Digital Trends

SanDisk Sansa TakeTV 4GB December 11th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup and Use

Setting up the Sansa TakeTV is neither complex nor time consuming. It's super easy, which is one of the best things about the product. Unbox everything and separate all the parts into a neat row in front of you. The receiver unit (with all the cables attached) should get plugged into the RCA plugs on your TV. If you have an S-Video input on your TV, use the S-Video cable on the TakeTV receiver. Plug the red & white RCA cables into their respective jacks on the TV. Again, there are two options: 1) plug the yellow, red and white RCA plugs into the TV jacks, or 2) plug the S-Video cable and the red & white cables into the TV jacks. According to SanDisk, using the S-Video cable is better. When we tested it, there was little to no difference in content playback when using full RCA or S-Video, so the choice is up to you.

Once the TakeTV receiver is properly plugged in to your TV, plug the wall adapter into an outlet near the TV. Ideally, plug it into a surge protector along with your TV and other components. Plug the male end of the power cord into the female power receiver cord on the TakeTV unit. When the power cord is connected, a soft blue light will turn on, letting you know that the TakeTV receiver is powered up and ready to go.

Connecting the TakeTV to your TV is simple

Retract the TakeTV USB flash drive from the remote (with the big blue play button at the top) by sliding it downward with a little finger pressure. The drive will disconnect, revealing the full remote keypad. From this point forward, there's no real reason to re-connect the flash drive with the remote, unless you're traveling with it and want to minimize the number of separate parts going into baggage.

With the flash drive in hand, plug it into a USB port on your computer. In a moment, the flash drive will show up on your desktop (or in Windows Explorer) as "TakeTV". Manually drag and drop your video content onto the drive. Be sure it's compatible video - DivX, Xvid, MPEG-4 (including some AVI files if the correct codec is used). (If it's incompatible video, there's no risk of damage or error - the video just won't play or show up on the TV screen).

Once content is transferred to the flash drive, disconnect it from your computer and plug it in to the TakeTV receiver unit by your TV. Switch your TV to the proper input and the blue Sansa screen will appear on your TV. If you moved compatible videos onto the flash drive, they'll be listed in an alphabetical menu on your TV. Use the little TakeTV remote to scroll up and down the list to find the video you want to play. Use the "enter" button or the big blue "play" button on the remote to start watching video. That's it. It's that easy!

You can play, pause, forward and rewind through videos. You can press the "i" button for info on the video - name, encoding, time position, minute count, etc. The "menu" button will provide a screen wherein you can modify any necessary settings, like 4:3 or 16:9 video (default settings should automatically switch between the two). During video playback, you can press the "mode" button to change the dimensions of the video to fill the screen, play the entire video within any applicable margins, etc.

Controlling the TakeTV with the remote can be frustrating

The only real disappointment we experienced using the TakeTV was the inconsistent remote action. Click, nothing. Click, nothing. Click, play. Craning our arms to various angles to get the remote to activate the receiver options should not have been necessary. The IR port on the receiver side was in direct line of sight and about 12 feet away. Other than this genuine frustration, the TakeTV performed all its intended functions with class.