We just had a whole house surge protector installed. I thought that with my longarm, sewing machines, computers it was a good investment. Oh yes, it will protect DH's TV too. ;-) And wouldn't you know we had a lightning storm the night before the surge protector was to be installed! I went around unplugging things.
Power strips can have surge protection but they are useless against big surges, such as lightning hits. Even with the whole house surge protection, you are advised to use surge protector power strips on your sensitive electronics, because the whole house surge protector only protects from external surges, not from internal ones.