SanDisk introduces TakeTV and FanFare
On October 22nd, SanDisk introduced a unique product TakeTV, a usb thumb drive and media player mashup to simplify playing downloaded video on your television. NewTeeVee.com has an excellent article describing the product and it’s accompanying download service, Fanfare, which has shows from CBS and Showtime, among others.
The product includes a specialized thumbdrive that attaches to a remote, and a simple dock to connect to your television. The idea is that users can just plug in their thumbdrive and download a show, and use the old fashion sneakerNet to hook it up to the television. There is no need to hook up a networked device and have another computer running acting like a media server. At $99 for the 4GB model (there is a $149 8GB model as well) , it’s a low cost solution for getting your tv connected.
On the content side, SanDisk has introduced FanFare, which is a online web service providing encrypted content that can only be played on the TakeTV. FanFare comes as a windows application that seamlessly downloads shows from their server and puts them on the TakeTV thumb drive.
The sub-$100 price point seems like a magical place to be, but I wonder if it wouldn’t be worth $50 more to buy a Zune ($79 if you can find it on woot.com) or other full portable video player that has the ability to play video on the TV. The trick really is making the download fast and easy, but with the small 1Mbit DSL connection, it still can take hours to download a movie depending on the format.
The lack of screen and portable playing I think could be compensated if it support HDTV, something that the current version lacks. With HDTV sales taking off, this kind of product could find a better niche over an iPod or Zune by supporting HDTV resolutions. Watching standard resolution video on an HDTV is just turning into a drag and finding a way to get downloaded content easily will be the next battleground for connected devices.
It’s an interesting take on a common problem, and with it’s simple implementation and price point, it might make some fans.
