About Dave Hathaway Expertise Questions about any aspect of Home Theater Systems including video-- TV and projectors, projection screens, High Definition Television ,audio/video receivers, DVD, speakers and placement, wiring, Satellite TV systems. Familiar with all these areas from the operating priciples, system design and installation viewpoints.
Experience Electronics engineer with 30 years experience, own a small Home Theater Business and do custom installs of Home Theater, Dish Network Satellite, Surround Sound systems, TV antennas, plus commerial and industrial satellite and TV distribution systems.
Home Theater - Monster HDMI cable & Monster Surge protector
Expert: Dave Hathaway - 2/11/2007
Question
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The text above is a follow-up to ...
Thanks for the helpful information on the HDMI cable. Also wanted to confirm that i should spend 70 bucks on a power surge protector rather than use a standard one?
-----Question-----
Is it necessary to spend 100 dollars on a surge protector & a HDMI cable when hooking up a 1080p LCD HDTV with a surround sound system? I was told to buy the monster cables as oppose to the standard types
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Hi Ernest,
No! NO! NO! 1000 X NO! The standard no name HDMI cables on the web will work just as good as anything you see in Best Buy, etc. Why pay $100 for a 6' HDMI cable when you can spend $20 and get one that you can not tell the difference in performance. Somehow, people have equated a good cable to how big it is on the outside, how pretty it is and how much gold shows, plus the packaging is almost as pretty as the cable. Pretty does not help the signals go through the cable. Buy the low cost HDMI cable and save the difference for a new Porsche Boxter!!
You do need a surge protector, but you should be able to buy a Panamax unit for about $70 on the web. I did find their model PM8X-EX at $69.95 from
I have not bought from this company, so I can not advise on their business,but there are a number of other vendors who also handle this brand. You should also be able to find it locally. I have one of their units on my own equipment and have installed lots of them over the years. They come with an equipment damage warranty. There are much cheaper surge units out there, but Panamax is one of the best at a reasonable price.
Hope this gives you food for thought. If so, and you have more questions, just come back in with a follow up.
Dave
Answer Hi again Ernest,
No, it is not necessary to spend the $70 on a good surge protector. A cheap unit may or may not protect your $2-3K 1080P HDTV set of course. The nice thing about the Panamax is that they stand behind their products and will indeed pay for repairs that are caused by surges that get through their unit. I had a local customer get his stuff fixed some years ago due to a telephone line surge.
Is it necessary that you have all the outside connections to your system feeding through the surge protector and that includes any telephone line feeds. Lightning does come in on the cable box coaxial cable or satellite cable as well as the telephone lines. That is why the Panamax has a coax connector that you can feed through plus the telephone line protector. Usually, a cable box does not need the phone line so it is not there anyway. Satellite receivers need telephone so you can do pay for view.
Here in Oklahoma we do get lightning during heavy thunder storms and lots of surges particularly in Spring and Fall.
If you are in a part of the country that has few such instances, you may be able to get by without any kind of surge protection. That does not mean that I am recommending that you take the risk of damaging equipment when a reasonably priced surge protector will help eliminate damage .
