This is almost like a “Ripley’s Believe it or not” story until you try it for yourself:

For a long time I had been using the wireless 2.4Ghz A/V transmitters and became very unhappy when I discovered that every time the microwave was turned on, the screen would fuzz out and the audio would make loud popping noises.

To add to the fire, I added an 11MBps wireless ethernet (also 2.4 Ghz) at home that also caused a constant popping and white line through the screen of the remote TV’s connected to the wireless A/V equipment. With those two odds against the wireless A/V transmitters and receivers, I looked for other alternatives. The wireless ethernet (broadband-to-laptop) was much more a keeper than the wireless TV!

In my house I have a 35-inch television in each of the two bedrooms, a small one in the kitchen, then a 54 inch in the living room. All of the major components such as the DVD, VCR, CD and other playback equipment are connected to the main system in the living room, but if I’m watching a DVD or listening to a CD, I want the ability to hear and see it in any room.

I knew that long runs of L/R and video can seriously degrade the signal, so I looked for other alternatives. I stumbled onto a great product that really took me by surprise. It’s called the “Terk leapfrog home network”. What I read seemed to be too good to be true; you take the audio L/R and video out from the main system then plug them in to the Terk transmitter. Next you plug it into the phone line! In the receiving room you plug the receiver outputs on it to the inputs on the remote TV or amp/receiver system, then also plug it into the phone jack. In addition it lets you use the phone at the same time. I thought this just sounded too good to be true so I gave it a try. I was totally amazed by the picture quality and sound. This system takes the L/R/Video signals, compresses them to a 30Mhz signal then pipes them through the phone in an inaudible signal. On top of that it lets you send a reverse IR signal back to the main room and it CAN keep up with the Pronto and long chained IR macros. (The powermid system could only keep up with the first one or two.) I ended up adding extra Leapfrog receivers on all of the remote TV’s, then added surround sound & 5 cube speakers to each bedroom. The audio and video quality was excellent but something else caught my eye.

In order to understand the next part, you'll need to know that the audio and video output in the living room is split three ways but for this story we’ll only talk about two of them. One of the outputs goes to the Terk Leapfrog transmitter, the other is a direct connection to the big screen. (The big screen was one generation shy of S-Video in so I have to use RCA video in).

Here is the part that makes no logical sense. What caught me by surprise was that the picture in the remote room is clearer, brighter, and free from any RF interference than the same signal split to the living room that was directly connected to the source. This prompted me to order another receiver so I could perform a test that defied my logic.

When it arrived, I put a 2-way phone jack splitter from radio shack on the output of the Leapfrog transmitter before it went into the phone jack. I used a short phone cable to connect the transmitter to the receiver then plugged it into the video on the receiver.

The result still boggles my mind. The picture in the living room that had been connected directly to the source is many times better than it ever was before I added the Terk to it. The only thing I can figure out is that they have some great comb filters in the conversion process or something. A friend of mine came over the other day and we watched a DVD and he noticed the picture difference and asked what it was. After I explained it to him he bought a Leapfrog transmitter and receiver to be used strictly as a filter, but used in conjunction in the same room. To hook it up we took the video out from his VCR that went to the TV, then ran in into the transmitter. From the transmitters “out” jack or phone jack, we ran a standard phone wire (RJ-11) cord to the receiver that sat right on top of it, then connected the RCA video into the receiver. I’m telling you this makes NO sense, but something about this product cleans up the video signal better than some of the expensive high-end video processors. Try it for yourself and you too will be saying WHOA!

They have this product for sale at many places- Best Buy online, Smarthome, but they have the transmitter and receiver combos for up to $180.00. The best price that I found online was from “Consumer Direct” and both parts came to about $90.00. Extra receivers were about $50.00

One tidbit of advice- It will not work if you have DSL or faulty phone wiring at home, so you may want to run standard phone wire to the remote rooms. The picture quality is many times better than coax cable runs, plus you get the two way IR when you use this system. There are a lot of different uses- I’d even recommend this many times over the powermid product. The only thing that is weird about this product is the casing. It seems like it was designed to be much larger than it really should be, but that seems to be it’s only flaw. Also, if you have the transmitter and receiver in the same room be sure to hide the receiver behind something because when it sees an IR signal, it send it back to the transmitter so you might end up with a constant loop of IR between the two.

This system has me thinking about something else. If your home had a transmitter connected to a phone line and you made a phone call to a friends' house that had a receiver, would they be able to see and hear the signal on their tv when the telephone circuit was made? Hmmmmmm, Imagine being on the phone with a friend and show them a scene from a movie from your A/V system... I wonder if that would work???- The manual says 500 feet range, but that within 1 residence but since a circuit was made on the phone, it should keep the signal strength- Just for fun I might try it this weekend.

The web address to consumer direct and the terk stuff is:
[Link: consumer-direct.com]

The system I have is:
[Link: consumer-direct.com]


This message was edited by Greg on 08/31/01 13:14.42.

