Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Is THIS the Pinstadium KILLER?

Cary Hardy·video·36m 34s·held·Jun 18, 2024
View original

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Penn Lights emerges as viable PinStadium alternative with easier install, better app, half the price.

Summary

Cary Hardy conducts an in-depth comparative review of Penn Lights, a new LED lighting system for pinball machines positioned as a lower-cost alternative to the dominant Pin Stadium Lights. After six years using PinStadium exclusively, Hardy installs Penn Lights on multiple machines and evaluates both products across installation ease, build quality, software experience, modular design, and pricing. He concludes Penn Lights is a credible competitor offering similar visual results at roughly half the price, though PinStadium maintains advantages in color options, brand pedigree, and customer service.

Key Claims

  • Penn Lights costs approximately half the price of Pin Stadium Lights

    high confidence · Cary Hardy directly comparing the two products: 'Visually, the same, but the price? Almost cut in half.'

  • Penn Lights uses a modular system where individual light bars can be replaced or removed independently

    high confidence · Hardy explains: 'you have the ability to remove one light bar at a time if you need to... if one of your light bars breaks... you can replace just one light bar' versus PinStadium 'is all one unit. There is no separation'

  • Penn Lights board has clear labeling (left/right, GI, flasher) while PinStadium boards lack proper labeling

    high confidence · Hardy: 'Pin Stadium Lights, you do not have that. It's a single connection. You don't know what goes to GI. You don't know what goes to flasher... On the Penn Lite, on the board, you have it marked for flasher. You have it marked for GI.'

  • Penn Lights includes a physical reset button ('nuke button') while PinStadium requires multiple power cycles to reset

    high confidence · Hardy compares reset procedures: Penn Lights 'you would merely just... hold this button down for about three to five seconds' vs PinStadium 'you have to perform a power cycle three times in a row'

  • PinStadium light bars tend to warp and fall off after extended use due to heat buildup

    high confidence · Hardy: 'Pin Stadium Lights they tend to get hot when they get too hot then they start to kind of warp out a little bit which causes them to fall off, which is evident even on my Last Action Hero'

  • Penn Lights ships with a default acceptable lighting configuration; PinStadium requires programming immediately upon installation

    high confidence · Hardy: Penn Lights 'you're going to get basically a default lighting setting of a little bit of cool and a little bit of warm light' versus PinStadium 'you're going to get rgb... Always until you program'

  • Penn Lights app is simpler and more user-friendly than PinStadium's app

    medium confidence · Hardy: 'I enjoy the Penn Lights app much more, I guess due to its simplicity and there's just less options' and after using Penn Lights, 'the app doesn't seem to be as flushed out and as smooth and easy to use as Penn Lights'

Notable Quotes

  • “You have the ability to use that adhesive strip right here... slides up underneath your glass channel like that... and it's the perfect freaking height for your glass channel to slide up in there.”

    Cary Hardy@ 12:43 — Highlights Penn Lights' innovative installation method using glass channel mounting, contrasting with PinStadium's magnetic strip approach that can interfere with artwork

  • “Visually, the same, but the price? Almost cut in half.”

    Cary Hardy@ 1:47 — Establishes the primary value proposition of Penn Lights as direct PinStadium competitor with major cost advantage

  • “This is not a cheap mod so and since then the prices have gone up but so have the features and stuff like that that goes along with it.”

    Cary Hardy@ 25:24 — Acknowledges PinStadium's premium pricing justified by features and pedigree, but suggests competition may pressure prices

  • “It's been around for years, guys. Everyone's well aware of the name brand. They've seen it at shows. They've seen them in all kinds of locations.”

    Cary Hardy@ 20:24 — Identifies PinStadium's established market dominance and brand recognition as key strength

  • “So this is an older model, so this is before he had the diffusers for the LEDs, but still the same thing is in place for even the new stuff if you wanted to do a reboot on the whole board and everything, go to factory settings, or when you first install the product, this is what your game is going to be doing.”

