Sansa TakeTV Video Player Arrives with FanFare

In an effort to make it easier to move video from your PC to your TV, SanDisk Corporation has created the new Sansa TakeTV video player which is used like a USB flash drive, letting you drag and drop video files to the TakeTV player. After you've selected video content from your PC, slip the TakeTV player into the TV cradle, and press play on the included remote. The cradle plugs into the standard A/V sockets of most TV sets so after connecting you'll see an on-screen guide where you can select the DivX, XVID or MPEG-4 videos stored on the Sansa TakeTV player, then sit back and enjoy the show on your TV.

The player connects to any PC via a USB connector, and works with Windows Vista, Windows XP and the latest versions of Mac and Linux. SanDisk's Sansa TakeTV flash memory-based player comes in a 4 gigabyte capacity ($99.99) which holds about five hours of video, and 8GB ($149.99) which holds up to ten hours of video.

SanDisk also announced the public BETA version of Fanfare, a Web-based online video service that enables you to download television shows, movies and other premium video content to portable devices for $1.99 per download. Used together, Fanfare and Sansa TakeTV enables users to time-shift and place-shift videos and TV shows by downloading them from a PC to watch on TV at any time.  Programs including CSI, Survivor China, Dexter and Sleeper Cell, are available now with more video content coming from CBS, Jaman.com Inc., Showtime Networks, Smithsonian Networks, The Weather Channel and TV Guide Broadband.