SanDisk Pushes DV to the TV with New Device
October 22, 2007 | by Nick Mokey
The Sansa TakeTV works like a thumb drive for video that hooks up to any television, giving consumers a drag-and-drop approach to watching digital video in their living rooms.
SanDisk has already shaken the market for portable media players with its affordable players packing Apple-like features, and now it’s moving on to the new market for playing downloaded digital video on a television. On Monday, the company announced the Sansa TakeTV, its solution to getting DV off the computer and onto the big screen.
Unlike competitors like AppleTV or a Slingbox, SanDisk skipped the networking approached completely in favor of simplicity. Instead, the TakeTV basically works like a large thumb drive – fill it up with video via a USB connection, then take it to your TV and plug it into its dock, which can be connected to a TV via AV composite inputs or S-video. Everything on the device can in turn be navigated through and played with the TakeTV’s tiny remote.
Of course, compatibility can be a major issue with DV products, but the TakeTV supports major formats used for Internet distribution including DivX, XVID and MPEG-4. SanDisk is also launching its own platform for content distribution, called Fanfare, along with the device. It will give consumers the option of downloading premium paid and ad-supported programs for use with the TakeTV.
SanDisk has made the player available immediately in both a 4GB and 8GB variants, costing $99.99 and $149.99, respectively. A beta version of Fanfare can be downloaded for free at the Fanfare Web site.
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Scott Beckstead on Oct 22nd, 2007 at 11:38 AM:
Um Slingbox is exactly the opposite of the AppleTV and doesn't belong in this comparison at all. Do your research people! And for all its cost, the AppleTV is still a far better choice than this thing. I copy material to a remotely mounted drive and play it back. I don't have to physically move a USb device around the house.