Rating: Summary: one great leap for AM radio listeners Review: I think it's hilarious,..how many brainiacs bought this talk-show recorder for the wrong reasons,..and now they're complaining cause it doesn't record 18hrs of CD quality music on it's 128M chip? Duh.., and what are all these extra buttons for, George? Do I get to pet the rabbits? If you like talk radio,..this is the gadget you've always wanted. It's very easy to program,..I was recording Handel on the Law within a few seconds of opening the box. The playback quality is so good you won't be able to tell if you are listening to a recording or the original talk show broadcast..unlike the clunky Real to Real recorder of several years ago that had awful playback fidelity. So far I haven't messed with the computer hook up,..I don't see the need for it. I just erase shows after I listen to them,..heck, 18 hours is a lot of talk. One of the huge unforseen bonuses of owning this radio is that it's wonderful to be able to listen to it in all those places where AM signals can't reach,..at the gym,..at work, etc. Plus, it fabulous to listen to AM while on a bike or walking and not having the signal fade in and out with the directional antenna. As an AM radio fanatic, I never thought I'd come across a better radio than my Sangean CC,..but this RadioYourWay just blows it away.
Rating: Summary: Swiss Army Radio Review: I would call this a radio device. It's the most versitile radio thing I could find. It's the only radio that does what it does and includes an AM radio. It has some limitations - like maxing out at 256MB for the SD cards but it hasn't been an obsticle for me and they're cheap (only buy on sale!)- I have 2 and so far haven't even come close to filling them. I use it to record notes while I'm driving, to grab an interesting radio discussion when I hear one, record meetings and to transprot data sometimes. It's useful being able to offload meetings and lectures to my PC. I provide technical support for a library at a university and I also use it to record technical phone support calls so that I can detail it later if need arises. Just be sure to get at least 2 sets of AAA rechargable batteries - it uses batteries about average but I can go for a long time on 2 sets.
As long as you don't expect this to give your car better gas milage and help you loose weight you can't go wrong with this. I've read some of the negative reviews and for the most part those people probably just needed to buy a different product. After showing mine to other people - five either already have or are planning to buy one in the very near future.
Most useful features for me:
- AM radio
- a Pause for record
- SD cards - cheap memory.
- offloading recorded material to PC/CD.
- good MP3 player
- timed recordings for radio
paid: $120
Rating: Summary: Worth the early adoption, but just barely Review: 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.
Rating: Summary: Meets the need Review: I've had this for over a month and am totally satisfied so far. My only suggestion is to trade the neckstrap for a belt clip.
Rating: Summary: Get it! Review: If you listen to talk radio, this is just what you need.
Let's review.
If you need the speaker, (who does?) look elsewhere.
You want to listen to music, there are tons of other choices.
The batteries are eaten alive. I record four hours a night, and a fresh set dies before playback is complete. Get yourself four rechargeables.
You can record almost five hours without adding memory.
The ear buds are fine for listening to talk.
Programming is a bit tedious.
One drawback is, when you stop playback, you can't resume from the same spot. It starts at the begining again. So use a bunch of small files, instead of one big one.
Overall it has worked out perfectly for me. I can record some very good stuff that I would never have time to hear at night, and listen on the way to work in the morning!
Rating: Summary: To put it simply - Not for audiophiles!!! Review: IT is easy to review Radio Your Way, because it does EXACTLY what the description says. You set it to record shows by DAY and Time and it does that fine. But be warned, it does not allow you to adjust the Bit rate of the recording. All recordings are recorded in a compressed .RYV format that, for people who understand MP3 sample compression, I would say couldn't be higher then like 20KHZ, The worst thing is that if you have an iPod like me, you then have to convert .RYV -> .Wav -> .Mp3. This sucks, the recorder should just record strait to Mp3 format. Yes...the recording quality is horrible. DO NOT CONSIDER THIS if you plan to record music radio. I personally bought it to record Howard Stern, as I am a huge fan. Unfortunatly, the RYW audio quality is so low, it is almost too annoying to listen to the recording. If there is any reason not to get RYW it is the awfull recording quality. Everything else, controls, etc, are adequate. By adequate I mean HORRIBLE...but dueable. The MP3 player does not display ID3 tags. The controls are completely illogical. And OS is jerky at best. But who cares about those things right? As long as I can get my Stern fix everyday? Wrong...because the audio quality is the dagger in the heart. Simply put: This product is bad. I gave it two stars because it does everything it says it does without deception. But the audio quality is so low, you might not be able to sit through one of your recordings. Wait for something better to come out because this is simply a gimmick. _______________________________________________________________ I recently read a review that states "all people who think that this is a bad product must work for a competitor." This is rediculous. I can assure you that as a student, I work for nobody! Simply put, this is one of the crappiest products on the market today. I returned mine. The quality is so awful.
