Olympus VN-2100PC Digital Voice Recorder with microphone |
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By
Olympus
Average Customer Rating:   
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Batteries Included: 1
Batteries: 2
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Olympus
EAN: 4046628576936
Label: Olympus
Manufacturer: Olympus
Model: VN-2100PC
Publisher: Olympus
Release Date: 2007-08-21
Studio: Olympus |
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- USB connection to PC
- 4 recording qualities (XHQ/HQ/SP/LP)
- 4 folders for files management (A/B/C/D)
- Voice activiation (VCVA)
- Slow/fast playback
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Product Description
With a 64 MB internal memory, the VN-2100PC digital voice recorder has a 35-hour recording capacity, and can be connected to your PC via its USB port to transfer all your files to your computer.The VN-2100PC is voice activated. You can index up to 400 files into 4 folders and move them from one folder to another.You won't know what you did without the VN-2100PC! Dimensions: 102 x 39 x 19.5 mmWeight: 63 g (with battery)Power: 2 AAA batteries or 2 rechargeable NiMH batteries
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poor controls and total breakdown, 2008-08-08
Appears fine at first, but the controls have a very annoying fault - fast forwarding or rewinding is done with the same buttons that jump to another file either forward or backward, and it's very easy to accidentally jump to the end of a recording - very irritating when you're 20 minutes in to a 90 minute interview. I agree with the other comments re: Digital Wave Player - it's a pain, and life would be far simpler if the recorder could be plugged into any PC and seen as an external hard drive from which to drag and drop audio files.
Worse still, my VN-2100PC has now packed up altogether. It won't transfer files via DWP without an error message popping up halfway through the process, and it dies without warning even on fresh batteries. Useless.
BRILLIANTLY SIMPLE GADGET EXCEPT FOR ONE THING..., 2008-12-01
The Olympus VN-2100PC digital voice recorder has a load of excellent features, and one pain. The good bits: it's simple to make and play back recordings, and to organise them in folders. The unit itself is light and small enough to fit in any pocket, so easy to take and use anywhere. It runs for ages on a pair of AAA batteries, and has plenty of recording capacity, depending on the quality of recording you choose. The bad bit? If you want to transfer the recordings somewhere else, it's a bit fiddly. First, you have to set up the "Digital Wave Player" software on your PC, then transfer the files. But they're not MP3 files, but something called WAV format. If you want MP3 files, eg to play on my iPod, which I synch to an Apple, you have to download a "Switch Sound File Converter" program. This is available free on the internet, but is another level of hassle. None of this detracts from the basic quality of the recorder - but easier transfer of files would be a bonus.
Pro: easy to use, solid build, works. Con: file transfer a hassle.
Good recorder, but a bit flakey, 2008-07-14
Apart from the exceptional storage capacity, I was driven to buy this item by its small size. The software will only work with Windows and is awkward. If you are going to use this for covert recordings, you need to insulate it from body heat otherwise it will constantly crash. Sadly, this appears to be the case even if you wear it all day in your shirt pocket too. The power button seems more suggestive, so the only way to actually power-off the device is to remove the batteries, forcing you to reset the clock.
The battery life seems impressive at first, but you will find that you cannot trust the battery level indicator. However, if you're looking for a cheap device to tape under a table, then this could prove useful. I've had one of these devices in-place for two days before removing it, and achieved clear recordings of all voices in the room of 7m X 7m without any gaps (while the VCVA kicks in). A useful feature would have been to timestamp the start/stop of the VCVA recordings as cue-points in the resultant audio file.
In summary, the recording ability is excellent, but this is let down by the instability of the supporting features.
Do not buy this voice recorder, 2008-12-01
Be aware - you cannot download audio files from this voice recorder to your PC outside of the appalling Digital Wave software that Olympus bundles with the recorder (i.e. you cannot play the files in any other media player). Also be aware that this voice recorder is not recognised as an external drive and only starts up in Windows via the bundled software (you'll have no idea where it saves the transferred files for example). The bundled software itself is terrible, it opened the recorder's audio files once on my PC (with XP) and has since refused to open any files. I've since ditched this recorder. Look elsewhere!
Perfect and cheap, 2008-07-20
As soon as I got this I started playing with it. To my amazement this was one of the easiest to work with devices I ever had. Who needs a manual :)
I like the voice activation feature, it's really nice.
Get one now if you haven't got one already, for this price you can't get any better. It's an absolute bargain.
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