    Cary Hardy@ 28:41 — Documents PinStadium's long-standing RGB boot-up behavior which creates user experience friction versus Penn Lights' sensible defaults

Entities

Cary HardypersonPenn LightsproductPin Stadium LightsproductScottpersonJimmy'spersonFoo Fightersgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: PinStadium light bars warp and fall off after extended use due to heat buildup, particularly when intensity is high or LEDs run continuously. Hardy demonstrates this on multiple machines in his collection.

    high · Hardy observes visible warping on Last Action Hero bars and explains: 'they start to kind of warp out a little bit which causes them to fall off' and notes Penn Lights metal rails prevent this issue that plastic variants suffer

  • $

    market_signal: Penn Lights represents first credible competitor to PinStadium's 6-year market dominance with comparable visual results at ~50% cost, signaling price pressure and potential market disruption in aftermarket lighting segment

    high · Hardy: 'it's not until now that we finally have a worthy contender' and 'now we're bringing in a new challenger competition so things might get interesting here guys'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Penn Lights employs simplicity-first strategy (minimal app options, default configurations, clear labeling) versus PinStadium's advanced-user approach (extensive customization, complex app, unmarked connections). This appeals to different buyer segments.

    high · Hardy contrasts: Penn Lights 'very simplistic and straightforward' with 'tournament mode' vs PinStadium 'you're getting more options, but a lot of the times those options can bring in confusion'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Penn Lights introduces glass-channel mounting via adhesive strips as alternative to PinStadium's magnetic strip approach, eliminating artwork interference and reducing installation complexity

    high · Hardy demonstrates Penn Lights bar 'slides up underneath your glass channel... it's the perfect freaking height' and notes it 'doesn't have to stick to the art that you might have on here and have to worry about having to pull that off while removing them'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.110

0:00
Alright so my patreon supporters have already seen this video because I post things early for them but they haven't seen this segment right here and that is me thanking them for their continued support it's due to their monthly contributions that has allowed me to upgrade my camera to 4k and have DGI wireless mics you will notice all these things in this video so thank you very much guys that's very much appreciated and for those that are interested in the two products that are in this video. Links will be in the video description down below.
0:39
You tilt it daddy. Aziz light! Much better thank you Aziz. You know for the past six years I have used Penn Stadium lights as my primary mod for lighting up the play fields on my games. And over those six years, I have created multiple videos for you out there showing you how to install them and what they can do. And now we even have manufacturers that are somewhat replicating this product, and we've also had many individuals that have tried to imitate what Penn Stadiums can do. But it's not until now that we finally have a worthy contender. The product is called Penn Lights.
1:34
And what if I told you that I've already got them installed on a couple of my games here? The chances are you wouldn't know which one has them in comparison to Penn Stadium's. Visually, the same, but the price?
1:51
Almost cut in half. Now this video isn't going to be me all pro pen lights and anti-pen stadiums. That is not what this is going to be. This is going to be pros and cons of both products. So look, the following footage is basically in real time and how I'm exploring this product on the install, the things that I'm discovering along the way, the pros and cons that I see at that particular time. time has gone by testing out this product and doing things with it more pros and cons have developed so by all means stay tuned later in the video where I go through every single one all right so here we have the pin lights now you have your light bars right here these don't look to have the diffused light on here to diffuse the lights but I mean it looks like it might it's hard to tell when I haven't powered these things on yet. But here is your two power bars and as you can tell one of the main differences is that we don't have long cables going all the way down to a proprietary board. So another pro when it comes to pin lights is the board is properly labeled so there's less room for interpretation. You have left and right for your light bars and then in top you have let me turn it around fl for flasher and gi for general illumination and if you ever have to do a power reset on this for for whatever reason let's just say for instance you want to change the networks that you're connecting this to on the wi-fi or any other kind of troubleshooting for whatever reason and you need to reset it or set it into a new machine and rename it you're gonna have to basically reset the board. Now on Penn Stadium, the way that you would reset theirs is that you have to perform a power cycle three times in a row, unplug it, plug it back in, unplug it, plug it back in, and then you'll get the RGB lighting to let you know that the board has been reset. Whereas with the Penn Lights, if you need to do a reset, you have what's called a nuke button right here, and you would merely just, and you're able to access this with the full shield on there. Just lean down there and hold this button down for about three to five seconds. I didn't get a clear how many seconds it is, but you'll know it reboots because the orange lights that'll be right here will turn off and then you can let go of it and then it will power cycle and then you're basically got a brand new factory stock board after that. So easily able to reset without having to power cycle it multiple times or anything like that. So a little bit easier, board is pretty straightforward. Now here's the thing that may be a turn off for some of you is that there is some assembly required when it comes to putting this board inside of like a case and stuff like that to protect it and mount it inside your cabinet. And that's all inside here. I haven't done it yet. There's a how-to video and everything on how to go about doing that. So that's what we're gonna do and I'm going to get this all built up how it's supposed to be and we'll go from there.

