Ash:  I agree with everything you said about LED Christmas lights but I think the fact that they are so vivid is the main reason that i don't like them. If I could find some that looked more like the older incandescent c7's and c9's then I would buy them. I don't care for the faceted versions but I did see some smooth LED c7's that had a decent look to them but with only one little LED, they were dim compared to the real thing. I hope they come out with something in the future that retains the look of incandescent lights. The other thing is they need to get the price down on the LED lights. Bronner's wanted $44 for a box of 25 c7 LED bulbs to retrofit a string vs $6 for a box of 25 incandescent bulbs. I guess for now I will just pay the price for using power hungry lights. I do most of the time anyway because all the vintage fluorescent stuff I collect tends to use a lot of power but I like the T17 size and the blinky look of preheat.

Incandescents inside create a nice warm cosy glow and LEDs outside are good for brightness and long life

I like native LED Christmas Lights. Those are the ones that use real discrete colored LEDs. I happen to like the very vibrant saturated colors.

I am not a fan of the phosphor conversion type that is based on blue LED and different colored phosphors or even tinted globe to get the color.

My problem with LED Christmas lights is that the blue lights appear much brighter than the warmer colored red and orange lights.  Blue LED light is particularly vibrant due to its shorter wavelengths and greater intensity relative to other colors.  The Christmas tree just doesn't look quite the same with bright blue lights and relatively dim lights in green, red, orange, and yellow.

My problem with LED Christmas lights is that the blue lights appear much brighter than the warmer colored red and orange lights. 

I've seen some multicolor LES sets like that where the blue is brighter like that, and yep they just don't look right .lol.
But I've also seen sets there the brightness of all colors is well matched, and they look good

I personally don't do multicolor lights...
Outside gets a few different colors of single-color sets (all ran alongside eachother) and I have things setup to change between colors.
Inside each tree gets its own color.

-improve the power supply so they don't flicker so bad and give me a headache.

-use warm white LEDs and paint them with the same paint they use on incandescent ones for colors.

It still won't be the same, but at least more palatable.

I have some LED Christmas lights that are shaped like the classic C7.  The outer envelope is made of colored plastic and the inside has a single colored diode.  They are on my GE prelit Christmas tree.

-improve the power supply so they don't flicker so bad and give me a headache.

-use warm white LEDs and paint them with the same paint they use on incandescent ones for colors.

The first one is as simple as adding a diode-bridge to make the set full-wave, you can still somewhat see the 60hz(or 50hz depending on where you live) but its much less noticeable than the standard half-wave sets.

The 2nd one I disagree with since I much   prefer the deep true colors of LED

I put a few strings up outside our old house along the eaves. They got left up and switched on periodically. After a year most had quit working properly, the failure was one leg of the blue diodes had failed from corrosion due to electrolysis. A number weren't even connected any more, the leg had dissolved.

When popped open, most the others exhibited this but to a lesser degree; strange failure but maybe just a bad batch. So many had gone that I just wrote the strings off when we moved. Shame because the vivid colors were nice enough in range- from a distance the mixture of colors looked almost purple.

Phil

The first one is as simple as adding a diode-bridge to make the set full-wave, you can still somewhat see the 60hz(or 50hz depending on where you live) but its much less noticeable than the standard half-wave sets.

The 2nd one I disagree with since I much   prefer the deep true colors of LED

Add a smoothing Capacitor after the diode bridge and you won't have any flicker at all..

Add a smoothing Capacitor after the diode bridge and you won't have any flicker at all..

Then that makes the set non-dimmable (and a risk of going 'boom'(well more technically just a little firecracker-like 'pop')) so no thanks....

Then that makes the set non-dimmable (and a risk of going 'boom'(well more technically just a little firecracker-like 'pop')) so no thanks....

Step them up a notch, and change the LED's out to WS2812 Led's and then you will have individually addressable color changing christmas lights, which are fully dimmable..

Step them up a notch, and change the LED's out to WS2812 Led's and then you will have individually addressable color changing christmas lights, which are fully dimmable..

Yep I've seen lights like that in action, and up close...along with the controllers & software for it .very cool stuff.

Too bad they are so very expensive...
And have to be run on low-voltage DC.

If your willing to solder the leads, you can get 100 of the mounted to the pcb for $20 USD on amazon, I kinda like the idea of doing my own leads so I can make them fit my application, and the drivers aren't that much anymore or you could use a simple  Arduino and then you can even go Wifi...

If your willing to solder the leads, you can get 100 of the mounted to the pcb for $20 USD on amazon, I kinda like the idea of doing my own leads so I can make them fit my application, and the drivers aren't that much anymore or you could use a simple  Arduino and then you can even go Wifi...

If I was ever to do it, I'd rather get the "set" per-made & weatherproof (the pre-made sets are just a string of LEDs..no connectors, so for that part you still need to solder which would be fine)

I'd use a Raspberry Pi (already have a couple..1 of which will be used this year to control my standard LED/incandescent mini lights)
I believe you still need a 'controller' inbetween the Pi/Arduino and the lights (atleast that's what I've always seen done...but these guys are also running hundreds of those lights). One of these days when I'm at a "lights meetup" I should take some pic's of the stuff

What I'm really waiting for is when someone eventually comes out with a 120v RGB string (even though it means all 'bulbs' will be the same color)

Oh and I don't do Amavon . LOL .

       Oh and I don't do Amavon . LOL .

I don't normally do amazon either but someone put 55 watt LPS lamps up for $20 CDN with free shipping so I had no option anywhere close to that price so I caved and used there service, but I swear they hire ninja's to deliver the stuff or they have some cloaking technology, I was home all day and some how they made it past the motion sensor, the two cameras, the dog and claimed they attempted delivery but I wasn't home, and the kid ordered something the other day, and they even covered there foot prints in the snow perfectly, and they want the key to my front door, Ha that ain't ever going to happen if they can make it past two camera's a motion sensor, the snow and the dog there is no way I'm letting a cloaked Ninja in my house...


And a 120 volt string, if only the philips Hue lights where not stupid expensive, a span of 10 gauge and a nice row of liberty bell fixtures, just like the old time Christmas tree lot had when I was a kid (minus the hue lights) they would look great but at $50 a bulb it ain't going to happen any time soon, but I'm tempted to use those Feit A-19 colored filament leds for this since I can get 10 of them for the price of a single hue...