SanDisk Corporation today announced the U.S. availability of the Sansa TakeTV video player, a sneakernet alternative to Apple TV.

According to SanDisk’s Daniel Schreiber, the TakeTV has “No confusing wireless network set-up, no wires running across the living room and no cumbersome burning of DVDs. Just use the Sansa TakeTV device to move your favorite video content over to your TV, and enjoy it on the big screen with family and friends.”

How It Works

The TakeTV brings the sneakernet concept to moving video from your computer to your television:

• Plug the TakeTV player into your computer’s via a USB port.
• Drag video files onto the TakeTV player.
• Slip the player into its TV cradle. The cradle plugs into the standard A/V sockets of most existing TVs.
• Use the on-screen guide to select the content stored on the TakeTV player, using the included remote control.
• Watch the video.

SanDisk’s Sansa TakeTV flash memory-based player comes in a 4 gigabyte capacity, which holds approximately five hours of video, and 8GB, which can hold up to ten hours of video. It is available today for MSRPs of $99.99 and $149.99 respectively.

TakeTV may benefit from its relatively low price point and the technology’s simplicity. However, it makes managing video content a manual process that requires physically moving back and forth between your TV and you computer, which makes it less convenient than alternatives like Apple TV and the XBox 360.

Sansa TakeTV supports a variety of video formats, including DivX, XVID and MPEG-4. The Sansa TakeTV player is DivX Certified for Home Theater profile. 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.

Sansa TakeTV was announced today in conjunction with Fanfare Public BETA, a new digital entertainment content distribution platform by SanDisk. The Fanfare BETA web service works with Sansa TakeTV device, which gives consumers access to a growing list of TV shows that can be downloaded to the Sansa TakeTV and watched on nearly any TV, at any time.

via NewTeeVee