  • Penn Lights metal rail variants prevent warping issues that plastic rails from PinStadium can suffer

    high confidence · Hardy shows visible warping on PinStadium bars and explains: 'These are metal... there is no way for these things to possibly bend out a little bit' versus plastic versions

  • “I've merely had Penn Lights for a couple of weeks. So I'm hoping that they last as long as PinStadiums do.”

    Cary Hardy@ 34:18 — Acknowledges key uncertainty about Penn Lights' longevity given its newness, marking this as a remaining advantage for established PinStadium

  • “Customer service with Scott is top notch. I've had to deal with him via text messages, phone calls, emails, all of it. He's very active on Penn side and everything like that.”

    Cary Hardy@ 20:41 — Credits PinStadium's (Scott's) superior customer support as enduring competitive strength over newer Penn Lights

  • “The issues that I've come across so far are easily and have already been implemented into firmware updates. So that is the plus, is that the issues are firmware related, not hardware related.”

    Cary Hardy@ 33:06 — Indicates Penn Lights manufacturer is responsive to issues and can iterate via firmware, suggesting lower risk for early adopters

    • Last Action Hero
    game
    Theatre of Magicgame
    Totangame
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
  • ?

    product_concern: PinStadium's immediate RGB boot-up on reset creates user experience friction, particularly at events/venues without Wi-Fi. Real-world incident at Texas Pinball Festival where Theater of Magic remained in RGB loop due to lack of Wi-Fi connectivity.

    high · Hardy: 'At Texas Pinball Festival someone brought a theater of magic... he was unable to connect to him and so he couldn't basically set them up so they were constantly doing an RGB effect and it really ruined the experience on the game'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Penn Lights' modular architecture (individual bar replacement/removal) contrasts with PinStadium's integrated multi-board design, affecting repairability and customer flexibility. Penn Lights user can limp along with one bar while awaiting replacement.

    high · Hardy: Penn Lights 'you can replace just one light bar' versus PinStadium 'if something goes bad, the entire unit basically needs to be replaced or the boards'

  • ?

    community_signal: Cary Hardy's video marks shift in community discourse from unopposed PinStadium dominance to active competitive product evaluation, suggesting maturation of aftermarket mod market and critical engagement among enthusiasts

    high · Hardy's 6-year exclusive PinStadium advocacy now supplemented by structured comparative analysis of Penn Lights, indicating shift in collector awareness and product options

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Penn Lights manufacturer (Jimmy) is actively implementing feedback-driven improvements (recessed screw holes, firmware updates for mesh Wi-Fi compatibility) suggesting product is still in active development/refinement phase

    medium · Hardy notes: 'they're still learning' and 'I have mentioned that to Jimmy and that's going to be implemented going forward' and documents firmware updates addressing router mesh issues

  • $

    market_signal: Penn Lights' 50% cost advantage establishes price ceiling for aftermarket lighting market; suggests potential demand-driven shift if quality parity is demonstrated over time

    medium · Hardy emphasizes price disparity multiple times and notes PinStadium 'has been able to price it the way he sees fit... [as] basically the king of lights for your games'

  • ?

    product_concern: Penn Lights' newness (Hardy tested for 'couple of weeks') creates residual buyer uncertainty about long-term durability versus PinStadium's 5-6 year track record in Hardy's machines

    high · Hardy: 'I've merely had Penn Lights for a couple of weeks. So I'm hoping that they last as long as PinStadiums do' and 'I don't know the longevity wise of how long these products last'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Penn Lights' architecture prioritizes firmware-driven problem-solving over hardware redesign, enabling faster iteration and remote updates without physical user intervention

    medium · Hardy notes issues 'are firmware related, not hardware related' and 'as simple as go into your app and tell it to update firmware' and documents rapid Wi-Fi mesh compatibility fix

