Plasma TV accessories

[shane_c]

We went today and picked up a Plasma TV. The guy at Futureshop is telling me that I can't hook it up to a power bar because it won't get enough power and that I would need to hook it up to a power filter for it to work properly. Anyone out there knowledgeable in this area? How expensive are these filters? Any truth to this?

[underGRADFlame]

that is utter BS. I work for a A/V company, we use Plasmas all the time, and our company doesn't own a power filter. The only thing a power filter does it clean the power signal coming to your Monitor. I hate A hole sales people like that, I'm sure he tried to sell you a $200 HDMI cable aswell. Buying a High end power bar isin't a bad idea, but its far from required.

[sparky69]

trust me, he's BS u. you for shere dont need that. U dont kneed a power filter at all. Most of them are over price power bars. u dont need them

[Draug]

Do get a good Power Bar, you cant go wrong there.

There is enough power supplied through regular outlets, but it may not be as clean as an ideal situation. For instance, if there is a light dimmer on the same circuit, you might hear more buzz from your tv and audio than is ideal.

For my HT setup, I ran a seperate line just for the audio/equipment. I still use a good powerbar as well.

[Fender_500ml]

I'm an electrician, it's total bull****.

[Incinerator]

a $40 surge-protected powerbar from Wal-mart is all you'll ever need. If you need an HDMI cable for your DVD player/HD box PM me, I have a brand new one you can have for $30 instead of $150 that FutureShop will try to sell you for.

[ken0042]

Cables, power bars, etc are all high commission items. If you buy the warranty, HDMI, and power bar from them the salesperson will make more from the accessories than the TV. Commission on a TV is around 3-4.5%, accessories is 12-20%.

On another forum this came up before, and nobody could give us a good reason why a $200 power bar is better than a $50 one. http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/for...ad.php?t=37720

[AaronSJ]

I also bought a Plasma TV at Futureshop recently and had it delivered on the weekend - 42" Hitachi HDTV... looks great. I went in to FS on Saturday to buy an overpriced stand, and the salesman immediately turned to conversation to $250 power filters and $200 HDMI cables.... neither of which I bought (I did buy a $35 HDMI cable elsewhere). I might have, however, had I not read the FAQs at the site that Ken liked to - Digital Home Canada. Highly recommend that site as pre-reading for anyone considering an HDTV...

[fredr123]

I'm looking at getting a new plasma this week too. Must be that time of year... Anyways, what kind of cables would you guys recommend for hooking up a Shaw HD cable box and DVD player to the monitor? I already have component cables so I'd like to use them unless they're total crap. Should I be looking at HDMI cables? DVI? Optical audio? How much better are these going to be over and above ol' RCA cables?

[Bobblehead]

What makes a power bar "surge protected" is a 75 cent varistor (variable resistor) soldered accross the connection inside. If the voltage goes above a certain limit (depending upon the rating of varistor) the varistor shorts and that flips the breaker in the powerbar, as well as saving your equipment from having to absorb the spike.

More expensive powerbars will use more specific varistors (and more of them for redundancy), but we are talking the difference between a $1 part and a $2 part.

I worked a part time job in an electronics shop in high school. One of the first things they had me do was pull apart a power bar to put in a varistor.

[V]

Originally Posted by Fender_500ml

I'm an electrician, it's total bull****.

No offence, I know a lot of good electricians who know a lot about a lot of things, but how up to snuff are you on clean power, harmonics, and the like? Most electricians I know figger as long as there's wire from the panel to the outlet it should be just fine. In most cases it is.


To the original poster, I'm not knowledgeable on just how clean the power has to be for your plasma TV to work optimally, but I do know that chances are pretty high it's clean enough. It's not like you've got VFDs running off of your panel, or even your transformer. You should be fine, although a good surge protector is always key, when dealing with any type of electronics. Did your computer survive the bump a month back? Mine did, and I was running off a regular power bar. Chances are it's good enough, but if you want to be especially sure that a bump won't wreck your TV you'd probably better off getting the more expensive one.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

What makes a power bar "surge protected" is a 75 cent varistor (variable resistor) soldered accross the connection inside. If the voltage goes above a certain limit (depending upon the rating of varistor) the varistor shorts and that flips the breaker in the powerbar, as well as saving your equipment from having to absorb the spike.

More expensive powerbars will use more specific varistors (and more of them for redundancy), but we are talking the difference between a $1 part and a $2 part.

I worked a part time job in an electronics shop in high school. One of the first things they had me do was pull apart a power bar to put in a varistor.

What's also important to note is that the varistor is a sacrificial component - one surge or spike, and it's shot. If you want a truly dependable surge protector, you need something like one of these: http://www.zerosurge.com/ I've used two of their surge protectors on my PC equipment for years, and they are a really good company. They sent me manuals for a long discontinued model for free in the mail, and their equipment has saved my PC's from a surge that fried my microwave oven. In fact, during some of the brownouts we had recently with the fog and drizzle, the PC's were the only electronics in the house that didn't end up reseting, even though the ZeroSurge isn't a UPS.

-Scott

[g_railed]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

No offence, I know a lot of good electricians who know a lot about a lot of things, but how up to snuff are you on clean power, harmonics, and the like? Most electricians I know figger as long as there's wire from the panel to the outlet it should be just fine. In most cases it is.


To the original poster, I'm not knowledgeable on just how clean the power has to be for your plasma TV to work optimally, but I do know that chances are pretty high it's clean enough. It's not like you've got VFDs running off of your panel, or even your transformer. You should be fine, although a good surge protector is always key, when dealing with any type of electronics. Did your computer survive the bump a month back? Mine did, and I was running off a regular power bar. Chances are it's good enough, but if you want to be especially sure that a bump won't wreck your TV you'd probably better off getting the more expensive one.

But on the same note, Ive met electricians who know more than the engineers that design the drawings they work from. It's all to do with experiance.

Surge protectors are not nescessay, theoretically a circuit breaker does the same thing. The breakers in your home electrical panel have two raitings, one you see and one in fine print. The main raiting on the breaker (usualy 15A for mose home ccts) will trip if current is exceded for too long, usually a few seconds. The second and more importsant raiting protects your electrical equipment from surges (usually 10,000A in homes as the higher the raiting the more expensive the breaker). If you are really concerened about the quality of power at your T.V. get one of your electrician buddies to run an extra cct over to where your T.V. is.