I saw an ad for Take.TV on LifeHacker this evening and was intrigued. I clicked through and watched their Flash demo, and I have to say… I’m underwhelmed.
What exactly is the point of having to take the USB thumbdrive from TV to computer and back again? Even the Apple TV lets me watch media on my TV without the hassle of physically moving anything from one to the other.
Provided they have a better method for enabling media (preferably hi-def and convertible from many different sources), do we really have to take a step backwards here? Why don’t I just plug my computer directly into the TV with a standard video-out cable?
The whole point (to me, at least) is that there need be no physical effort involved in the process. With a matter of clicks from my computer, bingo, media is now available on my TV elsewhere in my house.
Best of luck to the Take.TV folks, but if I were their venture capitalists, I’d kiss my money goodbye…
Just saw the advert blurb for TakeTV on CNN.COM. Same response as some others….Ho-hum, what else is new? If it was possible to use this on library computers, in internet cafes/coffee houses/bookstores, without permissssion required, it would more useful. But these places will not likely give permissions. That means a limited usefulness, which doesn’t apeal to me. If anything it may be a item children/teens find useful around home. Anyway I don’t hardly watch TV(mostly deviod drivial) anymore. And the device is likely “Made in China” and I try my best to avoid buying stuff from China. Anything that is brand new, I don’t buy that is “Made in China”.
The author of this column is obviously a novice tech geek who’s writing a rant to hear himself talk vs offering a serious look at the benefits of this device.
First off, while I love my mac and ipod to death and wouldn’t use anything else, apple tv is an overpriced brick. One of apples few failures and most ill thought out devices. Numerous articles written by true tech gurus have written on this.
What the author has failed to note is that this is a compact easy to use solution. Taking this to a friends or or girlfriends a clients tv is easy without hassel.
Flipside bringing my laptop, finding a spot near the tv I can set up,and having a long enough a/v cable is all too bulky. Take tv can be thrown in my jacket pocket.
If I’m going on a date for dinner with my girl and I’m cabbing it because I’m going to have a few drinks. Then cab it back to her place to watch a movie or three. Brining my laptop and such is not an option. Take tv is though.
-Jon
Jon: I’m afraid I still don’t see this being a market-breaking product. Your example scenario would be one in which it’s more usable than similar products, true, but it’s still not exactly the magical solution we’d all hope it to be. It’s not as if your TV has a USB port you can simply plug the device into - you still need to carry around the “cradle” and an a/v cable of some sorts to plug it into. You still have to climb around behind the TV to find the proper type of a dozen different ports to plug it into, etc.
While the Take.TV is certainly still more portable than an Apple TV, even with its cradle, I still think having to move a USB device with an undoubtably limited storage amount (it’s still just a flash drive, so we’re probably talking 4 GB tops without breaking the bank, given SanDisk’s other products) back and forth is a step backwards.
Take.TV and Apple TV both have to have cables connected to the television - that’s just a given until we develop a new standard for media. I think Take.TV could have made a better entrance into the market had they taken the same set-top box method Apple had, while championing the desktop software side of things.
The true limitation to Apple’s product has always been the ability to get media onto the device properly. If you haven’t used their software to download TV shows from the iTMS, you’ve been pretty much out of luck. Take.TV could have easily trounced Apple by investing more time and money into methods for loading all your existing media onto the device.
While slightly more plausible in your scenario, I still don’t think Take.TV is going to be convenient enough as a mobile TV transport device, given the A/V conversion overhead any solution will require, to actually “revolutionize” the market as it claims. The limited size a USB-based thumbdrive device can contain is also likely going to be a factor, as high-def media booms in popularity. Regardless of your particular opinion, I think all these factors are going to be contributors to the Take.TV downfall…
Actually my new yamaha dvd player has a usb port on the front.my remote can work off the usb connection media.
That said I was at wally world today and it was hardly a norm. Cool thing about take tvs cradle system is its compact (by miles compared to hooking up a laptop). I imagine you could probably buy extra docks to keep at a second home, girlfriends,parents, work, etc.. Making it quite a portable solution. Also, it is available in an 8 gig format for only $149 I believe. So that’s what…8 movies and change? Not bad.
Revolution? No. But it is something that is accessible to the masses due to its price point and being its not tied to one proprietary standard it is friendly to pc and mac users.
I currently have a marantz a/v doc for my 160 gig ipod but its hardly something I want to unplug and bring with me to the ski condo each time. The take tv system is.
I have a netgear EVA8000 and projector that I use to watch AVI movies on the big screen - and I LOVE IT. Sometimes, however, I want to take a movie to watch on another TV in the house - like in my bedroom. This device makes that easy and doesn’t cost much or require I have an internet connection everywhere there is a TV. I can also take it to a friends house to watch. Can’t do that with other products out there and I don’t need to burn a DVD. Simple.
wireless is a great solution, if you wanna leave your computer on all the time and your wireless router is not situated three cement filled floors away from your television… I’m gonna buy this product.