  • ?

    customer_service_signal: Penn Lights manufacturer demonstrates responsive support (router troubleshooting, feature implementation) that approaches but may not yet match PinStadium's established multi-channel reputation

    medium · Hardy mentions Jimmy's technical support and firmware responsiveness but credits PinStadium's Scott with 'top notch' service across 'text messages, phone calls, emails' over years

    • 5:20
    Alright, this literally took me, I don't know, a couple of minutes to assemble and I didn't even need the how-to video but I'm a little savvy in this. So it was pretty basic, you know, screw, screw, spacer in between. I have access to the only things I need access to, power, these go to the play field and these go to the light bars up here. They're marked accordingly left and right. So, you know, now they don't connect directly to that, obviously. They connect to these first, and so this would go into that, and then this would feed to the light bar. And these go to the play field, and they have different types of connectors on here. So these can be right here, and then these go in, right here. So there you go. That's to the light bars to the play field.
    6:23
    And so and these have a different type of connection on here for different types of kind of connections that you might want. Now they've got a lot of things that Penn Stadium has to offer as well. You've got these types of connections right here that allow you to go inside of like a molex connector or something depending on where you want to have this you be going you can usually slide them in down here something like that and then on the other end over here is where you would have your alligator clip to clip on to this totally didn't focus on any of that good job camera so that would clip onto that and that would go to a different type of connection so you have alligator clip connections in case you want a basic bulb attachment. It also comes with this if you want to connect it to, I guess, the Comet Matrix if you have something else going on underneath your playfield. And they also have a Stern shaker motor Y connector. So this is really nice because whenever I'm doing UV, a lot of the times I'll connect the UV to the shaker motor. that gives you a nice visual effect, depending on the game of course. But this gives you the ability to not have to use these in order to do it. So this is going to basically take place of the stern connector on the board for their shaker motor, then this will go to your actual shaker motor, and then this will go to the pin lights board for like your UV. That's all that's included with this kit for Penn Life's. And let's compare to a set of Penn Stadiums. Now these are the Neo set, so this has actually got two boards instead of just a single one. So this is not a fair match when it comes to comparing the two. I just don't have an original Penn Stadium anymore that just does GI and UV, all minor, the upgraded new tier sets, atoms and everything. But this is one of the newer models for Penn Stadium. You have both bars that are connected to the board right here. Boards, plural. Notice that there is no modulation to it. These are not modular. So if for whatever reason one of these bars goes out, then you would have to send either the whole kit or both bars in to get them repaired or replaced. As far as working on these, that's not going to happen. I mean if you take off the heat shrink on here, I mean you're going to be dealing with components that you more than likely not going to be skilled enough to repair yourself And you also have these proprietary types of connections instead of the Molex on the pin lights And as far as rebooting this, there is no button for rebooting. On these, you have to disconnect power and plug it back in, I want to say five times, in order for them to do a complete reset back to factory settings. and of course the connections for this one would be a USB like so and this would go to your play field and your flasher and that is pin stadium so let's talk a moment about a couple of things that everyone knows when it comes to using pin stadium as a light source for your pinball machine that they attach like so using a magnetic strip and the pin lights that I'm going to be talking about are also the same way essentially. Now these attach due to a magnetic strip that you yourself have to put down and you have to put this down with accuracy. Too low then you're going to be touching things you shouldn't be and it's going to look a little weird. Too high then you're going to be inside the glass channel right here. It's going to keep you from putting the glass on. But along with that, you have to make sure your wiring is correctly back here. Then sometimes these things can shrink up and bend in. There's a lot of things that you have to do to get Penn Stadiums to be reliable and to work the way they're supposed to without issue. And I'm not trying to bash Penn Stadium or anything. I'm just saying I've got a lot of experience with this device and it's evolved over the years, but there's still certain things that have gone on over every tier that has been released. And we're going to talk about all that. So everyone knows that if you want to raise the glass in your play field, you've got to lower these things down like this off of the glass. Now if you wanted to remove these entirely you can from the wire clamps right here but these are primarily used to keep these cables from basically