New SanDisk Gadget, Service Take Digital Video to Your TV
The one-two punch of the TakeTV device and Fanfare downloads service delivers video files to your TV via sneakernet.
As much as I appreciate wireless networking, sometimes it's just easier to walk your files from place to place. SanDisk's Sansa TakeTV is built on that principle: This USB flash drive can store video--including downloads from SanDisk's new Fanfare service--and then play that video back on a TV. The concept is neat and has promise, but the implementation remains a bit rough.
The Sansa TakeTV video player is available in 4GB and 8GB versions for $100 and $150, respectively. SanDisk says the 4GB model can hold about 5 hours of video, while the 8GB model can hold about 10 hours of video. The Fanfare service (now in public beta) offers free, ad-supported video downloads for and ad-free titles for prices of around $1.99.
Take TV With You
The Sansa TakeTV was actually reborn out of SanDisk's previously shown USBTV (previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008), and itcertainly simplifies the process of getting downloaded video to your TV. The catch is, the video must already be in one of TakeTV's supported formats: including DivX, XVID and MPEG-4.
The device itself is sleek--it's a ginormous USB flash drive, wider and longer than normal. On some PCs, the TakeTV's width may block off adjacent USB ports. The device slides out its enclosure, to reveal a simple, detachable remote control. To attach TakeTV to your TV, slide the USB device into the included cradle. The cradle attaches to any TV via composite or S-Video inputs, and analog two-channel audio inputs. Given the low-fi nature of this gear, it didn't surprise me that setup was a breeze.
My biggest complaints rested with the remote portion of the demo unit we received from SanDisk. The small buttons reminded me of the credit-card sized remotes that often come with digital photo frames or portable projectors, and were often hard to press. The buttons were also often unresponsive; the problem appeared more pronounced at a distance or at an angle to the cradle. Whether that is characteristic of all units, or if the remote's watch battery--which was preinstalled on our unit--was weak, is unknown.
To its credit the remote is simple and uncluttered, with a huge, dominant Play button comfortably where my thumb fell. The remote felt comfortable in-hand, but the buttons were not well-labeled (for example: the left and right arrows give no visual indication that they double as fast forward and rewind buttons).
TakeTV in Play
The unresponsive remote buttons made it more difficult than necessary to move through the otherwise-streamlined menu interface. Playing and selecting content was fairly straightforward. You can move forward and backwards at 2X, 4X, 8X, and 16X speed. But, there's no timeline to gauge your progress as you speed through a title.
I tested the Take TV on a Samsung HP-S5053 plasma display using several shows downloaded from the Fanfare service, with mixed results. Two downloaded episodes of CSI: Miami looked badly oversaturated. Faces had the lobster-like tan effect, while greens and blues were clearly off the mark. Furthermore, the images showed many defects, including aliasing, pixilation, high noise, and ghosting effects when viewed.
These particular videos were XVID encoded, with two-channel MP3 audio; it's difficult to tell whether you can attribute these issues to the TakeTV device or to the encoding process. My guess, though, is that the video encoding is playing at least some role, since another video, from Penn & Teller, looked flat and soft, but didn't exhibit the same degree of oversaturation.
Ultimately, the images will probably pass for what they're intended as--a quick-and-dirty way to catch up on TV shows you've missed. However, the images will be less satisfying the larger and higher resolution your TV display. TakeTV maxes out at a DVD-like 720 by 576 pixel resolution that's more suitable for Standard definition TVs than 50-inch 1080p displays.
Once content is on the TakeTV drive, it can't be transferred elsewhere. The content is protected on the flash disk by SanDisk's TrustedFlash security technology.
Fanfare--The Service
The service itself is still a work in progress. While its interface looks nice, its narrow, vertical orientation could become tiresome to page through as the content lineup grows. Right now, though, Fanfare's selection is limited enough that this isn't a problem.
At launch, Fanfare features 85 titles from CBS, Jaman.com, Showtime Networks, Smithsonian Networks, The Weather Channel, and TV Guide Broadband. SanDisk says, for example, it has rights to Showtime's entire library; and, it will eventually have the entire new season of Survivor China available. The programs at launch include: CSI: Miami, Survivor China, Dexter and Sleeper Cell.
The programs will be both ad-supported no-fee and fee-based (fees will vary, but $1.99 seems a popular number from what I saw online). SanDisk says it will add dozens of titles dozens a week
Downloads are managed neatly, with a subtle bar beneath the title indicating progress. You can queue up multiple titles at once, but downloads only go to the TakeTV device. SanDisk says it may eventually offer streaming video as well.
The Bottom Line
In the end, I liked a lot the general concept of TakeTV and Fanfare better than their execution. But the limited storage is a problem: Wwhy can't I offload video to another TrustedFlash device or some other type of storage, so I can archive it? And I'm not convinced about SanDisk's selection: I found a lot more variety on free streaming service Joost.com, than I did on Fanfare (though, some of Fanfare's content was more timely than Joost's).
If you're looking for a quick way to watch digital videos on your TV and don't mind transcoding your personal videos into the proper format, the TakeTV could prove useful. And if the Fanfare service really starts to take off, SanDisk might have something here. For now, though, the device's small amount of storage just feels a bit too limiting.
Melissa J. Perenson, PC World
