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I got a killer deal on this product and would have never paid what they normally want, but that is just me. Well not sure how you rate this thing, but so far so good. It looks pretty nice next to all my other pieces and parts too.
Areas with "jaggies" had more prominent jags -- a long scene shot on the "main street" of Hollywood Studios showed noticeably more and more-prominent jaggies in the center line of the street when the camcorder was plugged in to the wall. Video and audio was fed directly from the camcorder to the TV through the patch cables supplied with the camcorder.When I hooked up the same camcorder to the new plasma set, I plugged the camcorder into the dedicated "VCR" outlet on the Power Center. After directly witnessing the difference with just the camcorder, I don't really think I need to. But a Sony Wega TV is no slouch in the video quality department, and CRT has always been the reigning king of video quality and the "gold standard" that every other TV set technology aims for in terms of black level, contrast, color fidelity, etc. The video improvements are great, and I'm assuming there are audio improvements coming with it (just based on earlier reviews of this device I've read, along with the feedback I got from others I know who own one of these). I can see from the voltage meter how much the power in the room fluctuates -- anywhere from ~115 to ~125 volts (with larger fluctuations when things like the clothes washer or dryer are running). I didn't have the money to spare on a true constant-voltage system like the Monster Cable MP AVS 2000 Home Theatre Automatic Voltage Stabilizer, which guarantees a constant 120 volts to all equipment, but at least I knew this unit would cut the power as soon as levels got to anything dangerous to the equipment.It's worked very nicely, and I'm quite happy with the purchase.
Oddly, though, the four actual outlets on my unit are labeled "DVD", "Cable/Sat", "CD", and "DVR". This gives the receiver enough current draw that it can handle the peak-demand needs of any film without any problems. No visible grain or fuzziness, more visible detail in the picture, and the sound was cleaner as well. Just keep this in mind if you're considering buying this.
I'm convinced that this device does what it advertises -- cleans up the video and audio signals of all components plugged in to it so that you get the best home theater experience possible.With all these positives, I do have one minor complaint: Whenever the voltage dips below 120 (which happens several times in the span of a 2-hour movie), the Power Center makes an audible low-pitched buzzing noise. If I ever go the way of separate receiver and amplifier, then I'll use the separate jacks.** The same friend recommended the use of a digital outlet rather than the one labeled "TV / Monitor" for the plasma TV because all HDTVs process digital signals and also do all of their video upscaling and de-interlacing through digital circuitry. It never lasts more than a few seconds -- once the power goes back to 120 volts, it stops -- but it gets annoying real fast, especially if it kicks in when whatever I'm watching is at a quiet part. The camcorder was plugged in to the regular wall outlet and the TV was on the old Monster power strip. On our old set, we had watched some video I took of our trip to Walt Disney World earlier this year. And in fact, if you look at the box the Power Center ships in, you'll see in a product shot of the rear of the unit that one of the outlets is actually labeled "HDTV". Presumably, these are the various line conditioning circuits going into overdrive to compensate for the lowered power.
In addition, our town is somewhat subject to brown-outs and spikes and I wanted a power center that would really keep the power level as clean as it could be. The video and audio connection was the same as before, but the picture quality was night and day. Still, I'm willing to put up with it if it's keeping my gear safe. I knew that while the old power strip would probably do a decent job, I wanted something that would really let my new plasma set shine.
The buzzing is why I had to give this unit a 4-star rating instead of a perfect 5. One part of the video where there was text on an awning across the street was perfectly legible and had good edge detail when the camcorder was plugged in to the Power Center, but when plugged in to the wall the text became much more blurry and the pin-striping beneath it almost blurred into a single line.I haven't done similar A/B tests with my other gear (standard-def DVD player, HD cable box with DVR). But that buzz really does get annoying after a while.Here's what I have connected to this Power Center:- Onkyo TX-DS595 A/V receiver on the "high current" outlet labeled "Amplifier"*- Sony 5-disc DVD player in the "DVD" digital outlet- Scientific Atlanta 8300HD Hi-Def cable box / PVR in the "Cable/Sat" digital outlet- Panasonic TH-50PZ800U plasma TV in the "DVR" digital outlet***Since my A/V Receiver is "all in one" with a built-in amplifier, it was recommended to me by a friend (who is an even bigger home theater enthusiast than I am) that I use the "Amplifier" outlet rather than the "Receiver" outlet. I just bought the Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV and wanted to have a power center that would let this TV work at its best with any video source. Just to see if it really was only the plasma TV, I unplugged the camcorder from the Power Center and plugged it directly into a wall outlet.The difference was immediately visible. For reference, my old TV set was a Sony 27" Wega with all components plugged in to a much more basic Monster Power strip (the Monster Cable PowerCenter Audio/Video Surge Protector (MPAV700RP) (MP AV700 RP)).
Even my wife, who is not a serious home theater hobbyist like I am, noticed the difference and commented how much better the picture looked than when we'd seen it just a few weeks earlier on the old set.Now, some of this improvement may be due to the picture-scaling circuitry of the plasma TV. But no matter how the power may change while I'm using my home theater gear, the picture remains nice and clean and the sound is also much improved.I think I can say that the biggest, most obvious improvement is with standard-definition video. It wasn't bad-looking, but it seemed grainy and slightly fuzzy-looking. The "DVR" outlet is the one labeled "HDTV" on the picture used on the box, which is why my plasma set is plugged into that outlet.
I tried different HDMI cables, including Monster cables that were over one hundred dollars, but still saw red lines. My last resort was change from a cheap surge protector to this power center. I recently purchased a new Denon 2809 receiver for my home theater to replace a Marantz that did not do HDMI switching. After purchasing Monster Reference center the red lines disappeared and all video signals looked much better. Sound quality also improved. When I hooked up my Samsung Blu-ray and Toshiba HD-DVD player the picture looked good, but when I connected my PS3, red lines appeared on my tv. I am going to buy another one for my bedroom setup.
All I could find was more advertisement - who cares. It should be noted that the MONSTER HTS3600 MKII was the only new addition and everything worked very well prior. The manual is worthless. Immediately, I noticed a darker picture with even darker corners. (Ref: [.].).
I tried to go online [.].) to get specific information, such as - are LCD TV's considered to be digital devices for filtering purposes. So I began to tweak the TV, when I thought wait a minute why should I have to increase the backlight & brightness, etc. It would appear to be more of an advertisement than a manual with more information about Noel Lee & the Designers than how to use the product. This product has convinced me of what I had previously suspected - Monster products are mostly "Hype" much like the Emperor's New Clothes. For the most part I feel I have purchased a very expensive Surge Protector and Volt/Amp Meter.
Well - back to the manual. Brand new - out of the box, I installed the MONSTER HTS3600 MKII and connect a Sony KDL-52W3000 LCD TV; Sony BluRay BDPS350; Mitsubishi VCR & Yamaha RX-V2700 Receiver to it. for this new unit. "What a perfect fit." No one wanted it to be noticed that he could see nothing, for then it would be said that he was unfit for his position or that he was stupid. The picture had lost detail as well - of course it was hard to tale with a darker screen.
None of the emperor's clothes had ever before received such praise.
Only consern that I have is why this item comes with only 5 year warranty on all attached equipment.
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