SanDisk, the memory maker, has made a curious but an interestingly simple move: it is launching an online video service and a USB flash drive that can carry videos downloaded on a PC for playback on TVs. The Sansa TakeTV video player is a mix of an oversized USB drive, remote control and a small dock that connects to a TV, and it has an accompanying video service, Fanfare, reports AP.

After the users download video from the service, or any other online video including in DivX (NSDQ: DIVX) and Xvid format, they can then connect it to the TV-connected dock, and a simple menu appears on the TV to scroll through the files for playback.

TakeTV player is $99.99 for a 4 GB model and $149.99 for an 8GB model that can hold up to 10 hours of video. Fanfare offers premium TV shows for $1.99 per download...it plans to add ad-supported in the future. Fanfare’s catalog at launch is small, with about 85 titles, from CBS, Showtime, TVGuide and others.

BW: SanDisk (NSDQ: SNDK) CEO Eli Harari says launching Fanfare has less to do with attacking Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in a potentially tender spot than about establishing a toehold in an incipient market.

Some pics of the device are here on Engadget.