Philips DVT1400/00 4GB Digital Voice Tracer with 2 Built-In Microphones

In compiling my family's history, I have been interviewing my elders. I bought this because I miss a lot of info when I'm taking notes by hand. This device was the answer to my problem. The microphone is great and the sound quality it produces is amazing. I used it in one session where the device was resting on a table where I had a noisy scanner running intermittently. When I realized my mistake, I expected the recording to be permeated with an electronic buzz, but there was a good separation of sounds and the recorded voices were clear.I have not tried to use this to record live music so I can't say anything about the sound quality in that regard; it isn't designed for that purpose anyway. But for recording lectures and interviews, this is a wonderfully effective device and very portable, about the size of a Snickers bar. It is Mac compatible. I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars because the instructions for using it are a little involved and the controls are not intuitive. I recommend practicing with it first before using it for recordings that you won't be able to redo.

This recorder is apparently no longer supported. Mine arrived this week, and I tried to register and to update the firmware as the manual suggests -- but the Philips site does not recognize the product number. One pre-loaded recording is dated 2009, another 2012. I've only used this recorder once (in a difficult recording situation: a public meeting with several speakers facing away from the recorder, the recorder not being very close to the speakers) and was able to make out most of what was said when I listened to the recording with headphones on my laptop.[Edit: I have gone to 4 stars since the recorder works well, not that I have tried it yet with a landline controller.]

I went to the website to get the instructions because the recorder is a little confusing about some things like changing recording modes on the fly and appending recordings. The screen is not backlit and the text is small which is a bummer but those things are usually put in more expensive recorders so if you want those you will have to pay more. It does just fine for quick reminders and someone giving you directions or a phone number or explaining a recipe to you. If I were recording a conference or in University I would go up in price for something with more features.

Works with Dragon 12 premium for records speech transcription. Recorded 3 days of convention talks on internal storage with 2-AAA batteries. Menu was easy to navigate. Recordings were clear. The transcription of other voices than the one it was trained to recognize, was not very accurate. Would be nice if it would play music.

This little unit is better than I expected. I love the clarity of my voice. I use it to create meditations and natural nature sounds as well. I had read other reviews that it was difficult to use. I didn't find this to be the case. It is very easy to add, delete and download files to the computer.

This is a great voice recorder. There is work required to start so it recognizes your voice, but it is pretty accurate.

Nice just turn off the back light to save the battery

Needed to record minutes of meetings I attend in order to maintain accurate minutes.Bad thing is you need to go to the Phillips site to print off directions for use. Phillipsmust be on a cost cutting drive. Otherwise the recorder is adequate for the job.

Generally a good recorder with clear recordings. The recorder is reasonably easy to use, but accessing parts of a recording, rather than having to listen to the whole recording, has not been solved by me - yet. The recordings can be listened to on a computer, but accessing particular recordings is not very intuitive and help is not easy to find. The voice activated function works well enough.

This is everything you could hope for in a recorder. It's beautiful to look at. Nice to handle. Most of all it records well and it's easy to use. Excellent.

excellent

Very sensitive virtually picks up all sounds.

Good device works well