A Stupid Question... OR NOT??
 

Okay, so I was watching a movie with my girlfriend at her house last night, and she has little brothers who have just an amazing amount of video games. They have this 60+ inch TV, and surrounding it is an XBox 360, XBox, DVD Player, VCR, and a PS2 (the other TV has the game cube, and older systems). So I noticed that all of these things all have the exact same color of green light. The light that indicates that the power is on for every single thing, TV, VCR, DVD, XBox 360, XBox, PS2, are all the same shade green light. Why are they all the same? Obviously different companies made these systems.

There are only a few large manufacturers of these components that supply multiple firms. You've probably never heard of the likes of Cree, Nichia, Kingbright, Kenzrun or the manufacturers based in Shenzhen, because they don't directly market their products to the public.

No, its a stupid question.

As to the reason, who the fuck knows? Green has been established in the human understanding as "go", "life" or "on" because of all the traffic lights and power buttons and trees and shit.

But then I own a DVD player who's power button glows blue and another which glows red, so maybe one is a Jedi and the other is a Sith?!??! :o

Umm, so what the hell they don't have a PlayStation 3 or what? What the heck is that?

If no one knows... why is it a stupid question? If no one knows, it makes it a question that we can discuss, and maybe come closer to finding the answer to. I'm guessing you're saying that for the sole purpose of being an ass hole. Just because green is common for the affirmative of an object, doesn't explain why every one of these glow the exact same shade of green. Stoplights are different color greens all the time, go from state to state and you'll see. But all of these systems glow the exact same green.

Additional Spam:
lol, they're young, they're saving up. Give them time!

I think that it is probably the universal standard. As said above green for good/go/on, red for bad/stop/off.

Thats a stupid question too.

There is a very specific reason. I wonder if you'll see why...

Actually, no, as I sensibly answered your post. If anything, your reaction is what makes YOU an asshole, as you just snubbed me for answering you directly. Jerk.

Oh god, are you one of those people who wants to know if something is BLUE or CORNFLOWER BLUE? :gonk:

No, I'm one of those people who wants to know why all these systems have the same shade of green, I thought I made that clear.

That's because they use different sources of light. The new LED lights are a different color green than the older ones that use bulbs (not sure exactly what kind) and then there's those neato ones that look really dark until you're right infront of them when you can see what color they actually are (I think they use some sort of polarization/reflecting thing for that).

All your electronic devices have the same color because there's an established method that does the job cheaply and efficiently, so nobody bothers to try and find a different way to do the same thing.

Or maybe those LED manufacturers decided on Green, and it's just cheaper for assemblers to get those! Economies of scale and all that. :D

Weren't green LEDs expensive back in the day?

I guess I should clarify, since you didn't seem to make the deduction. Because only a few semiconductor manufacturers produce the vast number of LEDs, it's highly likely that the makers of consoles/VCRs/whatever use the same couple of suppliers for these parts. Naturally, all the green LEDs of a particular manufacturer are going to be the same shade coming off the same production line, except for specialty types that hardly anyone uses.

Green could have been chosen for several reasons. First, it uses the least power of any colour of LED which is why my MP3 player screen switches to a green backlight when it senses the battery is running out. Second, the human eye is such that it sees green hues more brightly than other shades.

Unless you're red/green colorblind, like Fox Mulder!

Yeah... NO... See, after this post I'm pretty sure that no matter what answer people give you, you're going to keep worming for a way to ask the question differently only to get an argument further fueled. The question was answered and the thread is closed.

As people have said, there's a sense of psychology involved with colors. Manufacturers don't randomly choose the LEDs they place into their products. Red used to be the default because it was the cheapest and simplest to manufacture. With modern technology, all colors are available, so manufacturers can better consider why they use particular colors. There's a whole field of study devoted to color theory in marketing and ergonomics.

Green is closely associated with a sense of freedom and safety. It also represents stability. Green is synonomous with money and nature, two concepts that promote security and comfort. Hence, using a green LED lets users know that an appliance is fully operational and there's no cause for alarm.

Red is trickier. It does represent danger and obstruction, but it's also closely related to the concepts of passion and energy. Studies have shown that when placed among other colors of equal intensity, the human eye most often responds to red objects first. This gives red a sense of urgency, which makes it ideal for use with LEDs that denote trouble or demand a user's immediate attention.

A for blue, I believe it sees moderate use because intense greens and reds can be rather hard on the eyes, especially in low-light surroundings. Blues don't induce that level of stress. In fact, blue is most closely associated with a general sense of calm, which makes it a decent color when you don't want to overpower viewers.
I've noticed that when blue is used, it's generally in display features that are larger than the standard LED. We have a satellite box with several buttons that are housed in a larger, glowing, blue ring. It's nice to look at, and isn't as stressful as a red or green ring would be.

That should pretty much answer your stupid question, DeLorean.

(Oh sure, Encephalon closes the thread while I'm typing and fetching a sandwich. Well, anyhow, the answer is here.)

FUCKING FANBOYS THAT'S WHAT.

I was gonna throw my piece in but a man just can't ever post after Landon without feeling foolish. Plus it's closed... Not sure why but it's closed!