Customer Reviews

PoGo! Products "Radio Your Way" Portable MP3 Player and Radio Recorder

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I've been wanting a DVR for my radio forever (ok, for at least two years), even if I wasn't entirely sure what I do with it. Well, now I have one, and if this first one inspires other manufacturers or better industrial & software designers, it's worth the purchase.

Radio recording (i.e. why you would pick this up in the first place) is fine for talk, completely useless for radio. One thing that these reviews don't make clear is that the recorded radio quality is terrible - completely flat and a bit muddy. It's perfectly adequate for talk, useless for music. The recording interface leaves something to be desired but works generally fine. The fact that you can't actually pause a recording in progress, turn off the device, and restart from that same location is completely brain-dead. In the end, though, I was able to listen to some NPR shows that took place a week ago while walking around a campground, and that's all I wanted in the first place.

As an MP3 player, it's acceptable but feature-deficient. I'm not an audiophile and don't have a particularly sensitive ear, so your mileage may vary, but music of varying ripped quality sounded just fine - unless you fiddle with the equalizer, in which case every type of music sounds bad. There's a bizarre repeat feature but no shuffle, no mid-song stop, etc.

It seems flimsy at first but has held up under reasonable conditions. I think the size and weight are fine. I'm happy it's expandable (was a requirement for me) and am disappointed that the solid-state market is moving away from expandability.

(One later addition to the review: the battery life seems to be about 50-75% of what's promised; I'm burning out in 7-9 hours.)

So, generally fine and I'm happy with the device. I'm hoping for its success so somebody else will do it better.

The main reason I bought this product is that it is the ONLY MP3 player on the market with an AM radio tuner. Who told the digital music industry MP3 listeners don't like to listen to the ballgame now and then?

As a bonus, this player is like a Tivo for radio. If you don't like talk radio, don't bother with this product. I think it is great. I have it programmed to pick up BBC News, an NPR show I like, my favorite sports program, and my favorite comedy show. I haven't tried to record a music show yet, but I will try it out. Supposedly it doesn't work very well.

In order to get this radio recording feature to work for you, you have to do a few things. I built a small holder for it on my windowsill where the radio gets good reception. Obviously, good reception is key for a good recording. You have to find a good spot for it. I also have the AC adapter set up so it can reach the device when it is in this holder. It will burn your batteries recording the shows. I also have the antenna it came with taped to the window so I get better reception and thus better recordings from this spot.

The recording fuction is great. It can be programmed for 7 days a week, 5 days, or any one day at whatever time slot you want. I can now listen to my favorite radio shows whenever I want, and in locations where I would never be able to get reception... such as in the gym. It is a nice change to be able to mix up the music with some talk radio.

My Radio Your Way came with 128 MB of memory. I don't know if Amazon is selling these yet. I quickly discoverd that if you fill the memory with MP3's, there is no room left for the radio recordings. So I bought a card to expand the memory by 256 MB. I fit about 70 songs on the card, and I am going to put some more on the internal memory as well since 128 MB translates to about 18 hours of radio recordings, and I don't need that much space for them.

I haven't had any problems with the software it came with. Everything has worked great. I love this product to death, but if you don't like talk radio, or aren't willing to deal with the setup for radio recordings (including buying the AC adapter and possibly extra memory if you want a lot of MP3's on it as well), or aren't interested in that function in the first place, or you don't care about having an AM radio tuner on your MP3 player... then this isn't the product for you.

My only suggestions for this product would be a shuffle function for the stored MP3's, and an armband for the gym.

I can't wait until baseball season and I can record all of the Giants games.

I own many MP3 players and even two other Pogo products, namely the Ripflash (yes I have 2) that has been great except for the horrible PC software. Well this time Pogo has outdone them self with a neat idea and poor implementation. The idea of a VCR-like MP3 recorder is attractive to anyone who likes radio shows but cannot listen to them while at work. The Radio Your Way has many problems that make it a "poor" purchase. I'll get to the problems right away.

1.) Horrid PC software (again). If you have Win XP you must put it into Win98 compatibility mode to work.

