Here's a sure sign of unpopularity: SanDisk stopped selling its
TakeTV device, and shut down TakeTV's
Fanfare content portal, on May 15th... and nobody noticed. Originally inspiring fond sentiments with its sneakernet approach to getting videos from your computer to your PC, SanDisk's TakeTV just never got much traction. Faced with competition from the likes of Microsoft and Apple -- not to mention the oodles of
networked devices that offer up more content and more convenience which have been cropping up recently -- we'd be surprised if TakeTV sold enough units to fill a briefcase. Anybody out there have any fond memory's of TakeTV's short stint?
posted Jun 6th 2008 7:14PM
Wow, I was just bored last weekend and went out to try and find one of these. It's no wonder it never took off I couldn't even find one locally.
Probably because they killed it on the 15th.
Well I bought one in January, and it's awesome. I just adore it, and use it on a daily basis. I acutally took it to work with me today, as my portable external hd is busted, this is perfect for transporting movies that I download at work, take it home, plug in and enjoy. I also found it easy to travel with. Stuck in hotels in and around Montreal with only 4 french chanels, it's nice to have season 3 & 4 of the office to watch. I am sad to know that its' no longer on the market.
I had no idea they had even made such a product.
x2
Me three.
If I had known this existed (I heard such a device was coming a couple years ago then nothing) I would have bought one (assuming it was priced fairly).
They promoted this like crazy on Engadget. I just didn't think it looked like it had value to anyone. I'm pretty sure no one else did either- hence dead TakeTV.
"sneakernet approach to getting videos from your computer to your PC"
what?
I didn't know what that meant either. We can be ignorant together.
"sneakernet approach to getting videos from your computer to your PC"
LOL.. that IS sneaky.
Sneaker netting is where you have to WALK it. Think like AS400 Tapes. Walk it from one to the other using sneakers (tennis shoes).
Yeah, it's an old school term. I only found out about it a month ago.
Orange pretty much nailed it.
Sneakernet is a networking term that refers to transfering data on physical media that has to be transported to the destination. Sneakernet obviously applies to sneakers walking the data there.
but why would you take it from your computer to your PC?
maybe because your computer is like a Mac and the PC is the PC yea?
It's supposed to say "from your computer to your TV"
Orange... whoosh.
This is the first time I have heard of it...
Ditto, and people say the Zune's advertising is bad...
The Zune has advertising? Seriously, I've never seen an ad of any kind for the Zune, unless you count the media attention it gets simply for being a Microsoft device. Unfortunately, SanDisk can't rely on that kind of attention.
getting videos from your computer to your PC
Indeed, Computer to PC, forget about the tv
I have one, and it rocks. I keep it on the SD living room TV that the wife uses. I was hoping they would make a HD version so that I could stop having to hook my laptop to the TV in the basement.
Perhaps I'll snag another for the parents before they are all gone.
just get a dvd player with mp4 capability and a usb slot in front, then pick up a cheap usb flash memory stick. This is a more versatile setup, albeit not as portable as the SanDisk solution.
Sorry to hear your wife keeps you in the basement.
what is the point of this article. no one cares about this.
That is a real shame. It was a pretty smart device.
I have one and love it. I thought it was the easiest way to get downloaded video from my laptop to tv. It seems to play almost anything I put on it. Only complaint is that it wont seem to play any of my video podcasts.
I would like a wireless device for this, but so far nothing has seemed right.
maybe some day my roku netflix box thing will let me stream video from my computer...
D-Link DSM-330 does exactly that and more.
OK... so does anyone have any good suggestions on getting content from my computer to PC now? This was the only thing I knew of that would do it.
Media Center Extenders. You need XP Media Center or Vista Home Premium/Ultimate though.
I think someone forgot to eat their frosted mini wheats today.
I'm going to go ahead and assume you meant from your computer to your TV...
This was a horrible device and I specifically remember commenting on the engadget post when they announced it that this was a pointless device that was bound to fail.
How are you supposed to get your content from your computer to your TV? With devices like the PS3, the Xbox 360, the Apple TV, or any TV with a VGA input, the process is much more seamless than the TakeTV. I personally find the PS3 to have the cleanest interface to use, and it is the easiest thing to take all your divx or xvid files, throw them onto a thumb drive, external HDD, or Disc and enjoy them on your HDTV via the PS3 or 360.
