Sandisk announces portable media hub

San Jose (CA) - Sandisk, best known for its USB flash drives and low-cost MP3 players, has announced that its next project will be a portable media hub that users can use to transfer video from a PC to a TV.

The Sansa TakeTV will include a USB drive, remote control, and a docking station that includes hook-ups to connect the device to a TV set. Users can transfer video files to it and then play them back using a graphical user interface on their TV.

Going hand in hand with the new device will be Fanfare, Sandisk’s own video download service that is competing with giants like Apple and Amazon is providing users with downloadable video content.

The unit will be available with capacities of 4 GB and 8 GB, for around $100 and $150, respectively. Fanfare is currently operating in a beta format, offering TV show downloads for the market standard of around $2 each.

Sandisk currently owns around 10% of the media player market share, putting it in second place but still far behind the leader, Apple.