drooping down adding extra weight to the top of this and whenever you do that then the probability of these wanting to pull away from the magnet strips that are right here are a lot higher. So you want to probably definitely use these for your Penn Stadium. And the pin lights, like I said, come with them as well, but it's not going to be as difficult in theory. I haven't tried it yet, but we're going to see. So we're going to be taking the Penn Stadiums off of my Foo Fighters and putting on the pin lights. All right guys, let me show you what I believe is going to be the bee's knees for this particular product. Now I've got the magnetic strips right here from my pin stadium still on here so I could if I wanted to just mount those like that. The thing is with the kind of pin stadiums I had they are taller so this is going to be too close to the play field that it needs to be. I have this area up here to utilize. so this is I believe the bee's knees that's right we're going old school on this guys with that lingo you have the ability to use that adhesive strip right here if you so wish to and I believe there's still a protective light yes there is still a protective layer on this but check this out this slides up underneath your glass channel like that slides right in there and then all you got to do is mount it to that and it's the perfect freaking height for your glass channel to slide up in there about being in the way doesn't have to stick to the art that you might have on here and have to worry about having to pull that off while removing them I mean this is awesome now I just need to remove that magnetic strip right there so that way it'll be flat but that is just easy an idea and if you ever have to remove it from your machine ouch it is very snug so it's also not as thick as the damn I'm gonna to need a tool. I'm going to rip my fingernails out, but it is in there nice and snug, but it's thinner than the magnetic strip also. So that gives you more room to lift up your play field guys. So I'm about to install this board. And one thing I wished that would be done in the future is to have this plexi have recessed holes. So that way these screws can be fully recessed. and so if you want to use some sort of adhesive on the back right here my goodness gracious already dirty but to be able to put it against like the back side of the cabinet down there or anywhere mounting but these screws are going to inhibit that from occurring so I'm going to take my drill I'm going to take this panel off I'm gonna go give these screw holes some recesses so that way they'll be flush so that's an improvement I would like to see so that took me maybe 30 seconds to get recessed holes for these screws and now it's nice and level on the back which gives me the ability to stick it to the top bottom whatever I want to so there we go very easy to do that in the future in my opinion all right so check this out I've now got this 3m tape to the back of this so now it's mounted to the cabinet. It doesn't come with any kind of adhesive to do this so I'm not sure if that could be included in the future in case someone else wants to do this but it's an easy thing to do. You can purchase this 3M tape pretty much anywhere kind of thing. So the position I've got it in gives me the ability to unplug and plug it in right here for the AC adapter and these are going to be fed to my play fill underneath and the right side is on the right and the left side is on the left and they go all the way up here and they connect to your light bars and if i ever need to raise the plate fill up or remove things it just comes disconnected right here and then you can let that just slide down there to that little wire clamp and then voila your entire light bar can be removed and set to the side and lift up your play feeler work on it same thing over here if I want to access this disconnect it using the correct method carry and then boom now you can easily lift up your play field and not have to worry about damaging your light bars or anything it's that damn simple finding a lot of pros on product so far. Just played a game on my Totan using the Penn Lights. I did have the old-school fusion set from Penn Stadium on here and now I've got just the classic edition of Penn Lights utilizing the portion that goes into the slider out there so I don't have to worry about it messing up my artwork which I was able to get the old off without any kind of issues so that's good but uh yeah fully illuminates the playfield just fine the bars don't feel hot to the touch or anything so I don't think I'm gonna have an issue with them getting too hot or anything like that Penn Stadium's they tend to get hot when they get too hot then they start to kind of warp out a little bit which causes them to fall off, which is evident even on my Last Action Hero over there. Whereas these are simply what I need. Just light up my play field and you get a little UV flasher that goes along with it. My issue at the current point in time is that I'm not able to control this via the app right now. I don't know what's going on with that. It's like it connects to Wi-Fi, but then it says it's offline. I don't know what's going on there. Try checking for updates. Nothing. So I'll get in touch with the maker tomorrow about that because it's already pretty late But I just wanted to give you guys a visual here on how it looks But as you can see that there's differences between these these two different sets and I honestly don't know which one's which but I like These better These are metal rails instead of these right here that are plastic like you would typically see on Penn Stadium These are metal so there is no way for these things to possibly bend out a little bit I not sure these are doing it but you could probably see a little bit of a gap right there and that's a little bit of warping that even Penn Stadiums has a thing with and that usually happens after a long time if you leave them on. