Customer Reviews

Olympus VN-480-PC DIGTL VOICE REC ( 141725 )

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just bought one of these .. why? .. becuase I had bought it's "little brother" .. a 16k version and loved it so much that I had to get one with more memory (this has 64k)

Contrary to the official Amazon discription .. the high quality recording time is almost 3 hours (2 hr and 57.5 min)

If you are interested in a digital voice recorder be sure to get one (like this) that can easily upload to your computer. Many units without a USB you have to connect the earphone jack to the mic in of your soundcard and play it back in 'real time' The USB transfer works great, and is fast .. the files are stored as .wav files but using 3rd party software you can burn them to a music CD or convert them to mp3 or whatever.

I recorded a meeting that was an hour and 5 min. The wav file was about 40meg. Using 3rd party software I made an mp3 about 14.5 meg. The sound quality (for voice) was really good at the high quality setting.

It also has a sound activation (commonly called VOX) feature that records only when it hears sound above a certain level. Also there is a TIMER RECORDING feature that will start recording at a specified time and length.

Just recently purchased one of these recorders and I fell in love the first day. Very simple to use and compact. Recorder has four folders with up to 100 files in each folder. One has a special folder that has date subfolders; a useful feature for schedule management. Also has alarm playback function, a variable control voice actuator, and index marks as well (to easily keep track of important sections in a file. But the best feature of all is being able to download the recording to your pc.

Compared to similarly priced digital and non-digital options for voice recording, this is an awesome recorder. The sound quality is excellent (in high quality mode). It features the best internal microphone on the market. The controls are easy to use (though having more buttons would have made it better and more intuitive). The unit is very light and comparatively unobtrusive. It avoids difficulties of flipping tapes encountered by traditional recording methods. It is not nearly as cumbersome as the MiniDisc either, though the sound quality is not nearly as good.

However, I remain fairly disappointed with the category and with these particular digital recorders. It is ridiculous how much money these recorders cost given how little memory they contain. A Creative MuVo mp3 player available for about $63 at Wal-Mart (a store that carries Olympus digital voice recorders) has 512 MB of memory. The Olympus digital voice recorder has 64 MB! This unit would be GREATLY improved by higher storage capacity and removable memory! These capabilities would be of great use for qualitative researchers, journalists, and other professionals for whom taking a storing a lot of interviews is a part of the job. Right now, I have to come home between each interview and upload it to my PC desktop, since it cannot connect to my Apple laptop and I can't remove the memory and put it in a card reader. Also, the connection system used to transfer the pitiful 64 MB of memory is very slow. It took 10 minutes to transfer approx 40 MB from the unit to a very fast computer running XP. I am disappointed with the storage and processing capacities, even if they may be industry-leading. I have enjoyed these capabilities (removable memory, processing speed, larger memory) in their cameras since 2000.

In summary, I'd recommend it to any professional (on a budget) who needs to take interviews, does their own dictation, etc., but I would also encourage Olympus to improve this product significantly.

FYI: I am not sure how the unit would do recording lectures.

While it works great, you cannot convert the .WAV file using Microsoft Media Player. Oh, MMP will PLAY the file, but when you go to convert it to an MP3 or just burn the file directly to CD so you can play it in a CD player, it doesn't work. It says that it doesn't recognize the codec. Olympus was at a loss to explain the work around. What I ended up doing was purchasing a third (or fourth or even fifth, with as low tech as it turned out to be) party converter that was able to convert it without a problem. Why won't MMP convert? Because the Olympus .WAV file uses a proprietary codec--one that they will NOT send out. I was on the phone with them for over an hour trying to convince them that, no, it doesn't convert. The person I was on the phone with the longest had no clue about the proprietary codec.

Anyway, if you want to use this product for your class notes, etc., it's a great product. Just don't expect to easily/quickly burn a usable CD with it.

Just purchased this product a few hours ago and actually did

an interview. Playing it back on the voice recorder sounds

GREAT! I downloaded the interview onto my computer & I

can play it back in "real time." Problem is that I need

to type the interview on the recording & so I need to

play the recording back SLOWER than "real time."

I was hoping to be able to play it and have it automatically

rewind a few seconds & play again, so that I can type along.

I don't think there is a way to do that -- does anyone know

if there is?

Besides this major disappointment, I am QUITE pleased for $60.

Thanks!

Beth :)

I was skeptical before I bought this product especially the noises when you record the proceedings of the meetings. Amazingly the recordings are crystal clear.I love it

I just bought one of these off of amazon.com and it works really well.

I bought it cause I am a college student and need something to record lectures. It does a pretty decent job. I havent used it to its full capacity yet but all in all it has worked really well for me. The pc link is the best feature in my opinion. when playing back files, it is hard to hear dictation without earphones.

Works great. Even with college lectures you can hear the recorded session great. I have also hooked this up to my cassette adaptor for my car and it sounds great for even better play back. Only neg it there is no case. Hate to drop this and break it!

I use the recorder for (2) things:

Practicing presentations (Work and Toastmasters)
Recording our dog while we're out (auto-on feature)

I'm no expert, but the audio quality sounds spot-on, the batteries life and recorded duration are perfectly long enough, the features are exactly what I need for those (2) tasks.

I feel the memory structure and button actions are a little confusing unless you spent your childhood on a C64, and even then, you'd probably need to read the instructions. But again, that's why they include instructions: To explain how things work.

I like it so much I gave one as a Christmas gift (2) years ago. And my wife caught me on tape saying, "Yes, you're right, Honey", so she likes it too.

I bought this product for two reasons: 1. necessity. I needed a voice recorder to record my interviews for my Undergraduate Thesis. 2. It was the cheapest one that had everything I needed (namely a USB connection) and looked decent enough.

I am pleasently surprised at how well this has worked. It takes two AAA batteries to run it. I put in the two batteries that came with the recorder and went to do my first interviews. I'm now 11 interviews in (each being somewhere between 1/2 hour and 1.25 hours) and still on the same batteries!!! And it doesn't look like I'm going to replace them any time soon either. The sound quality is incredible as well. I've been recording on High Quality and have had no problem understanding the recordings later even when the interviewee was mumbling and stuttering. It does a pretty good job of cutting out background noise too. The program that comes with it is very easy to work, which makes for an easier time transcribing.

Overall it was quite a deal considering the price (about $[...]) I certainly recommend this product, it's well worth it.