 Terk Leapfrog LF-30S Wireless A/V Transmitter and Receiver System
My fifth-grade teacher had us all "imagineer" the
"home of the future" -- the kind of house we'd all be living in come the
then-far-off 21st century. I reckoned we'd all have buildings constructed around central
computer banks (chips have made the concept of computer "banks" obsolete). I had
a whole lot of other daft ideas too, but one thing I knew for sure -- we'd have TV in
every room.
That's about the only prediction I made that has come true
-- but it never occurred to me that there would be a separate TV in every room.
Even in 1964, it seemed obvious that all you'd need was a central server feeding remote
monitors -- not that any of us had the vocabulary for such innovations at the time.
So here we are in the 21st century, and for most of
us, that central video server is still somewhere off in the future. Oh, we have the
technology all right -- it's the cash that's holding us back.
It doesn't have to be that way. Terk’s Leapfrog LF-30S
wireless A/V transmitter and receiver system can connect a remote monitor (or monitors) to
a central source without wires. You can have convergence now. Sort of. And it costs
only $99.99 USD.
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
The Leapfrog LF-30S system consists of two units: one
transmits, one receives. In theory, you can add more receivers for $50 each, although I
can't find any places on the Internet that sell only the receiver.
The two units look essentially the same. Both measure
3.75"W by 1.75"H by 5.5"D, are powered by 15V DC wall warts, and sport two
antennas -- a stick on the right, a rotating paddle on the left. Both allow the user to
set the video input to channel 3 or 4; both have four transmission/reception channels; and
both sport three RCA connections, one for composite video and two for analog audio.
But the two little chassis do have some external
differences. The receiving unit has an additional video output that uses an F-connector.
The transmitter replaces the extra video connection with a miniplug input for a hardwired
IR remote extender.
Setting up the system is simple. Plug the video (or audio,
obviously) source into the inputs of the Leapfrog transmitter. The Leapfrog doesn't have a
pass-through, so you'll need a source that has multiple outputs (most do these days).
Choose a frequency band, make sure you set the receiver to the same frequency, and aim the
paddle antenna in the direction of where you’ll place the receiver. Plug the unit in
and turn it on (d'oh!).
Repeat the process with the receiver, orienting the paddle
antenna to face the transmitter. The LF-30S’s stated range is 150', and although some
construction materials are more opaque than others, most walls should pose no problem.
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
I used the Leapfrog LF-30S in two different systems.
Despite my fifth-grade dreams, my Brooklyn apartment doesn't (yet!) lend itself to
multiple monitors, so I inserted the Leapfrog between my Philips
DSR6000/TiVo DirecTV receiver and SIM2 HT200 DMF projector
in lieu of my usual component cables. I also used the Leapfrog for audio-only transfer
from my front-of-the-house home office Apple G5's iTunes library and the Linn Classik
over the sink in my kitchen.
I have seen the future, and it works.
The Leapfrog LF-30S isn't the last word in wireless
whole-house connectivity. If all you're looking for is a cheap'n'cheerful way to shift
entertainment from one room to another, then its shortcomings should be little more than
minor inconveniences. If, on the other hand, you expect HDTV-quality video or true
high-end audio, the Leapfrog will be a disappointment. Of course, you’ve probably
already guessed that from the Leapfrog's price -- state-of-the-art A/V is still an
expensive hobby, dag-nab it. (But stay tuned -- I'll be looking at more high-tech
solutions in the upcoming months.)
The Leapfrog operates on the 2.4GB frequency, which is also
used by many WiFi systems and cordless phones, and that can pose a bit of a problem.
However, I found that careful placement of the paddle antennas (one side has a texture;
you need to point the textured sides at one another) and some experimentation with
transmission channels could eliminate most digital burps and hisses.
But not all. Do not use a microwave while using the
Leapfrog -- the results aren't pretty. And if you're a heavy WiFi user who's constantly
Web-surfing on the laptop while channel-surfing in the bedroom, you'll probably want to
gig your Leapfrog.
By and large, however, I was able to make the Leapfrog do
what it’s supposed to do, once I’d tuned in a frequency that wasn't too
prone to interference, and got the paddle antennas properly pointed at one another.
"By and large" is another way of saying "as long as I adjusted my
expectations properly."
You're probably ahead of me here -- the Leapfrog uses
composite video, and you simply can’t expect the same level of clarity and detail
from composite that you can get with an S-video or component connection. The focus is more
soft and grainy than it is with higher-quality connection schemes. You’ll get the
same results if you use the composite outputs instead of the S-video outputs of the
Philips DSR6000, or of any other video source.
On the audio side, the story was pretty much the same --
things were softer, in terms of both volume and sonic specificity. The loudness dropoff
was no big deal -- the Linn Classik has its own amplifier and volume control -- but it did
require as much vigilance as the microwave interference. When I switched from the Leapfrog
input to the Classik's built-in tuner, the difference in level could be alarming.
Nor would I call the Leapfrog's overall blunting of dynamic
impact and specificity a big deal -- not, at least, the way I used it, which was to
channel the same music into the kitchen that I was listening to in my office. That's not
exactly a situation that calls for hi-rez playback, but it allowed me to leave my office
and grab a cuppa joe or scrub a few pots and pans while pondering my next paragraph. It
would not have been a tragedy if I'd had to do that in silence, but I certainly enjoyed
being able to keep my groove thang goin'.
Back to the future
And that, ultimately, is what the Terk Leapfrog LF-30S is
all about: convenient convergence. If you're looking for high-resolution data
transfer throughout your house, the Leapfrog isn't the gizmo you seek. But if you want to
send an acceptable A/V signal to the kids' room so you can use the living room
occasionally, or if you want to bounce music from your high-end music rig to your
workshop, kitchen, or even the sauna, it'll do.
And it'll do it for around a hundred smackers, which I
reckon is pretty spiffy. That may not be a full-blown home-of-the-future fantasy, but it
beats the tar out of wallowing in the past.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
Terk Leapfrog LF-30S Wireless
A/V Transmitter and Receiver System
Price: $99.99 USD.
Warranty: One year parts and labor.
Terk Technologies Corporation
63 Mall Drive
Commack, NY 11725
Phone: (800) 942-8325 (US), (631) 543-1900
Fax: (631) 543-8088
E-mail: sales@terk.com
Website: www.terk.com
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