SanDisk has become the latest company to tackle the PC-to-TV problem.

Taking a much simpler approach compared to the many media extenders on the market, the Sansa TakeTV player forgoes the need for a home network. Instead, content is physically shuttled from a PC to a TV via a dedicated USB stick and docking station. “No confusing WiFi set-ups, no waiting to burn DVDs”, boasts the Sansa online store.

The TakeTV device supports popular video formats DivX and xVid, and is available in two versions: a four-gigabyte model priced at $99 and an eight-gigabyte model for $149.

To support its TakeTV device, SanDisk has also rolled out a Beta version of a new video download service called Fanfare, which will offer paid-for, and eventually, ad-supported content from various partners. Of note, CBS and independent film-store Jaman are among the first to have signed on.

Could Netflix be about to launch a set-top box?

Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny thinks so, after the movie rental company that’s best known for putting DVDs in the post, updated its trademark filling to explicitly reference a set-top box that can download and deliver video content from the Internet directly to a television.

Zatz notes that this isn’t first time that talk of a Netflix set-top box has surfaced, which begin last April with the recruitment of Anthony Wood to the newly created position of VP of Internet TV. According to the press release issued at the time, Wood would be “responsible for all aspects of product development related to the company’s strategic intent to deliver movies directly to subscribers’ televisions via the Internet.” Prior to joining Neflix, Wood was CEO of Roku, the company behind the SoundBridge line of audio streaming devices, and before that he was founder of ReplayTV — no less — credited with being the creator of the digital video recorder (DVR). In other words, Wood has some serious hardware pedigree.

The BBC’s iPlayer (see our earlier review) will roll out a streaming option later this year, in a move that will finally make the UK-only TV catchup service available to Mac and Linux users, in addition to those using a Windows-based PC.

Described as a “strategic partnership”, by Erik Huggers, BBC future media and technology group controller, the new version of iPlayer will use Flash video technology from Adobe, and is said to compliment the existing Windows-only download version of the service, which utilizes Microsoft’s Windows Media software.

paidContent:UK reports that Joost is to add “live television” to its p2p-based Internet TV service. Content strategy and acquisition EVP, Yvette Alberdingkthijm, says that Joost will begin testing live transmissions in the first quarter of 2008, and that the company is currently “talking to everybody who has sports rights.” Alberdingkthijm acknowledges that securing sports rights can be extremely expensive but stressed that Joost is capable of doing live “really, really well.”

Were Joost to add a full lineup of “live” television channels, replicating the live streams found on traditional terrestrial, cable and satellite stations, then the service would compete even more directly with Zattoo and LiveStation, two Internet TV services which have, until now, distinguished themselves from other p2p-offerings by focusing on live rather than on-demand content.

In my early review of LiveStation, I concluded:

In the end, as ever, content will be king. And while we don’t yet know how many different Internet TV applications a user will welcome onto their desktop, it’s likely there’s room for at least one live and one on-demand offering.

If Joost does roll out live programing, it maybe that users only need one Internet TV application after all.