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SanDisk kills TakeTV dead
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?
Switched On: TakeTV is SanDisk's flash drive-in
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment. This week's marks the column's third anniversary: Entering the market with smaller dimensions and a lower price than television bridge products such as Apple TV and the Xbox 360, SanDisk's TakeTV is unconcerned with DHCP, WPA, SSIDs and several alphabetical dalliances of IEEE 802.11. In fact, it eschews any kind of direct home network connection, returning to that tried-and-trod transfer known as "sneakernet." Using portable physical media as a liaison between devices goes back at least to the early days of the floppy disk and was revived a few years ago by the USB flash drive.Indeed, the latter is at a basic level the portable component of Take TV, a large, flat flash drive with four or eight gigabytes of SanDisk's trusted flash technology. The flash drive component docks into a video adapter that connects to TVs, but can take advantage only of an S-Video connection at best. When not connected to the television, it also snaps into its own minimalist remote crowned with an oversized Play button.By design, using TakeTV is very similar to using a flash drive; simply drag and drop video files onto the flash drive component. TakeTV is a certified DivX device and also supports XVID and MPEG-4. Videos shot with a Flip Video camcorder played back perfectly. However, the popular Windows and Mac formats of WMV and H.264 are not yet supported; Apple's Leopard instructional video was not recognized.
SanDisk Sansa TakeTV (and Fanfare) hands-on: TakeTWO
Ok, our new TakeTV arrived, and this time it works perfectly. (The first one we got was a pre-production unit with a bum remote.) Here are a few more things we noticed about the TakeTV and its accompanying Fanfare video download service: The TakeTV interface still has a very unpolished, raw look and feel to it. It's also just the bare essentials, with only a few options for video settings (just aspect ratio, NTSC / PAL, and which video type you prefer: letterbox, pan and scan, fill, etc.). On the upshot, being flash-based and light weight, the system boots near instantly and videos take just a couple of seconds to load. It properly recognized our XviD and DivX files, but didn't like AVC1 encoded movies, and surprisingly enough, didn't like our standard encoded MPEG-4 Handbrake-ripped DVD. (It's supposed to play back MPEG-4 files, maybe we did something funny, who knows.) On the other hand Fanfare looks very slick, but the interface -- done in Flash -- is way too busy, making it sometimes difficult to tell what's going on. It's definitely in need of some simplification and polish. Downloaded DRMed videos are, surprisingly enough, in XviD. But they're wrapped SanDisk's proprietary TrustedFlash rights protection. Files are .smbt. Downloaded videos are about 350MB per 30 minutes. That's 1.6Mbps (200KBps); given that high a bitrate you'd think these videos would look friggin' great, but the sad fact is they look more like 600-800Kbps, tops, so don't be too disappointed when your Fanfare downloads don't look all that amazing. So our day one thoughts on TakeTV + Fanfare? Well, $99 or $150 for a device that plays all our favorite video formats is kind of a no brainer, especially considering the cost of entry for a lot of other devices in the same category is significantly higher (the $300 / $400 Apple TV comes to mind). We're not sure this whole system is ready for prime time just yet -- but neither is SanDisk, which is why Fanfare is launching in "beta". Maybe with the right hardware and software tweaks this could be a very compelling cheap-or-free download service paired with a very easy to use hardware solution, but for right now we think there are quite a few kinks to iron out.%Gallery-8959%
SanDisk Sansa TakeTV hands-on
Well, after about a day and a half of anticipation, we've got a TakeTV of our own to fool around with. First thing that struck us: this ain't your mom's USB flash drive -- unless your mom carries around a Zachmorrisphone, because the TakeTV is big. (But it's not really intended for taking out of the house and using on the daily, so it's not like that's really any big deal.) The remote is thin and blister-buttoned (meh) but the play button is unusually, satisfyingly large. The video dock the TakeTV plugs into doesn't have any rubber grips though, so the thick cable is liable to push it around (or over). Other than that, we haven't much else to say since our unit (which was possibly pre-release hardware) is having some trouble getting up and running. Check back soon, we'll let you know how Fanfare and the rest works out.%Gallery-8940%
SanDisk announces Sansa TakeTV, Fanfare video download service
That SanDisk Sansa TakeTV we saw over the weekend? Well, it's officially announced: the USBTV is now the TakeTV, and will take advantage of a new video platform called Fanfare. The details:Sansa TakeTV 4GB and 8GB sizes, $100 and $150 respectively Supports DivX (including Home Theater profile), XVID, and MPEG-4 Up to 720 x 576 resolution On sale immediately Intended for use in downloading shows from one's computer to the TakeTV (which is then physically moved to the TV) Fanfare online video service Launching with content from CBS, Jaman, Showtime, Smithsonian Networks, The Weather Channel and TV Guide Broadband, including shows such as CSI, Survivor China, Dexter, and Sleeper Cell Video downloads will be both ad-supported (free) and paid (not sure how much yet), depending on the wishes of the content creators Fanfare video will also be playable on Sansa portable media devices Yes, it's DRMed, and yes, it's proprietary: TrustedFlash, developed by SanDisk Launching in beta today, officially launching in 2008 %Gallery-8924%
SanDisk Sansa TakeTV 8GB video player leaked
Vanilla USB flash drives are so passé, so for those who want a little more flavor more from their generic sticks of memory, might we point you to the SanDisk Sansa TakeTV, apparently freshly leaked by way of buy.com? (It also briefly appeared on PC Mag's site and SanDisk's forums among other sites.) Sure, the TakeTV an 8GB flash drive, but it's also intended to plug into a USB dock with TV outs (and remote), which is capable of reading and decoding the DivX, XviD, and MPEG-4 video files up to 720 x 576 and 7Mbps for playback on your TV. All the old school simplicity of home sneakernet combined with the one-stop-shop convenience of a USB flash drive. Unfortunately buy.com won't tell us when it's out or how much it'll cost, so no one gets to take home TakeTV just yet.Update: This whole thing sound familiar? It might, SanDisk announced its USBTV initiative at CES this year, so it looks like this is the first resulting product. Thanks to everyone who pointed this out.[Thanks, Matt]