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to leave them on to see if that does that and so by leaving it on for a while these do get warm over time and eventually it curls up like that so I can bend it back in place like it's a pin stadium thing this evidently suffers from it as well but you're not going to get that with the metal railing version of it so I don't know if that's two different versions or what but I thought I'd give you guys a little look at what it looks like though so as I'm walking through my game collection behind me are you able to tell the difference between which games have pin stadiums which games have pin lights. I bet you're finding it hard to tell because essentially these products do the same thing but one's a little more fancier than the other. But from a standpoint of outside the machine and playing pinball or just looking at them it's gonna be very difficult to tell the difference. So let's start with the reigning champion of playfield lighting and that's Penn Stadiums and let's start on a good note and we're going to go with the list of pros for this particular product. And one of the big pros for Penn Stadiums is the amount of options you have when it comes to color. And if you go the extra mile and get the fusion sets, then you have different types of flasher options. It's mainly towards you enthusiasts out there that want options. And Penn Stadium is going to provide you with options. And maybe too many, but I'm getting ahead of myself there when it comes to the cons. Another big pro for Penn Stadium is pedigree.
    20:23
    It's been around for years, guys. Everyone's well aware of the name brand. They've seen it at shows. They've seen them in all kinds of locations. They've seen them behind me for years. Like I said, I've been promoting and showing people how to install and use these sets at shows and everything for years.
    20:41
    Customer service with Scott is top notch. I've had to deal with him via text messages, phone calls, emails, all of it. He's very active on Penn side and everything like that. So if you do have an issue with the product of Penn Stadium, the customer service is there. So the pedigree is definitely what you're getting with Penn Stadiums also when it comes to pros. And the thing is with Penn Stadiums is that they can be difficult to use. I would almost say they are for more of an advanced user when it comes to mod installation, definitely for the Fusion Set. Honestly, I've had to use my own videos on installing the Fusion Set because it's one of those where it's not completely clear just by looking at it on how it's supposed to be installed and what you're supposed to do on the software and stuff like that. You have to really resort to the online manual that he has available, or like I said, my own content on installing these things. So it's definitely got options, but those options can also be confusing for a lot of people I foresee. So let's talk about some of the little things when it comes to installation that I've mentioned in the video, with the bars having to be at a particular spot and the wires having to be where they're at. And that reigns true also with Penn Lights, I have discovered. It's basically, you have to manage wires correctly so the weight behind the plate build does not pull down on the bars. And when they get hot, that's an ongoing issue with Penn Stadiums all these years. It has not changed. And like I said, that is something that can be remedied as long as your intensity is not too high because the LEDs can get pretty warm. Especially with UV going a lot. Another thing with Penn Stadiums that I consider a con, that I didn't consider a con until I was using Penn Lights app. And I'm going to say that I enjoy the Penn Lights app much more, I guess due to its simplicity and there's just less options. So therefore, like I said, with Penn Stadiums, you're getting more options, but a lot of the times those options can bring in confusion. and I think I see that a little bit more with the Penn Stadium app now after using the Penn Lights app and that's the tricky part with calling out these cons is because before they weren't cons that was just the way it was but now that I have experienced something else now I have to look at Penn Stadiums and what the decisions have been made with that product as cons in comparison to what I've experienced now. And the app doesn't seem to be as flushed out and as smooth and easy to use as Penn Lights. So another con, and like I said, didn't know this was a con until as of using Penn Lights. When you have to reboot Penn Stadiums for whatever reason, whether you have to change something or something happened and you have to reboot the product, it reboots into an RGB light show and that basically is an indicator that the you need to basically set up the device on using your application and before I didn't see it as a problem but I definitely knew it was a problem this year at Texas Pinball Festival someone brought a theater of