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The product itself is well contructed and best in class. Monster has always charged more for their products because they are well made and last longer than those of their competitors. The premium price reflects the quality of the product.
It splits TV signals which go to my TV, HDHomeRun, ATI TV Wonder 650, and Motorola DCT6200 digital cable box (from Comcast). This splitter is in line after a GE splitter and a Radio Shack amp. I have not had any problems with any of them since this splitter was added.
Save your money and buy a lower end splitter. Some people can't stop praising the thing long enough to consider whether their commentary is going to be useful to a potential customer while others seem to be overflowing with acrimony at the fact that this device did not, in fact, change their life on a deep, meaningful, metaphysical level and they are still filled with all of their previous hurt and ennui, and with cable reception that's no better, to boot. This splitter will do nothing to fix a signal that's already degraded by the time it gets to it. Let me stress - if you are not watching HDTV, you DO NOT NEED THIS DEVICE.
The only reason you should buy this device at all is as a component in a general wiring strategy involving high quality coaxial cable (easily purchased from MonoPrice) and maybe some signal boosters.For the enthusiast, then, I will say that this item does everything that it's supposed to, does it well, and, so far as I have been able to tell, does it at roughly average price. I have several of them distributed throughout my house, supporting my utterly insane wiring scheme, and they're performing brilliantly.The question, then, for the lay person, is why anybody would need a device like this.
It will lose significantly less signal strength than the terrible metal-plated signal leaks you may or may not have sitting in your attic right now. The reason why you need a high signal ceiling (2GHz is 33%-100% higher than what you get on a typical four-way coaxial splitter from your cable company) is to let as much data travel through the pipe as possible, and if you're just watching regular old standard definition television, you're not going to see any appreciable gain from this splitter over any other decent model with a lower ceiling or a slightly higher loss rate.Moreover, if you're having trouble with your reception, this item is not necessarily the obvious answer to your problem.
Specifically, this splitter will do nothing - absolutely nothing - if your house and devices are not wired with RG-6 coaxial cable (as opposed to RG-59, which most older homes would have). You know, I think there's a sort of gulf of knowledge between those who are "in the know" with respect to AV equipment and those who aren't, and the reviews for this product certainly reflect that.
If you need a low-loss splitter, this is the one you should buy. That being the case, I'll direct my attention towards trying to explain under what circumstances you would want to buy this device and when you probably wouldn't.The basic question is, "Does the splitter do what it's advertised to." The answer to that is a resounding yes.
This splitter is miles above and away from anything your cable technician installed in your home. For the average reader, however, before buying this item and expecting it to solve all your problems, and to avoid a reaction like some of that of the negative reviewers here, make sure to educate yourself on all the down-and-dirty details of cable wiring and make sure that this splitter is the real solution to your problem.
When you have weak signal, you will have horribly choppy, blocky looking video (or none at all); same goes for the audio. Maybe your poor quality splitter needs to be replaced. If everything is working OK, upgrading your splitter won't incrementally improve your audio or video quality.
With digital cable, you either "get it" or "you don't". In fact, nothing will, except perhaps a new TV or a better Set Top Box with better output circuitry behind the digital-to-analog decode stage.Adding an expensive, overpriced splitter with gold plated hoohaws may stave off corrosion 5 years down the line, but so will a thin layer of silicon grease. MONSTER has created a great mythology about "smooth sonic performance" and all kinds of other benefits to using their gold-plated, quite expensive splitter.
if you have interference or a weak signal, you get bars, snow, crackly sound, either all the time or periodically. The main difference in splitters is in the accuracy of the internal construction, whether or not a circuit board is used, and the quality of the shielding box construction and the transformer core material.However, there is one thing to remember, and it's a biggie: if you have Digital Cable, the subtleties of rendition in either video or audio are virtually *independent* of the quality of the box. Normal cable is "analog".
It certainly won't give you "smoother sonic performance" or any of those "subtle" differences that they claim are "worth it."Just so you know.
Over priced and the signal loss and picture quaility is no better then when using the low cost units. Save your money.
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