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Rating: 
Summary: Nice Device Poor Software
Review: First: the recorder only comes with a 16 mb SD card, not the 64 mb card that is advertised. That fact aside, the unit works very well. The learning curve to figure out how to operate the machine is only about 5 minutes. It has three record quality settings. The standard quality is quite good for most uses. The long play mode is audible enough to be useful, but would not be my preference because of the bass distortion. The high quality is extremely good, but a memory hog. With a separate microphone we have been able to record serviceable music files on high quality. I had about 15 minutes worth of trouble installing the software onto a Win98 computer, but then it decided to install and I was able to download audio files from the recorder via the included USB reader and play them through the computer with excellent sound quality. The main intended use for this recorder is to record college lectures at a distance. In standard mode it has been working well, although when set to voice activation mode, some soft speech may be lost. We operate the recorder with two standard AAA rechargeable batteries. Battery life is good. It would be nice if the recorder was backlit, but you can't have everything. The unit is set up with four folders (memos, meetings, to do list, private) and you can add five more. This is very convenient. Within a folder, everytime you start to record, it saves the information in a new file. In summary, if you are planning to go digital, this is the recorder to buy. It is very compact, but the buttons are conveniently arranged and the playback speaker is surprisingly clear for its size. The microphone has two sensitivity settings. The low sensitivity is useful for making notes in a noisey environment. Generally, we leave it set on high sensitivity. The recorder also allows you to set it to record (and play) at a certain time. I guess that this is a useful feature for spies. If the price had been [lower], I'd have given it a full five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent performer in personal digital recording
Review: First: the recorder only comes with a 16 mb SD card, not the 64 mb card that is advertised. That fact aside, the unit works very well. The learning curve to figure out how to operate the machine is only about 5 minutes. It has three record quality settings. The standard quality is quite good for most uses. The long play mode is audible enough to be useful, but would not be my preference because of the bass distortion. The high quality is extremely good, but a memory hog. With a separate microphone we have been able to record serviceable music files on high quality. I had about 15 minutes worth of trouble installing the software onto a Win98 computer, but then it decided to install and I was able to download audio files from the recorder via the included USB reader and play them through the computer with excellent sound quality. The main intended use for this recorder is to record college lectures at a distance. In standard mode it has been working well, although when set to voice activation mode, some soft speech may be lost. We operate the recorder with two standard AAA rechargeable batteries. Battery life is good. It would be nice if the recorder was backlit, but you can't have everything. The unit is set up with four folders (memos, meetings, to do list, private) and you can add five more. This is very convenient. Within a folder, everytime you start to record, it saves the information in a new file. In summary, if you are planning to go digital, this is the recorder to buy. It is very compact, but the buttons are conveniently arranged and the playback speaker is surprisingly clear for its size. The microphone has two sensitivity settings. The low sensitivity is useful for making notes in a noisey environment. Generally, we leave it set on high sensitivity. The recorder also allows you to set it to record (and play) at a certain time. I guess that this is a useful feature for spies. If the price had been [lower], I'd have given it a full five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful Tool
Review: I acquired one of these about three years ago, and have used it ever since as part of my job as a radio journalist. In HQ mode, recordings made with the internal mic are, despite the 16 khz sampling rate, quite usable, although recordings made feeding line audio via the MIC jack show more of the low frequency response than do those with the MIC.Most useful, however, is the VCR function which, although only a one time record, allows one to set this in advance to a known source with ON and OFF times. I'm not sure if any other removable media recorder has this feature. I had no trouble loading v1.0 of the editing software -- it loaded easily to Windows 2000. I just wish the SD card format was supported by some of the main audio editing software such as Adobe Audition. Overall, highly recommended, although the fact that these are apparently not available anymore makes one think Panasonic may have dropped it from their lineup.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful Tool
Review: I acquired one of these about three years ago, and have used it ever since as part of my job as a radio journalist. In HQ mode, recordings made with the internal mic are, despite the 16 khz sampling rate, quite usable, although recordings made feeding line audio via the MIC jack show more of the low frequency response than do those with the MIC. Most useful, however, is the VCR function which, although only a one time record, allows one to set this in advance to a known source with ON and OFF times. I'm not sure if any other removable media recorder has this feature. I had no trouble loading v1.0 of the editing software -- it loaded easily to Windows 2000. I just wish the SD card format was supported by some of the main audio editing software such as Adobe Audition. Overall, highly recommended, although the fact that these are apparently not available anymore makes one think Panasonic may have dropped it from their lineup.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Device Poor Software
Review: The title says it all the recorder works well, but as a earlier review said it only has a 16mb SD card. The real problem is that for me, and perhaps I am alone, the software didn't work so I couldn't get my files downloaded to my comp. I am not sure if this is b/c XP is not supported or what. Also the manual refers to online help which either doesn't exist or is too hard to find.
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