magic just installed their brand new pin stadiums and for whatever reason he was unable to connect to him and so he couldn't basically set them up so they were constantly doing an RGB effect and it really ruined the experience on the game. Now he was able to rectify this eventually by buying a hotspot which allowed him to connect to it and do things because that's the weird thing is that these devices they generate their own Wi-Fi and you have to connect to it and since then I want to say you were able to connect via Bluetooth which I believe is a much better option because not everywhere is going to have Wi-Fi available for setting these things up. So I want to say that's a current con on the other product and we'll go over that in a minute. And this brings me to my final but also biggest con for Penn Stadiums and that is the cost. This is a very expensive product. I mentioned that in my very first Penn Stadium video whenever I like first bought the product and put it in my last action hero and I was like this is not a cheap mod so and since then the prices have gone up but so have the features and stuff like that that goes along with it and I think since he has been the basically the king of lights for your games like this then he's been able to price it the way he sees fit and this is his primary income too but now we're bringing in a new challenger competition so things might get interesting here guys so let's talk about the pros when it comes to pin lights and i know i said this wasn't going to be like a pro pin light video but i do have to talk about the things that i like about it obviously and the first thing is the application this thing is very simplistic and these are the two games that I have on here, it has a nice little picture of the game also. As you type in your game to program it, it brings up the image of the game. So it's a nice little thing, especially in comparison to Penn Stadium's. You don't have that. That doesn't do anything. No, it just looks pretty, but it's a nice little touch, and I had to give it a little pro on that. But the application itself, when you're controlling it, the settings on here are very simplistic and straightforward. forward forward so that word weird but you have tournament mode which is very nice for those of you out there that host tournaments at your house and everything so that way you can enable that on your games to where it's not going to be an issue for the players and then whenever the tournament's over you can turn it off and go right back to normal and stuff so that is definitely a big pro is how easy the application is to use and to set up your lights now another big pro is the ease of Now the install is pretty damn similar to Penn Stadium, but when it comes to being able to work with it for future reasons and everything, it's got a lot of pros to it. And that is with the ability to remove one light bar at a time if you need to So it a modular system So let just say for instance one of your light bars breaks stops working God forbid or whatever, you can replace just one light bar or remove that particular light bar from the system and limp along until you get a replacement sent to you or whatever. It's an option. Penn Stadium is all one unit. There is no separation, so if something goes bad, the entire unit basically needs to be replaced or the boards or the light bars, those are two systems. It is what it is. So definitely a modular system like PennLights that is pro in case something does happen. But the ability to remove the light bars from this plate field without having to worry about them getting in the way, lifting it or lowering the plate field is very nice. now moving on to another pro when it comes to pin lights and that is the ability of not having to program them so essentially whenever you install this product and you first turn it on pin stadiums you're going to get rgb so when you do a factory reboot by power cycling like that then it goes into this mode and that's when you know that the device needs to be rebooted now like i said this This is an older model, so this is before he had the diffusers for the LEDs, but still the same thing is in place for even the new stuff if you wanted to do a reboot on the whole board and everything, go to factory settings, or when you first install the product, this is what your game is going to be doing. Always until you program. With pen lights, you can turn them on, you're going to get basically a default lighting setting of a little bit of cool and a little bit of warm light. Basically an acceptable way to play your game without going into strobe mode or anything. So there's a default light setting when you first turn the unit on. So for instance, if this person would have had pin lights at TPF, turned his game on, there wouldn't have been RGB and stuff like that. So a lot of you could just plug these things in, turn your game on, and not have to touch anything. It would be better than having no extra lights on your playfield. So that is option for those of you out there that don't want to have to deal with software or having to go into an app or anything. You could just plug it into your system and turn it on and be good to go. Now another big pro, and I mentioned this earlier, is a little bit of an extra cost, but I think it's well worth it. And that is the metal rails that can slide up underneath the guide for your playfield glass. You can remove them if you want to without having to worry about damaging