Pros: 8 HDMI's in 2 Out Many other connection options including mixing and matching inputs/outputs Zone's didn't appeal at first but I've grown to like it Infinitely configurable...almost too much but really can there ever be too many options Very well engineered, plenty of heat sinking AND protective circuitry. This thing will shut itself off when overloaded or shorted. OH Yeah, and I got it in that week NewEgg offered it for $499. Sensational value.

Cons: Not really the Power House Sound System I had anticipate but more than adequate for my Co-op situation.

Overall Review: Actually I bought this primarily as the INTERFACE between all my new and legacy Media Streamers, NAS's, DVD's, DVR's etc and a 60" Pana Plasma. Basically NO TV has all the hookups I need. This Yamaha comes as close as anything out there. I could actually have used an Optical out and some S-Video's In...for various needs but again this has just about every kind of hook-up anyone needs for now. Yamaha is great for multiple and complex hookups. AND it's an outstanding Base for a Kick-A$ Theater System.

Pros: Very reasonably priced and fairly low energy consumption. All that means NOTHING to anyone who's lost 2 or 3 TB's of data because the drive is badly engineered.

Cons: Well the major CON (in every sense of that world) is the fact that Fantom is using a Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS drive as the heart of this external. Don't have to leave this website in order to read all the bad news about Seagate's 1.5+ HDD's. Their major fail, (from a company with a great reputation in secondary storage) is now legendary. I had two 1.5TB's fail on me within a month. Usually Fantom uses MICRONET or WD or other drives--and you never know what's inside these externals till you get them. To my dismay I find a Seagate! What made me even curious was that within a month this Fantom was making clicking noises of impending BSOD, and S.M.A.R.T already shows the drive is reaching critical mas with seek errors and an overall performance of 70%--by far the lowest of any on any of my systems. And Many Many folks are all to familiar with this whole scenario as it unfolds with these Seagate TB drives.

Overall Review: This Fantom was priced cheaply because Seagate is constantly dumping their garbage drives on the market at cut rate prices-how else can they move them. I'm sure Fantom got them for a song. Pity they got sucker punched. And it's also a shame that NewEgg continues to market Seagate drives of FAIL as much as they do. Generally I like Fantom's Externals--I love the 3 interfaces (USB, Firewire, and especially eSata. But I'm already moving everything off this puppy and will negotiate HARD with Fantom to take this back and trade it out for something else. I don't intend to actually have data loss before replacing this nonsense.