Olympus VN-4100PC Digital Voice Recorder by Olympus
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Our Price: $114.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Olympus VN-4100PC Digital Voice Recorder
Digital camera Review: Best voice recorder I ever had.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the second Olympus VN-4100PC Figital Voice Recorder that I purchased in the last year. Both are in perfect working codition. I am able to transfer the recording to my computer and then to CD's for safe keeping. I primarily use them for webinar recoding. They do an excelent job. I also have an Olympus VN-5200PC, which is also a good machine, but does not have the capabilities of the 4100PC.Digital camera Review: Good Investment
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been using this device for about 18 months, primarily to record lectures and classes at school.
In general, it is a decent little unit: easy to use and the sound quality and capacity are acceptable. It's proven itself to be very durable - having lived most of it's life at the bottom of a backpack filled with heavy books & etc., as well as coming through several inadvertent trips from my desk to the floor without even a scratch.
The user interface is a bit quirky and takes some getting used to. For instance, I'm still puzzled by the power on/off switch's behavior - which is labeled "Hold" and works differently depending on whether a recording is in progress or not. This has led to me occasionally accidentally draining the batteries due to the unit still being "on" when I thought I'd turned it off.
The included recording-file download & management software is reasonably easy to use, and seems to be more stable and usable than most vendor-supplied "helpful" software tools. The only real issues I have with it are the no-frills functionality and the speed with which it copies files from the recorder. On the other hand, I'd much rather have this unit's simple, basic, stable functionality than a quirky and buggy feature-rich alternative!
As for sound quality, the voice recordings are clear, and the microphone works well even in large rooms with a soft-voiced teacher. I usually have some "hiss" and background "warbling" in the recordings; but then again, I'm not looking for concert quality - just the ability to replay a lecture or perhaps share it with a fellow student who missed class that day.
The only two significant issues I have with the unit are: First, that the "clock" stops while the battery is being changed. In light of this, the unit requires you to verify the time whenever the batteries are replaced - annoying when you're trying to change batteries during class.
This leads to the second point, which is that the "low battery" indication is almost useless. There is no "meter", just a chime and onscreen indicator warning you of a "low battery" at a single preset point. When using alkaline batteries, the span in time between the warning and the batteries dying is just a minute or two - which means you WILL get stuck from time to time, having to change batteries in the middle of a lecture. Using extended life batteries works much better - not only for having to face this conundrum much more rarely, but also the time delay from warning to battery death is much longer - usually 10-15 minutes - often enough to at least get me to a class break before the batteries die.
This unit has proved to be good "safety net" for going back to catch important comments I missed while taking notes in class, and has been a good rehearsal tool for presentations. I could see it being equally useful in meetings.
All in all, this unit - while not perfect - does the job well, and without alot of fuss. I'll give it four stars.
Digital camera Review: The seller is too bad
Summary: 1 Stars
They sent me the wrong item, and rather dismissive about my complaint. I sent a complaint letter to Amazon.com about weeks ago, haven't heard anything from it yet.
Very bad purchase experience.
Digital camera Review: Does not support 64 bit Vista
Summary: 1 Stars
It's a shame that this thing doesn't have software/drivers compatable with 64 bit OS, but still offered to be sold here. Digital camera Review: Great!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Easy to use and records every nice and clear. The only problem I had was getting the files from the recorder to the computer. But once you read the little manual everything is fine.