Customer Reviews

Monster Cable MP HTS850 Home Theater PowerCenter

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The power strip provides surge protection and cleans the power entering components. Plugs for different components are clearly labeled. The strip does have an overhang over the plugs and connections. For the coax connectors, it is difficult to screw in the fittings. There is very little clearance between the overhang and connectors and the 4 connectors are spaced fairly close. I only had 2 coax connections, 4 would have been very difficult.

This product is definately worth the money.

Cleaner power reduces visible noise in television screen images, as well as the hiss you hear coming from your speakers when you have them turned up. Also, every thing connected to this surge protector is insured to over $350,000, an amount likely to cover almost any home entertainment system that any of us non-millionaires can afford.

With that said I do have to criticisms: Firstly, although the bright blue power light is attractive and makes the HTS850 look expensive, it can be a tad on the bright side, lighting up the space behind your t.v. cabinet when you have the lights dimmed. Secondly, other than the plugs on the top and bottom, all of the plugs are located on the right side of the unit, making plugging in all of your devices a bit of a hassle, epsecially if they have large plugs.

Over all it is an excellent product which I would recommend to anyone looking to protect the entertainment investment.

for that price. appearance is nice. trying to connect the coaxial screw in plugs is an absolute nightmare, you'll need child size hands in order to attempt to screw them in. The cool looking blue light is also nice but can get annoying if not out of your sight.

To me, a power strip is a power strip. I can't tell the difference with some of them but I figured with a new plasma, why take the chance of ruining a $2k item. figured I would get something rated for more joule surge protection. I like the way they have everything pre-labeled so you know which cord is which. That is probably what really sold me on this one. It was much cheaper getting it from here than your local stores. Like 40% cheaper. One thing the company says is it regulates power so there is no flicker on the TV. I do not see any but really have not experienced that before?

The pros: Color coded and labeled outlets, plenty of plug spots, high rated joule protection

The cons: The blue power light is pretty bright (like a night light), You can't plug in "power pack" plugs

One complaint to "Cable Companies" is they say you can't run the cable into a surge protector because it interferes with the updates and communication between their computer and the box. So I do not care about their box so I just run everything going "out" of the box through the surge protector instead of going into it.

I bought this to go with the new plasma and blu-ray player I bought because I felt like I had to do something to protect my investment. Amazon was selling this for about half the price anywhere else was. I hooked it all up for piece of mind and for a goof even ran the coax cable through it. To my surprise it actually cleaned up the picture enough to make a noticeable difference.

Very happy with it.

I bought this on Amazon for 1/3 the MSRP but the improvement in picture and sound after moving all my home entertainment plugs from a surge protector to this was so great to be worth full price or more! I am very happy with this picture. I now feel like I don't need to tweak it anymore!

First product did not work out of the box. Nothing. Second unit worked, but item loosely rattling around inside. Third unit worked, and no rattling that could potentially cause a short. Had for a few weeks and still working ok.

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.

Nice product..Important to have clean power for Electronics...satisfied with quality...but that blue light on the strip is too bright....well at least it can double as a night light.

This is what Monster says: "AC Power by nature is ever-changing, appliances turning on and off in your home causes voltages to surge and spike, and this is sometimes noticeable in the form of lights suddenly dimming. This causes a state of flux for the power running your delicate electronic devices, lowering the performance of the audio/video as well as causing damage to the components. Other conditions such as power outages and lightning strikes only increase this fluctuation. Proper connection to an advanced surge protector that offers integrated system protection can help minimize the risk of permanent surge damage..."

Now, come on guys, a surge or spike is NOT going to cause your lights to dim, if anything they will brighten. A sag will cause dimming. If this thing could prevent you from feeling the effects of a power sag, it would be very good, but it would also be an UPS or a big mother SOLA transformer...and it's not. This is just a surge supressor, like many others, and certainly well worth having, but it will help not at all with very annoying sags, as Monster implies.