Explain to your wife/girlfriend/mother/sister why you need that multi-thousand peso thingamajig when a perfectly cheap alternative exists. Yes, I am speaking for the most part to the males with the typical male failing of wanting that more powerful power tool, that bigger big-screen TV, that Toyota Avanza with every option in the book attached to it making it cost as much as a Fortuner. Is it something that can be explained? I’m not sure, but someone in geek heaven is surely trying to throw up some alternatives.

No, it’s not an alternative to the fully-loaded Avanza – in this case I am talking about something closer to the heart of the home – the living room (the heart of the home is after all, the kitchen. Ask any female). When a typical male looks into a typical living room, all he sees for the most part are the potential improvements that can be made – the bigger, flatter, thinner (and much more expensive) screen, the bigger speakers, the thumpier subwoofer, or the brighter projector – I can go on and on, but another notable thing that warms the heart of a true man’s man is this: as many connections that can be squeezed onto the back of a device as possible. This way we can make the easiest purchasing excuse to make – that is “Hon, we can’t let all those connections go to waste!”

                                             All the controls you need are on the front panel, for anything else, there's still the remote.

And when the missus sees the number of unused connectors at the rear of the achingly-expensive device you somehow managed to buy left languishing, well, let’s just say it can give us a bargaining position. But why go through all the trouble? Just go for a bargain device that can combine multiple connections and can be had for the same price as the left front-seat cover of a Toyota Avanza. This device is the Leadtek TV Pro 1680.

The short-and-sweet name cannot begin to encompass all the capabilities this little box has to offer – a look at the rear immediately fulfills one of the prime requirements for the living room scenario described above – expandability. Adding to the appeal is the fact that this device is meant to connect various devices that you most probably already have in your possession to other devices that you may want to add – another bargaining point. Not that you need to convince your better female half when it comes to the TV Pro.

                                             Everything listed down large and legibly so that I don't have to - good job Leadtek!

Let’s run down the features list shall we? Starting from the rear of the device, the leftmost connector is for power, with a VGA-out right beside it – for connecting your CRT/LCD monitor (preferably a 22” LCD with native 1680 x 1050 resolution – as this is the highest that can be achieved by the TV Pro).  Right beside it is a VGA-in for connecting your PC – an initially puzzling feature once you think about it – connect a PC to the TV Pro to connect the TV Pro to a monitor? Why not just connect the PC directly? The reason will be explained in a bit, so “stay tuned”.

                                             The side hosts three audio connectors.

The Video out right beside that is easy – it’s for connecting to a regular TV. Video In is perfect for connecting video sources to an LCD – like a DVD player or your favorite console. At the rightmost side is an oddity in this age of downloadable video files, but a welcome one nonetheless – an analog TV tuner capable of PAL or NTSC reception (NTSC for us Filipinos). The left side of the device also plays host to an audio-in, line in (from PC) and audio out, which defaults to the on-board speaker when nothing is connected to it. And here’s where the VGA-in comes in – with this input option combined with the device’s TV-displaying capabilities, Picture-in-Picture is possible, as well as displaying PC content on a TV screen.

                                              Remote control IR receiver.

In other words, it’s a smorgasbord of connectivity options involving most any source and display option you probably have at home right at this moment – except for over-the-air HD of course, or digital content – but then again your PC and the aforementioned downloaded high def content can handle that aspect of your media needs.  Other potential situations: connect your PC and output to your large screen TV for (somewhat low-res), large screen computing or video playback, connect to cable TV and and your PC and do PiP, output Xbox360 directly to your PC monitor (to save from swapping displays). In short, there’s loads of stuff you can experiment on, all of which will keep you out of trouble for a few days until you realize that the newest console on sale at your local store would probably look swell on your 1680 x 1050 LCD.. but heck, we can’t have all those connections go to waste can we?

                                              Hiding behind the grille is a single speaker - for when you don't have a separate set of speakers. Besides that, the sound quality of this speaker is only passable.

There are controls right up front of the unit for manipulating the on-board front end once a TV or LCD is connected to the unit. The package also includes a remote, as well as all the cables needed to connect to your sources and output to your display unit (except, notably, the video-out cable which is usually included with your TV set, and the TV cable itself). Setup is as easy as pie, which is at the heart of the matter – the kitchen in the case of this review. After you eat your pie in the kitchen, go back to the living room, plug in and go.

                                              The bundle includes power adapter, VGA to S-Video In, S-Video to RCA converter, remotecontrol, and an audio connector.

In the end it’s not really a question of trying to talk our way out of the kid’s college fund/the sister’s shopping stash/the electricity payment for next month, it’s about reaching a compromise between you and your currently befuddled (hopefully) female counterpart. When you reach the point of grudging acceptance for the Leadtek TV Pro by the ladies, grab the opportunity, because you won’t be seeing a better deal anytime soon, with this huge number of connectivity options and the potential for expanded activities. After which, you can go to work convincing them of the merits of the HP Blackbird to connect to your VGA-in and the sweet PS3+MGS4 bundle for the currently unoccupied Video-in.

For any ladies reading this blog, everything said above is theoretical, except for the great value of the Leadtek TV Pro. That alone in unassailably true.