Monster Cable MP HTS850 Home Theater PowerCenter by Monster
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Digital camera reviews of Monster Cable MP HTS850 Home Theater PowerCenter
Digital camera Review: Looks good, but coax cable too short
Summary: 4 Stars
Item looks good. It has plug-ins for all my components. As far as I know it is working the way it should. There is a monster coax cable included that is only 3 foot long. That is too short. It barely allows contection of the cable box to the unit. There is no slack to allow for moving of components for cleaning. The coax cable should be a 6 foot cable.Digital camera Review: Looks great... with a little work!
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm a bit of a nut when it comes to the overall look of my home theater system- I even keep my ugly silver Comcast DVR box hidden under a smoked plastic cover I had made for that purpose. Eventually I decided to put a little effort into organizing and beautifying the mess of cords and cables that goes into a modern 5.1 HT setup. I bought this unit as much for the overall look as for the Monster name, and wasn't disappointed when it arrived- it's the best-looking surge protector on the market. (granted, that's not much of a horse race, but still...) Unfortunately, there's one (easily remedied) problem. The HTS850 comes with a large bracket that wraps around both the back and side of the protector. If you mount the unit to the wall, the bracket is very visible on the side, so you're looking at a large piece of molded plastic with some mounting holes. Given the care that went into the rest of the design, that's a pretty big flaw. The solution was to cut the visible side of the bracket off with a Dremel tool before mounting the bracket to the wall.
Other than that little hiccup, setup was as easy as one would expect. A side benefit of having all the plugs enter on the same side is that cable management is much easier to achieve- I bundled all my power cords neatly with Velcro ties and the result looks fantastic. The HTS850 does show its age a little in the labeling of the plugs (VCR? Really? What, no label for your Victrola?) and the lack of Ethernet connections, but that's not a big deal. Does the "Clean Power" circuitry work? I dunno. My picture looked pretty darn good before and it looks pretty darn good now. Is the blue light a distraction? Not really, but I have mine set up where the TV blocks it. I can see where it might be a little annoying otherwise- it's pretty bright.All in all, I paid a reasonable price for something that offers peace of mind while scratching an annoying aesthetic itch in my HT system. Recommended.
Digital camera Review: Monster Cable Home Theater Power Center
Summary: 5 Stars
The Monster Cable MPHTS850 Home Theater Power Center is a straightforward power organizer.
It is best used when mounted vertically, I installed mine on the back of the television cabinet with the power cables routed from the top, then neatly curved and plugged into the side of the power center.
There is an extension of the faceplate which overhangs the row of power outlets. This configuration works well for vertical installations where the power cables can run vertically behind the faceplate extension. I think the side connections and cover extension would be a bit clumsy if the power cables need to be routed from the front as they do on most common power strips.
Can't comment on improvements in the video or audio signals, in my installation, both were very clean before installing this power organizer/conditioner.
All in all a good unit that's well made. I would definitely buy another.
Digital camera Review: Monster Cable Home Theater Power Center - some advice
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an update from a previous review, as we have now had it for several months. We had recently purchased a Panasonic Blu-Ray player and have a Panasonic hi-def plasma television and decided it would be prudent to protect this equipment. Frequent power surges, brief power outages, and lightning strikes have ruined a lot of our appliances over time, so we probably need all the protection we can get.
A main problem people comment on is plugging in the plugs. I agree! I have some advice. We had to hook it up to multiple things - the wall, the TV, the DVD player, the receiver for the speakers, the cable box, and a couple of other things.
Here is my advice. It is hard to get the coaxial cables plugged in, even with small fingers. After testing to be sure where every cord was coming from (and therefore needed to be plugged into), I would label all the cords and cables with the provided labels. Plug/connect them in in the following order: We used the second bank of coaxial connectors only, and we had 2 to go in side by side. Put in the cable closest to the flange overhang that projects right behind them (and the reason it is so hard to get them in) first. Then get that second one in. Then you can plug in the bulky 3 prong plug to the right of those two coaxial cables, and the rest are no problem. It helped to have two people, I have smaller fingers but my husband is stronger, so I held the cords upright while he screwed them in. I am certain he would have manged this himself, but it would have taken longer. We learned this method by trial and error.
I was also a bit disturbed to read in the booklet that came with the unit that you should unplug the power center in the event of a lightning storm. Unplug? We thought that was what it was for! I talked to a tech person at Monster and he told me that it is in fact, not necessary to do this, that if you are not home and cannot unplug it, it should save your equipment. If it does not, you are given the coverage up to $150,000. He did say they still recommend that you unplug all this stuff during a lightning storm, as that is a sure means of protection, but that in fact you can leave it plugged in. I'm still not sure why, but at least I got my basic question answered
So far, so good.
Digital camera Review: Monster Cable MP HTS850
Summary: 5 Stars
Product is working AWESOME!!! No complaints from me and the purchase price and shipping worked perfect for my budget. I highly recommend anyone who is needing a nice surge protector.