, “flash”, 6 buttons for dim/bright gradation of the R, G and B, two buttons for dim/bright in general, and 6 buttons labeled “DIY” for do-it-yourself (again, see cons), and a pause/start toggle.
5. Setup – There are NO instructions, but the fundamental setup is pretty easy to figure out.
6. Power supply – Good quality transformer, akin to those used for laptops.
7. Extensions – Apparently one can buy extra lengths, and there are four bare wires at the end of the strip for this purpose. I don’t know how many can be added.
8. Because it’s a kit, parts can be bought separately. The Amazon website is not very friendly in terms of showing what is and is not available, and the supplier’s website is not very helpful either. But still, it’s good to know.

CONS
1. The lack of instructions is a problem when it comes to some of the functions. For example, I have NO idea how the DIY buttons can be programmed.
2. There are some comments here complaining about the remote producing the wrong colors. Two observations:
– The connector between the controller and the remote appears to be plug-in-able (!) two ways. I don’t dare try the wrong way, but if you look closely you will see that the connectors have arrows which guide you to plugging it in correctly. I suspect that the complainers here have done it incorrectly.
– The remote appears to issue multiple IR commands, and the IR sensor is not very receptive. Sometimes I get a result that I was not expecting, and this may be the problem.
3. The range of the remote is limited, and controlling it from my couch is a hit-and-miss affair. If you are close to the sensor, you are OK. (The sensor is attached to its own cable, which gives you the flexibility to position it appropriately.)
4. Interference – Other equipment in my setup reacts to some of the remote’s commands. Now, admittedly, I have a vast array of “stuff”, but this is an issue. The problematic items are my TV, my security system DVR, my HDMI switch, and my heater. The last two have the same type of remote, and I think that these remotes use a stock set of standard commands, so I guess this is not a surprise. (The remote is one of those cheap credit-card sized jobs that use a button battery, except that this 44-key remote is longer than the typical credit-card size. But the basic construction is the same.)
5. The light strip is somewhat flimsy, but if you are careful and gentle when installing, this should not be an issue. After all, once installed, you are not going to be messing with it!
6. There is no manual, a huge oversight, imho, because there is a lot of stuff that needs explanation.

One comment about the remote’s distance and interference problems… I have solved this with a workaround. I taped one end of an optical audio cable (TOSLink) to the IR sensor, and placed the other end of the cable near the couch, out of the line of fire of all my other electronic equipment. This works a treat – after, these cables are nothing more than a piece of fiber-optic cable, designed to transmit light pulses! And PLEASE do not pay an arm and a leg for one of these cables. Some time ago, I bought a bunch of them for .00 apiece. And, right now, Ben’s Outlet (online store – go Google it) has them for about .99. When you think about it, paying through the nose for a strip of cable makes no sense. Btw, the same goes for HDMI cables – NEVER pay more than a couple of dollars for one, regardless of what you see on the web. Rick Broida at CNet recently wrote an article about this – again, Google it – you may be pleasantly surprised.

I have e-mailed…

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