Sadly, you all missed his joke. He was asking if any other products allowed to get content from your Computer to your PC, since this revolutionary device is the only known one in existence to do such mind-boggling tasks.
err... I figured he was referencing the post which said from computer to PC. In the post, it definitely seems like a typo. As other commenters have said, sneakernet is when you have to walk the content over, and the TakeTV functioned so that you put the content on the USB drive from the computer to the piece of hardware connected to the TV, more or less.
The "from computer to PC" part doesn't seem like a joke and doesn't really make sense if it wasn't a typo.
Okay, read this slowly now. The original article was a typo, but he was making a joke of their typo and I was being sarcastic about the joke in my post. Don't over think things so much, your brain might just explode!
MeatPop just want really badly to think he is funny. The results speak for themselves =p. As far as the device, it was never on my radar and if I knew about it at any point in time, I still wouldn't have bought one.
The problem with this device is it is too much work. There are wires you need to connect and reconnect each time you use it. No one wants that kind of effort to watch a video.
You actually didn't have to connect any wires other than the first time you set the device up.
The TV dock remained connected to your TV. You just had to insert the USB drive and off you went.
Uh yeah, once you set up the tv dock, there's nothing else to hook up. Drop your files on the thumb drive and dock it... done. I own one and am very impressed with it. Not being someone who games (no PS3/Xbox), this was a much less expensive way to get media to the TV w/o burning DVDs. I also have a Zune and the TV dock for that is cool, but alas the Zune doesn't support Divx/Xvid like the Take TV did.
As far as the Fanfare software... it was rubish. The people who are gonna buy one of these are gonna be the people who already have a source (MPAA approved, of course) for their movies.
I thought it would be perfect for sneakernetting content from the PC to the soccer mom minivan with entertainment system. I was just going to wait until I had the minivan.
Then again, a video iPod/nano might have been good enough too.
I always kinda wanted one of these. If they go on clearance anytime soon I'll definitely pick one up now.
This is a shame
I always feel like my computer and my PC are completely disconnected
Oh wait, those are the same thing and I run a Mac
Epic fail if you were trying to be funny. Congrads on having a Mac though.
Now, everyone remember the Digg Nation sponsorship, watch the old episodes, and laugh.
I was planning on purchasing one of these until I saw a specific Pioneer DVD player + a flash drive would do the same thing. If it had come out sooner I would have been all over it.
I bought one when they came out, and it's currently being used as a giant 8gb USB flash drive. It worked fine for media files, but my Buffalo LinkTheater and Xbox can play DivX files on my PC via WiFi.
See ya at Woot.com TakeTV
I was a tester on this unit and the bottom line is it was a fantastic idea....for the time. They were just to short on storage space (and at the time infected with DRM) to be of long-term use. And when they hit the market, they were just too expensive. It's a pity. So for the tech world's time being, it's back to ripping movies and putting them on the iPod or Zune, with their AV cable output, I guess. As for showing up on woot, I wouldn't buy. They're not that useful without FanFare. Although, hmmm, maybe they're hackable.
It is a great travel device for watching downloaded (MP4) movies in your hotel room. Tough to lug around and Xbox and Playstation for video playback.
It just took them too long to get this thing to market. I did a beta test of this something like 2 years ago. While there were media centers back then they were just not that prevalent. Plus this setup was cheaper and simpler for the average user. But now their product just got overshadowed by much more capable devices.
It is a shame, the idea was a good one, it just came too late.
I don't pay much attention to SanDisk. Was I supposed to?
i remember when they had an a flash ad on appleinsider or something (or maybe even on this website). it was weird.
How much did this thing cost?
Because I bought some cheap Magnavox DVD player at Walmart ($27 I think) and it plays every divx file I throw at it, perfectly. Download, burn to CD or DVD, and go. Generally I burn stuff I don't plan on keeping to RW media.
Never had a problem with it, and it seems a good bit easier than this dock thing. Sneakernet, indeed.
Jeez, why the hate on this device? Snobby much? I never had one (or even touched one) but it seems like it was a nice simple way to quickly & painlessly transfer downloaded content to your tv in a pinch without having to set up media extenders or whatever. Sometimes there's a place for simple, quick, & dirty tech. I guess not in this case...
