Rating: Summary: Use it everyday Review: My employment in the legal field often requires recording of conversations and interviews. The interviews become evidentiary in nature.
I originally purchased the DS330 two years ago. It has been an excelent tool I use everyday. The unit developed problems after getting kicked, frozen, laid on, etc. After two years of hard abuse, it still records well, plays what it records without problems, and trasfers the information without problems. The problem it developed was a shattered lcd display. I do not blame the recorder though...it was a rough night.....
I promptly went out and bought another as a replacement.
It has a few really great features I have not heard mentioned by others. Every recording it makes gets a unique number assigned to it when you download it to your computer. It includes a date and time stamp for every recording as well. If you need more than the time available to the recorder, just leave it in the cradle, and record directly into your computer with the software that is included with the recorder. (The longest recording I have made in the high quality setting was about 10 hours.)
All in all, it is a great product. I have had problems with other brands that just do not appear with this recorder!!
Rating: Summary: Does not handle multiple hand-helds with 1 cradle Review: Olympus told me that the DS330 software could handle multiple hand-helds using 1 cradle. In fact, the DS330 software cannot handle multiple users. When hand-helds are docked nothing happens. The only solution is to reboot the computer with the hand held in the cradle. I have tested this with 6 hand-helds and their cradles, and 3 different computers. I have just spent 2 weeks on the phone with the Olympus help desk and they could not fix the problem. We finally called in a computer consultant who believes that the limitation is in the USB connection.
Rating: Summary: Works great on Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) Review: The recorder and its accompanying Mac software work great. I noticed one reviewer said the included software does not work in OS 10.2, which is true: the version on the CD would not run after installation. However, after quick trip to Olympus' web site, I downloaded and installed the software.I like how the software allows you to manage the recordings on the voice recorder, listen to them before downloading, download only what you want, and export them to AIFF files, which can be played by QuickTime. I use the recorder with a phone recording controller (from Radio Shack) that lets me record interviews I conduct on the phone. I can save the interview file on my hard drive along with my notes.
Rating: Summary: driver hard to load Review: This is a handy little tool for recording meetings, interviews etc - exact words said and commitments undertaken can be looked up easily and quoted with confidence. The actual recorder is good although I found the buttons awkwardly placed, and the software is good, too, but I've set my rating at two stars because of the huge amount of time lost in loading the driver. Both Win98SE on my desktop and XP on my laptop were problematic. Once you have run the installation CD, a gadget like this should work out of the box without requiring the help of a Windows expert. You would expect the driver to install virtually unseen, but no, coaxing it off the CD was not at all easy. And that is after you deduce that your problem lies with the driver. The UK helpline for the DS-330 is 0080067108300. This is located somewhere in continental Europe but appears to be free. I rang it with reluctance but this is where corporate Olympus redeemed itself. I made three calls to the helpline. Each time, the phone was answered immediately and worthwhile knowledgeable help given.
Rating: Summary: Very Good Voice Recorder Review: This is an example of Olympus cutting edge technology and exceptional quality I have seen in their products. The software to connect was both windoze and Mac OS X compliant and worked simply and usefully in both operating systems. The quality of sound in conference mode in a outdoor setting was exceptional when compared with analog tape. This was the second Olympus DVR I have purchased. A W-10 recorder was tried and returned to purchase this one. The W-10 was as if from a completely different manufacturer, totally unusable.
Rating: Summary: Very poor support: no driver on Internet Review: We bought DS330 to record interviews for our radio program. While the recorder workes reasonably well, I've run into big problems trying to copy the data onto PC. I was filling in for our regular technician. I was given the recorder with a cable and craddle and expected it to work with the computer. No such luck. The driver for the recorder control wasn't recognized. I searched the Internet, but the Olympus Web site has only updates that require the original software to be installed. But the original CD was misplaced and I don't have it!
I understand Olympus doesn't want to give away an "advanced" sound editing software, but why the basic driver is not freely available? I got used to the idea that all the basic drivers for hardware devices can be easily downloaded. Beware! Olympus thinks differently.
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