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| SanDisk Unveils Public Beta of Fanfare SanDisk announces the public beta version of Fanfare, a dynamic Web-based service that enables consumers to download television shows, movies and other premium video content to portable devices. The beta of the Fanfare content delivery service platform coincides with the U.S. online retail availability of the new Sansa TakeTV PC-to-TV video player (formerly "USBTV"). The combination of Fanfare with Sansa TakeTV creates an exceptional, end-to-end entertainment system enabling viewers to time-shift and place-shift their favorite shows by downloading them from their PC to watch them on nearly any TV, at any time. The first U.S-based content partners on the Fanfare BETA platform include: CBS, Jaman.com, Showtime Networks, Smithsonian Networks, The Weather Channel and TV Guide Broadband. Among the programs available immediately are CSI, Survivor China, Dexter and Sleeper Cell. Fanfare video content is a combination of free (ad supported) and paid episodes. The company is in the process of adding new episodes from current partners to the catalog, and acquiring additional programs, other premium content and channels. More than 85 titles are available today, with dozens more expected to be added each week to grant consumers access to thousands of hours of television programming. SanDisk chose to launch an early version of Fanfare to begin to expose people to the innovative concept of easily transferring content from the PC to the TV. Fanfare will gain additional features when the full version is launched early next year. In addition – while the paid content model is common for other video download services — SanDisk is working closely with its content partners to establish an advertising-supported model for current season television programming. The overall vision of Fanfare is to enable users to draw from a rich catalog of free and paid video content from a single location for playback on a wide variety of portable devices in the future. These devices will consist of SanDisk's line of Sansa audio/video players, as well as mobile phones, hand-held computers and TVs. Future plans also include video being transferred via SanDisk mobile cards. Fanfare is built around an intuitive, easy-to-navigate user interface designed by Schematic, an interactive agency specializing in innovative digital platforms. With a single click, programs and movies can be downloaded directly to the Sansa TakeTV player, which is then inserted into a small cradle attached to the TV for playback on the television. The cover of the Sansa TakeTV unit serves as a remote control. Rights-managed content is protected with TrustedFlash, a security technology developed by SanDisk that securely stores sensitive digital data and applications on flash media. SanDisk also worked with digital media leaders IBM and Extend Media to automate key content delivery processes and assure content partners that their high-value assets are safely under control. The Sansa TakeTV device must be purchased to extract content from Fanfare and transfer it to a television for playback. The Fanfare public beta is currently intended for the U.S. audience. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Computing News :: home page |