I think the perceived "hate" is because many of us who would use this product, already had/have a better solution in place and thus no interest comes from a product, esp. a dead one (at least that's my reason).
OMG my TakeTV suddenly disappeared!
That would've been freaky if it happened for real.
With some sub-$100 Divx-capable DVD players out there with a USB port, the only real advantage this seemed to have out of the gate is portability. The catch is that most of these folks interested in that aspect likely have a laptop, and would use it for portable video playback.
Although 70% more expensive, the Neuros OSD can duplicate the functionality, and much more (i.e. recording capbility).
If the TakeTV had been a $29.95 device that worked with any USB flash drive, perhaps it would have had a chance. Alternately, supporting at least the 960x540 higher definition podcast formats, and H.264 would have given it a fighting chance at this price level.
I bought the 8GB model for a close friend of mine who didn't have the ability to hook up their computer to their plasma, so I got this as a Christmas gift.
Turns out, the processor in the little (or should I say big) unit was even good enough to keep up with matching the audio and the video. I didnt even try high def files, just normal divx files, some movies worked perfect, other movies couldnt stay in sync. It doesnt seem worth the hastle to start a movie and not know if you'll be able to finish it cause your so annoyed with the audio not matching.
I had one. Graduated to the Popcorn Hour. Plays anything and 1080p HDMI out.
I got one, I really like it as a product. They needed to make some improvements to the content. The product was damn near perfect for usability and the video coming out of it was really, really clean. 480p on this was better than HD comcast cable. How F'd up is that?
Last time I checked it was too expensive for what it did. Was very tempted by the idea cos I was getting really tired of having to hook up via S-video but for that price I was willing to endure the agony of S-video.
Man, that's so weird. I love my TakeTV. I bought one when they first came out (before Christmas) for my roommate, but I ended up using it a lot more. It plays any DIVX file format I've thrown at it and takes up practically no space. I can't understand why these didn't do well. They're a simple and elegant solution for people who prefer to get their tv shows and movies off a torrent.
I own one. And I love it. I also own an Xbox 360. But I have more than one television, and I travel often. I'm not going to buy another 360, much less lug it around on trips. I'm thoroughly pleased with it. It was a gift, but if I'd paid for it, I'd love it nonetheless.
Amazon's still got em on sale for only $104.99 for the 8GB player. I wanted one for a while, and since they're going out of style now, I might as well get one.
I understand some people don't see a point to it, but I certainly do. I frequently visit friend's places where they might not want to pay to download content onto a 360 or PS3, and don't have the movie we wanna watch downloaded yet in order to stream it, so this is a perfect solution. I usually have to bring my laptop over and run it to the VGA or DVI port on their tv, assuming they even have one. This is as portable as an iPod, and plays a lot more formats. And those that complain that you have to plug in a few wires, it isn't like most tvs don't have a front or side input now that you can jack into.
I have one and I love it! It holds several avi movies and plays directly into the TV. It's easy to use - just hook it up to a USB port and transfer videos to it, then remove it and take it over to the base unit attached to the TV. It's small, easy to use, and it works well. I don't understand why it didn't sell well.
I bought one 8GB model. I had a heck of a time finding videos. Stage 6 vids worked but then they shut down. Now it's a matter of converting them to DIvx which is a pain. Anyway it's not very useful and I regret spending the $149. Now if I could hack the firmware then maybe it could be better.
Suggestions on a good player?
ok, i understand everyone's trouble with not finding content and blah blah blah.. personally, when i first saw this back in november i knew i had to get my hands on one.. why? for $100, i could finally watch everything i've downloaded on my tv instead of my pc.. i think this device was more for the pirates.. THERE IS PLENTY of content.. you just gotta know where it is... i use my TakeTV religiously.. almost every single day watching tv shows and/or movies on my 42" flat screen, as opposed to my 20" computer screen.. this thing definitely had its perks. too bad it didn't last long...
and for those saying this thing is complicated or too big of a hassle, are you freaking kidding me? you have one part that permanently stays hooked up to your tv via component/s-video connections.. and (basically) a portable hard drive that you plug into a usb port on ur comp. you transfer whatever file w/ USB 2.0 (so even a movie only takes 5 mins if that) then plug the hard drive back into the device on the tv... if that complicates you, you have a long life ahead of you..