Monster Cable MP HTS850 Home Theater PowerCenter (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I was hesitant to spend $50 on this power center but I am glad I did. First of all, this product sells for between $70-130 on other sites so $50 is an excellent price for this. Not only was this a great way to clean up all of the power cords connected to my television but there are several other benefits to this product. The first thing I liked about it is that the plugs are labeled so that you know which plug your tv, dvd/blu ray, cable, etc. are plugged into on the unit. You dont have to play with the wires to figure out which plug belongs to which unit. There are also 2 "accessory" plugs on the top and bottom of the powercenter, which I personally used to plug my soundbar and speaker into. Another great feature is that the plug's are actually along the side of the powercenter intend of the front, which is another convenient way to keep everything neat and tidy. The powercenter can be mounted on a wall, which I personally did and it was very easy. You screw in the mounting bracket to the wall and then just slide the powercenter onto the hooks on the mounting bracket. This is a great way to keep the powercenter in place and allow the plugs to sit nicely in place and not get tangled or twisted on the floor. Lastly, the protection and power benefits of this product are the added bonus you don't get with a normal power cord. The lights on the front of the power center confirm that the grounding wire and other connections are working correctly and the surge protection ensures that my electronics are safe. All of these benefits makes this product better than other options and well worth the cost. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to clean up your home theater connections and protect your investments.

My recommendation on this unit would depend on where you would be able to put it. Here's what worked for me; I hope this is helpful for you whether or not your equipment is in a standalone cabinet like mine.After receiving and studying the unit, I realized the best place for it would be on the back of my cabinet. This works well, because I can pull the cabinet away and all of the power cords stay where I put them. This does help with the cable mess and I think it's probably the best reason to choose this unit over the standard configuration surge suppressors. My cabinet had plenty of mounting space on the left (as looking at it from the back), so the right-handed configuration of the power center was ideal. It could be mounted in other orientations if necessary.The power center has an 8 foot cord so that the cabinet can be moved quite far without needing to unplug it. (This will of course depend on how far the cabinet is from the outlet.)Quibbles:The master on-off push button has a very bright blue light which is distracting even reflecting off the wall. I took care of this with strategically placed black electrical tape.As others have reported, coax connection is a little difficult. I found the trick to be to hold the cable just behind the connector with one hand, and apply axial pressure, while turning the nut with the other hand.Looking at the pictures, I expected the labels on the unit itself to be user-configurable. That is not the case. You are stuck with "VCR", "DVD", "CABLE/SAT", "RECEIVER", "CD", "TV/MONITOR", "ACCESSORY 1", and "ACCESSORY 2" for the electrical outlets, and "CATV" and "SAT" for the coax ports. There is also "PHONE". The two accessory positions are on the top and bottom and can accommodate small power supply bricks.

I bought this product to act as the power strip on my primary home theater in my living room. Monster's basic power conditioning is built-in and regulates any major "noise" in the power current, which leads to more consistent audio and video.I have it maxed out with a 47" LCD TV, receiver, powered sub, HD DVR cable box, PS3, Xbox 360, Apple TV, wireless rear speaker transmitter. Everything fit without issue with the exception of the the coax cables. There is seriously no room to screw them in. No room to the point where I gave up and just didn't run them through the strip. If it weren't for that little issue, this would have been a 5-star review.A few reviewers mentioned, the blue light on the top is somewhat oddly bright. It throws off a pretty nice blue glow, so it could serve a night light. In my setup it sits behind everything, so it's not really an issue, although I don't think I'd use this in a bedroom with the light exposed. Worst case, you can put a little piece of electrical tape over it if it bothers you that badly.I'd recommend this to anyone looking for home theater surge protection and basic power cleaning. The price makes it a good value for what it delivers.