your artwork or anything like that. It's a very easy way to install this particular product when you buy the extra add-on for it. And speaking of what I think is also really nice is the ability to purchase the ultra slim model that I have here on my Foo Fighters. This is definitely very difficult to tell the difference just by looking at it if it's Penn Stadium or Penn Lights. It has the aesthetics of it. As far as brightness wise, it's plenty bright and they're metal. So as I mentioned earlier, with them being metal, this is going to keep them from warping if the bars are getting too hot due to over usage or having the intensity turned up too high. So definitely going with the metal ultra thin railing system costs more but I think it's well worth it when it comes to longevity and having to deal with things in the future. Now another pro that I like about the Penn Lights is that the board is completely almost self-explanatory on what connection does what. Penn Stadium, you do not have that. It's a single connection. You don't know what goes to GI. You don't know what goes to flasher. This has been a thing since the very first model, and I've complained about it since then. There is no indication on that product of what goes where. Now, on the Penn Lite, on the board, you have it marked for flasher. You have it marked for GI. You have it marked for left and right. It pretty much holds your hand on the install process, And I think that's going to be a very big beneficial thing for a lot of people out there that want something that they can just put in their game, hook it up, and not have to do anything else. This product is going to give you the ability to do that. You don't have to program it. If you don't want to, it'll give you just some default settings for lights that tend to work for a majority of people. And as far as the board, this is where we're going to start segueing into the cons of pin lights. So one of the cons is that there is some assembly required when it comes to building this board and the unit up. Now technically you don't need to. If you wanted to you could connect it and have a bare board in the bottom of your cabinet. And it's not a very complicated build your board up or anything like that either. One of the cons I mentioned was the screws. I wish those were recessed. I have mentioned that to Jimmy and that's going to be implemented going forward. So that's a nice touch as well. Now, another con when it comes to this product is that it's still new.
    32:53
    And I'm trying to figure out a way to go about saying this is that they're still learning. OK, so firmware updates will be a thing. This is technically still in development, guys. I mean, so the issues that I've come across so far are easily and have already been implemented into firmware updates. So that is the plus, is that the issues are firmware related, not hardware related. And with firmware, it's basically as simple go into your app and tell it to update firmware. And if it's on Wi-Fi, it updates the firmware on it. So that is nice is the fact that you know I haven't had any hardware Issues and the times that I think I mentioned in the video earlier as I had a network issue and that's something to do with My router not so much with the programming, but once I explained what was going on He told me what the issue was with a router setting I had like mesh setting and now he's that a firmware update that evidently Knows how to deal with that particular thing so that is the thing on that that. So one of the cons I mentioned obviously was that it's new and that correlates to the fact that you know I don't know the longevity wise of how long these products last. As I mentioned earlier I've had Penn Stadiums going in my machines for years. I want to say probably five years for Last Action Hero over here and they're still going. I've merely had Penn Lights for a couple of weeks. So I'm hoping that they last as long as Penn Stadiums do. And if they do, then obviously that's a big pro. But at this point in time, I don't have the ability to say that they have what Penn Stadium does. And that is proof in the pudding. Products that have lasted me years. I can't say that for Penn Life yet. So at this point in time, that's a con. I can tell you that Penn Stadiums will last for years. I can't tell you that Penn Lights will last for years yet. So look, both of these products essentially do the same thing. So when it comes to what product should you get, I mean, it depends on your needs. If money isn't an option, and you want a great product with options galore, lore and great customer service then Penn Stadium is the way to go. But if you are on a budget and you still want everything that I just mentioned on Penn Stadium but you don't need all the RGB options you just want to illuminate your playfield then Penn Lights is the way to go. Me personally I see the benefits with both products but I don't need all the extra options that Penn Stadium offers. I mean I technically downgraded my Foo Fighters from Penn Stadium Neo Fusions to the classic Penn Lights using the ultra thin blades. The difference isn't really enough for me to justify the added cost. There are those of you out there that want that extra light show and that's fine. I just want to be able to light up my playfield in a dark room and Pen Lights does just that. A special thanks to Pen Lights for sending me these units so that way I could show you guys what they look like and what they can do.