Power Filters

[picopir8]

I have an older home with bad wiring. I can see a slight  "jiggle" on my computer monitor when using the microwave or washing machine.  Since I had a best buy gift card burning a hole in my pocket I decided to get a Monster HTS1000 two stage a/v filter for my home theater.  I am one of those people who can see/hear the slightest audio/video imperfection. However, I must admit, I dont notice much of a change with this thing in my entertainment center.  Is this something that will just grow one me, and eventually I will notice when people dont have such filters installed? Similar to how most people never noticed tape hiss until they went back to tape after listening to CDs for some time.   If I were to return it, is there anything at Best Buy in the $100-150 price range which would improve my home theater?

[digdugm]

Well when I first started using the HTS 1000 a couple of years ago, I instantly noticed a huge difference. Tthe difference is going to be more noticable in the lower rez. material, I had basic cable and with the line-doubling capabilities of the tv, it just doubles the crap thats there. I recently upgraded to the HTPS 7000 for my threater and moved the 1000 to the HTPC. Now that made another huge difference, the bass is tighter, the screen is sharper (extremly noticable with the xbox and tivo menus). But with HD its not a night and day difference, but the picture appears deeper and more detailed. This is a personal thing though, you might have ten other people write and say its a waste of money. If you don't see the difference and don't like the extra peice of mind that the equipement you invested so much time and money on is protected and has a clean source of power, then you should in reinvest that money with something else.

ps how do you like the MyHD 120? Are you using the new beta software?

[picopir8]

Well, I dont have my projector connected to the HTS1000... The projector fan runs for about a minute after it turns off to cool things down.  I dont want a power outage to turn it off w/o allowing the fan to run so I put the projector on a UPS. Since I dont want to overload things and create a fire, I did not plug the UPS into the HTS1000.  Consequently, my projector and HTPC do not benefit from the HTS1000.  Everything else (receiver, DVD, xbox, gamecube, subwoofer, antenna) is on the HTS1000.  All my low-res equpment (vcr, tape deck, etc) is on my 27" TV.  I didnt notice much when playing a quick sample on a DVD, the audio seems a bit tighter but not much difference in the video.  My gamecube is probably the lowest resolution device connected to that setup so Ill have to play around with that to see if I notice much of a difference.

As far as the the MyHD card goes.  I love it.  The best part is being able to record HD streams.  The software is pretty good but there are a few minor problems.  One such complaint is that in windowed mode it gets guide info from titanTV but Im not sure what it does in full screen mode, b/c while in full screen mode the guide info is incomplete. Also, you can rename the channel names but while in the full screen guide it uses the default names provided OTA instead of the renamed ones.  The chip in the MyHD card supports QAM so hopefully future drivers will allow for cable HDTV. Im also crossing my fingers for the ability to pause live TV.  What beta software are you talking about? The Linux beta?  Im presently using 1.62.2 which was released back in Sept.  If there is a newer beta, especially one that promises the features I have been waiting for, then I would be more than willing to give it a try.