SanDisk has unveiled TakeTV — a new line of USB accessories (4GB @ $99, 8GB @ $149) which, when docked, allow standard definition DivX, Xvid, and MPEG4 television playback. I don’t imagine the sneakernet media extender market is very large. In fact, Iomega tried something similar (using a hard drive, as opposed to flash) last year at a slightly higher price point ($220) which didn’t seem to gain any traction.
In conjunction with today’s hardware announcement, SanDisk is also taking the wraps off Fanfare, a video download service (in beta) offering both free and paid content – from partners such as CBS and Showtime. The DRM-protected video can currently be played back on PCs via TakeTV and, in the future, directly on select Sansa portable devices.
Engadget got a hands on… says the video quality isn’t great and the interface is somewhat unpolished. They also cover file format and DRM:
I was quite impressed with the quality of a few of the Fanfare videos. The quality of some torrent files left a little to be desired but that is due to the quality of the original file.
I might have to get one of these little jewels. Could come in handy at hotels when I’m out of town