We take a close look at the Sansa TakeTV, a flash drive-like media streamer that gets video from your PC to your TV, except without the streaming part.
The SanDisk Sansa TakeTV video player is basically a media streaming device, without the streaming. Basically, you plug the flash drive into your PC, drag-and-drop video files onto the device, and then pop it into a docking station connected to your TV. We were surprised at how small the entire setup was, and how neatly compact SanDisk has designed the package. The flash drive slides into a sleeve housing for storage, and this sleeve also acts as a remote control, with blister-shaped buttons on the platform beneath the USB port.
On the television side, the dock is equally compact. You simply slide in the TakeTV drive, which fits neatly into the dock, and would be barely noticeable on an entertainment center. Seriously, the wireless adapter for our TiVo is larger than this thing, and much uglier.
The TakeTV can play an impressive litany of file types, especially DivX and XVID files. In fact, it was DivX showing off the small player at the Digital Focus show in New York, and not SanDisk. DivX was pitching the device as the opposite of the DivX Connected D-Link DSM-330. Where the DSM-330 lets your computer do all the work encoding and playing DivX files, the Sansa TakeTV doesn't even require a computer to play videos.
We think the TakeTV has some interesting applications. We can see a device like this replacing the VCR, in the same way that flash drives replaced disks. Whereas we once might have brought a video tape to a friend's house, say a family vacation or child's school play, now we could just bring the TakeTV. It takes up less space than a VCR tape, plus, our video files are digitally encoded anyway, so a digital hardware player is what we need. Besides, nobody uses VHS anymore, and who wants to burn a DVD just to show off the Kindergarten production of Romeo and Juliet.
The SanDisk Sansa TakeTV player is available now in 4GB and 8GB capacities. These will set you back $100 and $150 respectively, and we like that price point, as the last VCR we bought cost us just under $100.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Archive