2.) Saves files in a silly compressed RYV format that requires the above PC software to convert to WAV and then you must convert it to MP3 (stupid)

3.) The Chinese week days must be MONDAY-SATURDAY because that is what you get when you try to set the RYW to weekday record. Oh-I am told by Jesse at Pogo Support that I can have this "bug" fixed by sending my RYW back to Pogo and paying $10.00 to have the thing re-flashed. Yeah, right!

4.) Poor battery life- get an adapter right away.

5.)Only ten recording slots available. You'll use those fast to get around the above bug.

6.) Pogo support doesn't care...pay to have it fixed or quit whining.

I recommend waiting for Archos to add VCR-like recording to their great products.

Being a public radio addict, I've been waiting for a product like this for a long time. Now I get to record and listen to all my favorite programming that I might otherwise miss. Life is now very very good. While RYW by Pogo is not perfect, it's pretty dang good. At first I deemed it my new best friend but now that I understand better how to make this product work - I realize it's more like my new favorite pet: this product does require a bit of care and feeding. Let me say first that I have not used this product for anything except recording radio programs. I can't speak to the MP3 capabilities or voice recording at all. While I may eventually use these capabilities, I am having too much fun listening to my favorite radio programs to care much about anything else. I recommend that you immediately purchase a few accessories to enhance this product. Buy the leather case and the a/c adaptor and purchase additional memory. I dropped my radio onto cement twice before I bought the leather case and altho the leather case is not as cute as I'd like it to be, I feel much better knowing the next time I drop it, it will have significant protection. Recording really sucks up the power and I found that recording would sometimes stop in the middle of a broadcast unless the unit has good fresh batteries. Since the majority of my recording occurs during the weekend, the a/c adaptor has significantly improved performance. As soon as I ordered my unit, I went on line and bought a 256 mb memory card. I had initially thought I would need more memory than that but the card has turned out to be more than sufficient. Being a non geek type it took me a while to figure out how to make this unit perform optimally. Having played with it for over a month I have learned:
1) Always check the clock on the unit after changing an energy source (either replacing batteries or plugging/unplugging a/c). Successful recordings depend on this key element. Check to make sure your memory source is correct too.
2) Ensure the unit is receiving an optimal signal during recording. I've found it's best to use the external antenna if I'm recording a station with a weak signal. (Overall the reception on the unit is very good.)

The one down side to this product is there is no way to "book mark" your place when you have to stop in the middle of listening to a recorded program. The good news is it's easy to fast forward to any place in the program so I'm getting better at remembering exactly where I left off listening to a file. The only other problem with the unit is the battery cover. Mine has already pretty much broken but since I have the leather cover, it really doesn't matter. In general I have found the unit easy to use and the controls are intuitive. It is easy to remember how to set up and use the different functions.

If you are as addicted to radio programming as I am, this is a great toy to have.

As stated above there are positive and negative aspects to this product. Don't buy it to record music.

- Converting the "special" RVF audio format to standard MP3 format may be done with a simple program that a user discovered at: http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~y-katow/rvfmp3.html (See also the Yahoo! Group "RadioYourway" that was setup for various other points and views.)

- Battery usage is high (especially since it uses only 2 AAA batteries rather than AA ones), so creating an external battery pack or using an adapter is almost a requirement.

- When batteries die during playback you get to search to find your place again, since it goes back to the beginning rather than pausing prior to turning itself off.

- Once playback begins fast forward only occurs at a slower speed, making even getting through commercials a pain at times (can be lived with though).

But it is certainly a small compact portable design and is at the moment about the best thing that you could come up with for recording talk radio into an easily portable digital format.

I read with trepidation the other comments, but decided to buy anyway so that I could record the radio show coast to coast am every night on my local AM radio station while I sleep. I bought the 128 MB version only available on the pogo site!
This thing is GREAT!!! You must read the manual..So...I think It took
me 20 minutes or so to get through it. Controls-you can stop, pause,and take up where you left off.
ear phones are good...I just do not get these negative comments.
To download music files from PC, buy a $20 dollar SD card reader and simply copy from windows media the wma files onto the card, then insert it into the pogo...I did not install any software and it takes only seconds to accomplish..256mb card holds hours of music...maybe 100 songs or so. simple, fast and songs are great..built in EQ is good too. I have never reviewed anything before in my life (way too busy) but had to stop the nonsense about this device because I want more like it to be brought to market!! Pry from my cold dead hands!!
Oh yeah, 128MB version comes with several asccessories like ac adapter, ext mike, line out wire, ear phones and detachable necklace and the device is really small and light.

