Windows 7 Digital Voice Recorder

[seekermeister]

I made the mistake of asking this question in the Water Cooler, but it got very little readership, much less a reply, so I'm reposting it here, since in a fashion the device will be a computer peripheral:

I'm considering buy a hand-held DVR, but am not sure which to get. Everything I have owned in the past was pretty cheap junk, but what I want now is a very good quality unit. I'm not entire sure of how I will use it, but I doubt that I will use it to record/play music. Still I want it to record and play at as good of sound quality as I can afford...~$100. Beyond that, I want it to have input and output jacks so that I can connect it to the computer. There is probably a lot more that would be good to have, but at this point, I don't know what? Any suggestions about either models or options would be appreciated.

I hope this will get a reply, if not more readership.

 

[Fixer1234]

This is one area where the technology is mature and cheap. You can find REALLY cheap junk (under $10-20), that is a waste of money, and expensive stuff (say $75 and up), where you are paying for features you may not need (extremely long recording times, microphones capable of picking up a lecture from the back of a large hall, or fidelity suitable for recording music). In between, you will probably find that any "name brand" device will do a good job. Focus on the features you are looking for. The differences between devices are likely to be things like ease of use, size, battery life, message organization (e.g., how many folders), etc. Check the user reviews on the retailers' sites. BTW, many digital music players and cell phones include a voice recorder, so you may be able to kill two birds with one stone. I have also seen a DVR that comes with voice recognition software that will convert your voice recoding to text after you upload it.