How important is "clean power" and a "surge protector"

 I just bought a 61" Samsung DLP.

How important is getting a good surge protector (I'm guessing "very").

How important is getting "clean noise" -- Circuit City is recommending
a $80 Monster Power which has "clean noise"...

Thanks for any help,

Bharat

 

It is pretty important.  Power glitches can reduce the life of
the equipment, lead to failures, and cause random glitches in
the program.


If that is what they are saying, they are full of foo-foo.
Perhaps they meant that it cleans up (or removes) the noise.
The monster power unit is OK, but it isn't the best value.
One of those battery backup UPS devices used for computers
might be a better choice.  You can get small ones for far
less than the monster unit they are selling.  I would still
use an additional power filter on the output of the UPS
since you are dealing with sound and video equipment.
TripLite makes good power filters.

-john-

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John A. Weeks III           952-432-2708            john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications                         http://www.johnweeks.com
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The $80 Monster Unit is joint surge protector (1800 joules) and clean power.
Does the TripLite offer both?

Thanks for any help,

Bharat

   Lets look at the quality of that Monster Cable product.
Take a $3 (retail) power strip.  Add some $0.10 components.
Sell it as a Monster Cable product for how much?  You too
would love to have this price markup. Why would a salesman in
Circuit City, with no basic electrical knowledge, recommend
that Monster Cable product?  What is his motive?

  All appliances contain protection that can be effective at
the appliance. If that plug-in protector was so effective,
then those parts are already inside the appliance.  Internal
appliance protection that is effective if not overwhelmed by
the typically destructive transient.

  Every incoming utility must connect to the same protection.
What is that protection - a protector?  Of course not.  Junk
science reasoning using word association says "surge protector
= surge protection".  That internal appliance protection,
instead,  assumes the single point earth ground (the
protection) connects 'less than 10 feet' to every incoming
utility.

  Some utility wires connect directly to protection without a
protector - ie. cable and satellite dish.  Others require a
'whole house' protector to make that 'less than 10 foot'
connection.  Once we eliminate the hype (from those educated
by Circuit City salesmen), then we can move on to what
professionals say.  For example, this figure from the NIST
demonstrates why even multiple earth grounds can compromise
the protection 'system':
    http://www.epri-peac.com/tutorials/sol01tut.html

  How to identify ineffective protectors: 1) Protector has no
dedicate connection to the all so critical single point earth
ground, AND 2) manufacturer avoids all discussion about
earthing.  Notice the Monster Cable product violates both.

  'Whole house' protectors are so effective that the telco
installs one, for free, on your incoming phone line.  Cable
company, if employees were properly trained, dropped their
cable down to the single point ground before rising back up to
enter building.  But the most common source of destructive
transients is AC electric - which is also wires highest on the
utility poles and that connect directly to every appliance.

  We still build new homes as if the transistor did not
exist.  Therefore YOU must verify the integrity of single
point ground (ie. meet or exceed post 1990 National Electrical
Code requirements) and must install the 'whole house'
protector on AC electric.  Some minimally sufficient 'whole
house' protectors are sold in Home Depot as Intermatic
IG1240RC and in Lowes under the Cutler Hammer and GE brand
names.

  Yes, all electronics require building wide protection that
costs about $1 per protected appliance.  So how much is that
Monster Cable product being pushed by a salesman?  Salesman
who must avoid mentioning earth ground to sell a product that
may cost 80 times more money per protected appliance.

"R. Bharat Rao" wrote:

 Personally I would buy a reasonably priced name-brand power thing and
avoid the Monster pricetag, as posters have mentioned.  Monster brand
has this 'feel' to me that is reminiscent of Bose - ok product, lots of
hype, lots of markup.  Monster does NOT make the best speaker cables,
for example, no matter what they say - there's brands out there that
cost 10x Monster and deliver more thruput.  But who cares on a
bigscreen tv.

If you wanted to go all out I'd recommend what a friend once advised me
to do with my computer - plug a powerstrip into the wall, a power
conditioner (UPS into) that, then another power strip into the UPS,
then the TV into that.

Battery backup of course is kind of goofy for a TV, who cares.