Greg,

That is very interesting.. And it's also nice to know
the TerkLeapfrog system works. I am using a wireless
2.4Ghz system for my rear surround made by X-10. It
does work and it works fairly well, but as you stated
the Microwave WILL make it glitch. I just wish someone
would make a *serious* wireless system. When I say that
I mean that it should have some power behind it (not 10
meesly watts like X-10's version) and telephone line
distrobution would be great too.

Sounds a lot like the original Rabbit, that sent A/V to a remote receiver, and relayed IR back, over a simple pair of conductors. They weren't even twisted! You could also daisy-chain receivers, as long as you didn't shorten the wire - they recommended bundling the wire instead of cutting it......believe it or not!

Larry

Brett,

I have a possible solution for you regarding the wireless speakers that might just work for you. JVC has 900MHz wireless digital-lock speakers for about $150. I found them at Sam's club but could not find any data on them on the JVC site, nor on the Sam’s club website. I was at Sam's club last weekend and they still carry them.
There are a few ways that you can use these speakers:

1. Use them as portable speakers running off of your main system with 6-D batteries. Your best bet in this scenario is to buy rechargeable alkaline batteries.

2. In a surround sound scenario, you'd probably want to use the plug in AC adapter. To automate them plug the AC adapter into an X10 appliance module- The lamp modules make them buzz even if is at 100%.

What I like about these over all other wireless speakers is that you don't have a dial to fine tune the speakers on both the transmitter and the speaker. These just have a dial to select a new frequency on the transmitter then the speaker is simple and just has a button that locks onto the signal. They have an automatic digital lock.

The speakers are great & I have no idea why they are so hard to find.

The only thing that may not appeal to you is that the volume control is manual on each speaker. The inputs for the transmitter are RCA or mini headset in. To make it compatible with variable speaker outputs, Radio shack has a modulator that converts speaker out's to RCA. Its a special order part & I don’t know what the number is.

Good luck,
Greg

This message was edited by Greg on 08/31/01 12:56.35.

Greg,

My problem is that I allready have a pair of Acoustic
Research Performance Series 215's that I am using for
my Satelites and I do not want to use anything else.

What I need is something similar to what I allready
have from X-10 (The Wireless Sound Power kit) but I
don't want to have to use an external amp.. I just
wish someone made a kit with a ballsy amp built in.

Brett,

Hmmm, the JVC's do have sufficient punch for surround speakers but I do see your point. There is 5-Ghz technology on the horizon for wireless LAN stuff so maybe it will trickle down to the A/V market too. That would sure deliver an excellent wireless audio/video signal.

Greg

So are you saying that if I have two lines-one DSL and another for a dial-up modem, that it should work on the dial-up line?

And "both parts are $90", that means 2 units--one for each room?

and "extra units" means extra receivers for more rooms, but you only need one main transmitter, is that right?


OR are you saying that if you have, say, only one bedroom you still need two receivers and one transmitter--one receiver for each TV whose pic you want to improve?

OR does the main set get improved by the transmitter?

Joel,

The leapfrog home network is a flexible tool so there are several variables on how it can be used. It’s purpose described in the instruction manual is to carry an audio / video signal from one point to another and have IR control back to the main component source. That opens the door for several possibilities such as:

USES:
1. Use as instructed for a great picture at the receiving end of the system
2. Use the Terk receiver in a remote room with a surround amp/receiver with just the left and right outputs. This will deliver high-fi sound w/ non-digital surround to the receiving end. (Add surround sound to the dining room for instance.)
3. Whole house IR saturation. Add a Terk receiver to every room but do not hook them into any audio or video. Just use it as an IR access point.
4. I’ve found that it improves the video source. Put both a receiver and transmitter as a video filter on the same system. (There is no mention of this in the instructions.)

CONNECTIONS:
1. The instructions say to connect it into the home phone line so that is uses pre-existing wiring to carry the signal.
2. If that does not produce a clean signal because of DSL or old phone wiring, go to radio shack and get a telephone jack splitter if you are sending the signal to multiple sources. (There are 2, 3 or 5 way splitters available) next a spool of phone wire, a crimp, and some RJ11 plugs. Once you have these tools, make one end of the cord with the wire and crimp. Plug this into the phone jack splitter that is connected to the transmitter. Next, run the line through the attic, under the carpet or along the baseboard to the Terk receiver(s).


The easiest way to explain this would be for me to send you (or anyone who wants one) a diagram of how I have it configured. Just send me your email address and I’ll scan it this weekend and will forward it to you on or before Monday Sept 4th. It’s just a simple drawing, but it may help you make more sense of it. Send me an email and put “Terk Diagram” in the subject line so I know it’s not junk mail and I’ll have it to you within a couple of days. My email is [email protected].

Greg

This message was edited by Greg on 08/31/01 16:38.12.

Greg,

Without having one I can't say for sure, but this sounds to me like the unit is working just like other DSL devices. In other words, it's sending a digital signal over the phone wire and doing D/A for the video and audio or straight digital input to your HT processor for DD and DTS.

The digital IC chips (DSL) that do this are pretty cheap (note DSL routers with ethernet ports can be had for <$90).

This is also the reason it is not compatible with a phone line that already has DSL traffic on it (software protocol and signal incompatability).

Sounds like a great system for us HT enthusiasts.

bstan