I bought this product December 2003 on Amazon.com and love it! I use it primarily to record talk radio - especially Coast to Coast late at night. It is great for recording talk radio, but not for recording music - bad sound quality if used to listening MP3s. Digital tuning and playing of AM/FM channels is fine. MP3s sound great. Software is ok.

Suggestions for those who buy this product: Buy an AC Adapter or NiMh rechargeable batteries. It uses batteries fairly quickly when recording. Buy extra Security Digital memory the internal memory will hold only about 10 MP3 songs, and 4.5 hours of recording. Hold stop down until unit shuts off when playing recordings to save your place.

Suggestions for Pogo: When you hit play it should play all MP3s, like a playlist, not just one MP3 at a time. Now you have to hit play after each MP3. Allow software to convert recordings direct to MP3. Build in one touch record like a VCR where you can one touch record for a half hour, hour, up to 4.5 hours. Include the case with purchase.

3 stars because it could do everything better.... 5 stars for being the only product like it. You will find that you want another so that you can use one to listen to live and be able to record unexpected bits here and there and playing your pre recorded broadcasts, but then your missing recording your other programs!
Simply put, the Radio Yourway is worthwhile buying if only for the timed VCR like radio recording ability.This is its main feature in my opinion. I dont know of any other way to do this... there are programs that record from computer recieved radio or program broadcasts, but that is too limited for me. There are radios with better reception and sound quality, with more features like backlight and namable tracks, but they dont have AM reception and they dont have timed record of more than one preset time.With Radio Yourway you can record many different stations and times all in one day or spread out over the week. The radio automatically comes on and shuts off by itself for each recording. The removable media makes it nice if you want to use them like cds.... have one for country, one for rock, one with radio programs, books on tape etc. I wanted a digitally tuned am/fm pocket radio with many station pre-sets and a built in speaker, (I dont like wearing headphones, BUT I do have to wear them a lot to enjoy my radio at work so I use a headphone that has seperate left and right, hook over the ear earphone speakers that also have the ability to swing away from the ear... this is a really cool feature because I can use one ear alone and still be aware of sounds around me or even flip it out away from my ear for even more awareness and still be able to hear the radio!).(These earphones DONT come with the Radio Yourway)! I tried the Sangean which also had tv and weather but poor speaker sound and poor reception, but DOESNT record. Radio Yourway is quite a bit better in every regard. It also seems to be quality built, solid, firm metal buttons..(dont judge by the battery door that threatens to fail). The neck cord detaches from the radio easily for quick playing adjustments then snap it back on, I found this to be a must have. Dont trust the auto seek feature because this misses many playable stations but step through each frequency to find stations allowing you to move the radio or antenna for better reception. The built in speaker is just adequate, should sound better and have more volume. For SOME windows XP Home users,the software "explorer" type utility only works in windows 98 compatability mode and then only to get the programs from your yourway to your computer/computer to radio... If I play them in this explorer they lock my computer up... but I can then copy them to a folder and either convert them to mp3 or wav files.(Pogo says it is unknown what causes this but it DOES aknowledge a supposedly small number of XP users encounter this.).You can fast forward or rewind a minute per second from stop but dont be fooled like I was when it takes up to 3 seconds to initiate... Poor battery life but get yourself a 2 D cell battery holder from radio shack, a cord and a mini plug compatable with yourway and you will have MANY hours of stationary listening on your desk or in your car. Plus, with a Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter (Wal-Mart), you can play it through your car radio.This is NOT a TIVO for radio/ more like a VCR. If you want to have multi-timed recording, if just ok to good sound quality is good enough, and if you want a built in speaker with FM AND AM reception with many pre-sets, then you have to get this.

The RYW player/recorder is an excellent multi function device. I added it to my portable audio stable, along with an Archos Multimedia Jukebox 20 and a 10GB iPod. Despite having countless hours of MP3s and movies I was still missing radio. And I figured the timed recording feature would be handy for late night talk radio recording.

The Pogo RYW delivered in spades, and added quite a few bonuses along the way.

