Technology Digital Voice Recorders

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Meggs

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Hi

I was wondering if any of you has any experience with digital voice recorder for lectures. I'm taking some complicated classes right now, and the handouts are just not enough. So I was thinking about getting a digital voice recorder, not to transcribe it, but just to save it to my computer and play it later when I'm studying. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars in this. I don't need anything too fancy. Has any of you tried this before? Which one you'll recommend? or where can I get more info about this? Please if anyone has any advice I'll really appreciate it. Thanks.
Meggs 😕
 
if you don't have a PDA yet buy one with a voice recorder in it, then get a memory card upgrade and as long as you upload the lectures frequently you should be quite happy. if you already have a PDA just do a search, you can find many good digital voice recorders on google.

-J
 
Meggs said:
Hi

I was wondering if any of you has any experience with digital voice recorder for lectures. I'm taking some complicated classes right now, and the handouts are just not enough. So I was thinking about getting a digital voice recorder, not to transcribe it, but just to save it to my computer and play it later when I'm studying. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars in this. I don't need anything too fancy. Has any of you tried this before? Which one you'll recommend? or where can I get more info about this? Please if anyone has any advice I'll really appreciate it. Thanks.
Meggs 😕

I have a sony, $99 at circuit city - 15 hours of recording. Seems OK. The best part is I can download it to my computer.

The problem I see with getting a PDA that can record is what if you want to use the PDA? I use mine all the time during lectures, for all sorts of things.
 
i don't know about using a PDA to record lectures... i have a toshiba e355 (ppc 2003), and the quality is not good and the files are huge (i've tinkered with the quality settings and the results are still short of satisfactory).

my recommendation is the Panasonic D-Snap (SV-AS10). it's actually a 4-in-1 device (takes 2mp pictures, video, plays mp3's, and records voice), about the size of a credit card and 1cm thick. the quality of the recordings is surprisingly good; i can sit in the back of the hall, and still pick up the lecturer's voice for later studying. and unlike the cheap recorders, it doesn't really pick up (or digitally minimizes?) ambient noise or static. since it uses a SD card for storage, everything's digital and just a lot easier to handle than tapes (e.g., for fast forward, rewinding, etc). an hour worth of lecture is about 20mb, which is small considering you can put in a 256mb SD card and have a whole day's worth of lectures. the retail price is about $250-300, but you can find it for less. if you're interested in a device that can also take pictures and video (actually pretty useful, especially if you have a professor who still relies on archaic slides that don't transfer to the web -- all you have to do is take a picture of the projector screen, and the quality of the D-Snap is good enough to read, even far away), you should consider this one.
 
Thanks guys for your repplies. I don't have a PDA, and to be honest the idea of a gadget that holds many different functions I've never liked it, 'cause I feel they don't do a good job in any of them. I think I'm going to stick to a regular digital recorder. I like flighterdoc's suggestion, 'cause is under the $100 tag.

Thanks guys, it has been a of great help. Thanks.
Meggs 🙂
 
I've used my iPaq 4155 Pocket PC to record audio. The internal 64 meg ram fills quickly but with an SD card (purchased for a bargain at newegg.com) it can record an entire lecture easily. You can change the audio properties to get the best balance of audio quality and memory space.
 
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