Intec active A/V selector is inexpensive and works

OUR RESIDENT former folk singer Wendy explained in great detail her ordeal with SCART plugs present in European tellies. But for some of us outside Europa a.k.a. "the Rest of the World", US influence brought us RCA plugs and S-video connectors. Sadistic execs at the TV manufacturing companies continue in this day and age producing CRT tubes with a single set of composite video and stereo audio inputs. That is the case with my cheap but trusty two years old, 20-inch Philips CRT which includes a single set of composite video and audio plugs, as RCA of course.

I had to look for a solution to connect my VCR, DVR, and the Playstation, and if possible one that didn't break my finances. Of course, We're talking non-HDTV here, as most of us still live in an analogue TV dimension in this part of the world where this correspondent is sitting.

Front view. Note: Power supply is 110v only.

Some companies are too happy to continue peddling "passive switches" for $20 a piece to unsuspecting customers. And some other brands -like Sony- charge around $60 for an "active" switch. Here's my experience with the Intec active A/V selector, a middle ground between worthless below-$15 devices and the above-$50 devices from the "top brands".

Back view, showing composite (RCA) and S-Video connectors

Intec -not to be confused with La Intella, is not a newcomer to this market, the company also makes Xbox and other game console accesories. If this device is any indication, they apparently make reasonably priced kit of good quality. In the lower price range of video switches, there is a lot of junk, starting with the useless "passive" swatters which wear out and start introducing noise after only a few months -or if you're lucky, a year- of use.

The Intec switcher

It has an external design that feels a bit "toyish" to the touch - specially the front button- and looks that appear taken from a science-fiction space movie. The remote control is light and small - which means it can also be easily misplaced, but, it can be hanged on your key chain, so that issue is solved. When the unit loses power it returns to input one, not remembering the last input selected. Anyway, for this price, you don't expect the unit to have any non-volatile ram, or do you?.

The guts of the beast: Texas Instruments chips

Internally, the unit uses Texas Instruments chips to do the switching, specifically the CD4052B which is a 4 channel multiplexer, and the TI CD4069 which is a CMOS inverter. Since all the switching is done inside the TI 4052B chips, noise is reduced to a minimum, and while the internal cabling could be of better quality, the short cable lengths seems to provide no harmful effect on signal quality. There's no noticeable difference on my 20" TV between the image quality when passing through the switch and when hooked directly to the telly.

Happy TV input switching!

It looks good, takes little space, a LED on each button indicates which one of the four inputs is currently active, it has one front input behind a plastic door, the power button has a red coloured LED, and remote control can be put to rest on top of the same unit. Not only it has a little cradle for the remote but it also has a powerful magnet underneath that attracts the remote into place, so it's almost impossible for the remote not to land securely into its cradle.

Space-age, tiny remote. Uses wristwatch style, coin-sized battery

As some famous editor would say: "it does what it says on the box". And for $29.95, you can't beat the price. Four and a half Fernandos in my personal, one-to-five rating scale. Of great value for cheapskates like me.?

See also:

Unconvergence: Wendy Grossman's crusade against SCART