1. Listening to radio. While the reception isn't great, I can get all local stations and most of the fairly distant 50K watt AM stations. FM reception is clear as well, and in stereo, for the little I listen to it. The included antenna improves reception somewhat, but for the most part I don't use it. If you're recording make sure you listen to the radio first to make sure you're not getting any local interference. Moving it a bit has always solved this problem.

2. Recording radio. The primary feature, as far as I'm concerned. I get about 4 hours on the built-in memory. Setting the timer for scheduled recording takes some getting used to, but the manual does a good job of explaining it. There is also a 1-touch recording button that you can pause (to skip commercials and what-not). With 10 schedule slots (which you can set for up to 6 days each of the same time) there is plenty of room. I have found that setting it to end about 5 minutes before the hour and resume at 5 after cuts out the top of the hour commercials and news updates. It also breaks the segments up to minimize fast forwarding/rewinding (see playback below). All in all recording is painless and accurate. Make sure your batteries are fresh for long sessions, though, or get an AC adapter. While there are 10 slots for recording, there are also only 10 for stored recordings. Besure to download to your PC regularly or delete what you don't need anymore. You can listen while you're recording. In fact, remember to turn the volume all the way down if you're doing a timed to save battery life and avoid the speaker suddenly kicking on and waking someone up.

3. Playback. Playback is a breeze. You just cycle though the modes (AM, FM, Voice/recordings, MP3) to get to your recordings. They are numbered 1-10 and the total duration is displayed. You pick the one you want and hit play. Simple. You can fast forward/rewind while listening but this is extremely slow. If you stop the playback, you can FF/RW much faster (a few minutes or so a second?). Unfortunately there isn't a bookmark function or a way to break up segments on the player.

4. MP3. If you intend use the RYW as ONLY an MP3 player, it probably isn't your best bet. It plays MP3s fine and with a SD/MM card you can get up to 288MB of playback which is good for a small, cheap portable MP3 player. But it lacks MP3tag information, etc. However, as a bonus to a great radio the MP3 functionality is fantastic. Throw a few songs or books on tape on and you're set. Just drag and drop in the computer interface and load them onto your player.

5. Computer Interface/included software. The interface is fine. Simple drag and drop to move/copy files to and from the player. When you record the files are stored in a proprietary format. The included software easily converts them to .wav and you can then use a third party program to convert the .wav to MP3. It's so easy, I archive every radio show I record.

6. Other Recording. Yep, you can record from your PC or any other source with a standard line our headphone out. The RYW has a line-in jack. So you set it to voice/line record, start playback on your PC or stereo or whatever other source (I've done some shortwave) and just hit record. It bypasses the mic and records through the line-in. Or if you like, you can just record through the mic. Handy for voice memos to yourself, speeches, etc. Mic isn't great got works for speech. I wouldn't go bootlegging concerts or anything.

7. Speaker. The speaker on the back I look at as another bonus. I wouldn't want to walk around with the speaker blaring anyway, so the low quality (hey, it's small) doesn't bother me. It's been useful sometimes when I didn't want to be bothered with headphones. Speech and music are understandable. Definitely not high-fi. Sound with headphones is fine for a portable.

Brief pros:
Very compact
Tons of uses integrated into one device
Included software is easy to install and use (had no problems with XP like another reviewer claimed)
Good price
SD/MM slot, USB connection, line in

Cons:
Eats up batteries - no included AC adapter
Included headphones are just OK

Overall, from a portable electronics junkie, I consider this on of my favorites. It gets the job done. It gets many jobs done. Smaller than a pack of smokes (much thinner in depth, slightly smaller in width, slightly taller) it's easy to carry everywhere. I've recorded a number of press conferences and show guests I hadn't known about that just came on while I was listening to the radio mode.

One word of caution: it records and has a red record button and says "AM/FM Radio Recorder." I had jury duty and didn't even think about it, but it wasn't allowed in the courtroom.

I read some reports saying the pogo was okay, but behind the curve. I purchased mine, and am completely satisfied with it. I wanted to record some weekly talk show items, the programing was easy, and the playback is great. Not sure what some of the other folks were talking about. I did purchase the expanded memory version, and then bought a 256 card. Since I have the card, the expanded memory was a waste, save your money. I purchased the AC adapter and am very pleased. If you like to listen to a program on the radio, but miss it due to whatever, I highly recommend this unit.