Rating: Summary: So much promise, so little function Review: My husband and I purchased matching Radio Your Way's for the holidays this year. I was incredibly excited when they arrived. I'm an NPR junkie and would love a chance to record my favourite shows while at work, then listen to them while making dinner or cleaning house. This product looked ideal. Unfortunatly, even with the supplemental antenna, in the house I can not get decent FM reception, and only get limited AM reception. It doesn't work at all in my car. In addition, the manual warns not to store the device near credit cards or other magnetic media for fear of warping them, so I can't carry it around in my purse. I bought this so I could leave it in my purse, let it record my programs, and listen at my leisure, In order to use it, I must leave it anchored to an incredibly huge antenna at my house (it doesn't work at all in the car), never let it near my purse, then go through contortions in order to move the very poor sound quality files from the RYW to my computer. This product has so much promise, yet delivers so litte. In the spirit of fairness, I must say hy husband loves his. However, he uses it primarily as a voice memo recorder with limited MP3 functionality. The radio features - allegedly the point of the product - are as useless to him as they are to me. I'll return to downloading NPR shows the day after they air and listening to them as MP3's. It actually takes less time and gives better quality, which is a very sad statement indeed.
Rating: Summary: Great Product! Review: Researching this product I have read everything from I have waited 3 months for a resolution with no luck to bad software blah blah blah. All those bad reviews I am reading do not make sence. 1.Email PoGo! and always get a responce right away especially on technical issues. 2.The product does exactly what it says it does in great quality even the mono music recordings sound great(music records mono which is ok for me because I do not plan on bootlegging those radio recordings) 3.The software works fine (YES I HAVE XP PRO) All in all I get what I want from the product. The batteries will last 8-10 hours if you USE THE BATTERIES AT A NORMAL (MID) LEVEL If you must have it turned all the way up, they will last 5-6 hours which again is ok by me. (Use rechargeable or buy the AC adapter) The unit records your shows like a VCR and takes up to a 256MB SD card. Is it TIVO? NO but it does not have to be. I can convert those recordings to WAV and share with my friends or even burn that WAV to a CD There have been Pro reviews of the Product as well (PC world) and they gave the product high marks too. I would not doubt if the authors of most of the bad reviews work for a competitor and are trying to bash the product (or a chip on their shoulder like the $10.00 firmware guy Bob Stout) I am gald I ignored the reviews on this site and got the product.(AND IT CAME WITH THE LATEST FIRMWARE INSTALLED.) IT IS THAT GOOD!
Rating: Summary: Batteries last way longer than 3 hours Serivce is GREAT Review: The batteries on this unit last longer than 3 hours unless you are using used batteries or those sold at the 99 cent store. Batteries on the unit will last from 8-10 hours and if you understand electronics you can get the most life from them. There is an AC adpater that you can buy for 9.99 to record at home (so you only need to use batteries if you want to take the radio with you) Since most recording will be done at home, you will not be using batteries at all. As far as Customer Service goes before you buy the product email or call them and you will see two things. 1.In the case of email a reply usually in minutes. 2.Actually beiing able to get through the phone lines and talking to someone who knows the product. You can't beat the service. People like "Greg" are just IDIOTS who bash a product with other agendas.
Rating: Summary: I love this product, but it is not for everybody Review: 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.
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