SanDisk unveiled its TakeTV, a digital video player which can play video files downloaded from a computer on a TV set. It's really a USB flash drive with a TV player inside and a remote. The gadget comes in two versions:

SanDisk Sansa TakeTV 4GB for $99.99 (holds up to 5 hours of video encoded at 1.5 Mbps)

SanDisk Sansa TakeTV 8GB for $149.99 (holds up to 10 hours of video)

SanDisk't TakeTV supports the MPEG-4 family of video codecs, including DivX and xVid. It can output both NTSC and PAL TV signals (good for travel) at a resolution of up to 720x576 (D1) through either s-video or composite (CVBS) video outputs. TakeTV can be used with a Mac, Linux, Windows Vista or Windows XP PC. The connection to the TV set is accomplished through a special cradle which can conveniently hold the thick output cables.

What SanDisk's Sansa TakeTV brings to its users is simplicity: you can just pop the thing in the PC's USB port, drag and drop your video stuff on it and then go to your TV set and dock the TakeTV into its cradle. That's pretty much it. However, Sandisk has other plans too for its simple yet interesting device. It is the first such gadget to be compatible with Sandisk's Fanfare service, an online download service for video content such as TV shows.

Fanfare requires the download of a 7.7MB piece of software which enables you (only on Windows PCs, an apparently momentarily inconvenience) to snatch the video content and upload it to your TakeTV. Initially, all the content will be free, Sandisk says. There will be no subscription charge, but in time "premium content" will be available at a "minimum download charge," about $1.99 according to some reports. However, there is a catch: while the TakeTV appears travel-friendly (with its built-in PAL capabilities), you will not be able to download Fanfare content from outside the United States. This doesn't prevent you from playing abroad previously downloaded content, though.

Fanfare's current providers are allegedly CBS ("CSI" and "Survivor" are included), Showtime, Smithsonian, TV Guide, The Weather Channel and Jaman. Fanfare's catalog at launch is rather small, with about 85 titles, but they promise to expand quickly. Everything you download will only be playable on your SanDisk gadget, but not on your PC.

To wrap things up, it's worth mentioning that Gizmodo tested a beta version of a TakeTV and reported mixed results. While the thing is really that simple to use, the image quality does not appear to be as clear as that provided by their Vudu box. However, sound quality seemed just fine. They also reported trouble playing some content downloaded from Fanfare. Their tester also did not like the way the remote works: "it was non-responsive and not terribly intuitive, and fastforwarding and rewinding were exercises in frustration."