SanDisk introduces affordable, light-weight media center-like technology to the living room

Many of us jumped on the media center PC bandwagon a long time ago, either by purchasing a complete media center computer or by building our own media centers based on proprietary or open-source operating systems. Not everyone had the resources to purchase such hardware or the hardware to build such computers but lately it is becoming simpler and more affordable to put such capabilities in the living room.

Today, SanDisk, manufacturer of flash storage media-based products, has introduced a USB flash drive-based set-top media player and a dynamic video distribution platform called Fanfare to compliment the device at a lower price than traditional media center hardware.

The Sansa TakeTV platform utilizes a flash-based USB thumb drive to transfer videos from the PC to the TV in a few steps. A user would first copy videos they would like to view on their television to the thumb drive by connecting it to a computer's USB port and dragging and dropping media files onto the thumb drive. The user would then connect the TakeTV USB thumb drive to the docking station which has audio and video outputs. An included remote controller can be used to browse the media files on the thumb drive much like a media center application.

The TakeTV system features composite and S-video outputs and stereo audio outputs for both newer and egacy television models. There is no high-definition version of the TakeTV system yet so HDTV owners may want to look at other solutions to make full use of their equipment.

The TakeTV solution USB thumb drives come in 4GB and 8GB models and are priced at $99.99 and $149.99 respectively.

SanDisk has also introduced the Fanfare online digital media distribution service to compliment the TakeTV product and will feature TV shows from Showtime, CBS and other networks signed on to this service. The service will allow users to download ad-supported or paid/ad-free episodes directly to the TakeTV USB thumb drive.


Source from DailyTech